In an article and accompanying video abstract being early released this month in Pediatrics (10.1542/peds.2024-068249), Dr. Zoe Bouchelle and colleagues at the University of Colorado and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia outline a novel initiative to reduce food insecurity for families immediately after hospital discharge—a time when families are more likely to be increasingly food insecure. The authors note that most hospitals provide food to caregivers of children during hospitalization, but few, if any, provide any food after hospitalization. Thus, these authors’ efforts were focused on the immediate post-discharge period to understand how we can best advocate for enhanced nutrition support.
Close to 20% of the Philadelphia-area families whose children were hospitalized reported food insecurity. Seventy-one families participated in a pilot program in which food was delivered to their homes. Families chose from:
- 1 week of prepared meals,
- 6 months of monthly produce, or
- A combination of both.
Patient families were then asked, via phone calls on 3 separate occasions spread out over 8 weeks, whether the program met their food needs. Notably, 100% of families who were contacted stated that the pilot program met their food needs.
This arguably successful pilot was largely funded by private sources. From a sustainability perspective, the authors outlined steps they plan to take to seek more stable sources of funding for this program.
And while long-term funding was the primary challenge, other issues they implemented solutions for included:
- Language barriers
- Dietary preferences
- Recipient food storage issues
The authors also noted the limitations of applying these findings broadly, given the idiosyncrasies of the population studied and the location in which the study was conducted.
It may be worth looking into other indirect impacts (e.g., disease management post discharge, readmission rates, mental health outcomes) of attaining food security via this pilot program.
This article could not have been timed any better. We have seen child poverty nearly double since the end of the pandemic-era child tax credit. Families of modest financial means often make many sacrifices (including food quantity and quality) to make ends meet. This and related interventions will help ensure that no child leaves the hospital hungry.
