Project Angel Heart to expand medically tailored meal program into Pueblo

Project Angel Heart, a Colorado nonprofit that "improves the health and wellbeing for people with severe illness by preparing and delivering medically tailored meals," will be expanding its services into Pueblo County in mid-February.

"We serve medically tailored meals," said President and CEO Owen Ryan. "What that means is, we have meals designed by a professional chef and registered dietician. They make sure that each of these meals are specifically tailored to someone's medical diagnosis."

The organization serves thousands of patients with a wide range of conditions, from heart disease to cancer to kidney or lung disease.

"Someone gets a serious medical diagnosis, the doctor says, 'This is what you need to eat.' And we are the ones who fill that prescription," Ryan said.

The organization delivers seven meals a week but because the meals are a bit large, clients sometimes divide them into multiple meals, Ryan said. Some clients who need to gain weight or need more nutrition also get breakfast from the organization.

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"It might sound like ... 'They're distributing food, how big of an impact can it have?' " Ryan said.

"But we've done independent studies and our own studies on this and we've seen it keeps people out of the hospital, reduces their medical costs, and for folks with certain conditions, it can improve their health quite dramatically."

The organization has been in Colorado since 1991, serving the Denver Metropolitan area and Colorado Springs.

In the past few months, Project Angel Heart has started to expand into Boulder County, Weld County, southern parts of Douglas County, a wider swathe of El Paso County, and will begin in Pueblo County next month.

"Pueblo is an area that has come up frequently as a place that has a lot of need," Ryan said. "We've got a lot of outreach from different medical providers there, including the VA saying, 'Hey, we've got folks here who really need your program.'"

The expansion into Pueblo was made possible by a donation of $580,000 from Kaiser Permanente. Project Angel Heart hopes to serve 30,000 meals in Pueblo County within the first year of its operations.

The $580,000 donation is meant to increase staff and address infrastructure needs related to the expansion.

It is not the first time Project Angel Heart has partnered with the nonprofit, said Carmen Martin, Kaiser Permanente senior community health specialist.

In 2020, Kaiser Permanente teamed up with Project Angel Heart to conduct a study called "meals matter," which looked at 650 participants in two hospitals in Colorado. In the study, more than 20,000 meals were delivered to recently discharged patients suffering from conditions such as heart failure, cancer and liver disease.

While results are not yet published, Martin said Kaiser Permanente knows that nutrition makes a big difference in health outcomes and lower costs of care.

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"For me, Project Angel Heart has a long history of (helping to alleviate) social justice issues," said Martin. "They started out providing meals for patients with AIDS. They're really beloved by the community and expanded their services to meet the needs of the community. They're community focused, and community led, and have a huge fleet of volunteers."

She also noted that it is an "experience" when clients receive a meal from Project Angel Heart, as volunteers decorate the brown paper bags the meals come in.

Kaiser Permanente will also be partnering with Care and Share Foodbank of Southern Colorado to help deliver meals across Pueblo and El Paso Counties. "Various Kaiser Permanente parking lots across those parking lots will serve as additional distribution sites," Martin said.

Ryan said the ongoing efforts are the organization's first steps in Pueblo County.

"We're hoping to grow even further by 2025," he said.

Meals through the program are free to clients. If you are in need of the service or want to volunteer, visit projectangelheart.org or call 800-381-5612.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at Jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Medically-tailored meal program Project Angel Heart expands to Pueblo