Health Calls Season 6, Episode 6 focuses on addressing food insecurity in rural communities. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Lindsey Meyers, MBA, Vice President of Communications, PR, and Community Engagement at Avera Health.
Health Calls Season 6, Episode 6 focuses on addressing food insecurity in rural communities. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Lindsey Meyers, MBA, Vice President of Communications, PR, and Community Engagement at Avera Health.
Lindsey shares how Avera’s community health needs assessments revealed rising food insecurity across its largely rural footprint, prompting the creation of wellness pantries within clinics. These pantries provide emergency food supplies and connect patients to sustainable resources, complementing mobile food pantries and partnerships with Feeding South Dakota. Lindsey explains why food access is essential to whole-person care and how collaboration among clinicians, volunteers, and community partners drives success. The conversation highlights the program’s rapid growth, its impact on patients, and underscores Catholic health care’s commitment to meeting social determinants of health and evolving to serve community needs.
Brian Reardon (00:05):
Welcome to Health Calls, the podcast of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. I'm your host, Brian Reardon, and with me is Josh Matejka. Hey, Josh.
Josh Matejka (00:13):
Hey Brian. How's it going?
Brian Reardon (00:14):
Real good. So this episode we're going to talk about collaborating to address food insecurity in rural communities. And Josh, this is a topic we're going to bring in our guest. We're going to bring in Lindsey Meyers, she's Vice President of Communications, PR and Community Engagement with Avera. But before we talk to Lindsey, I just want to kind of set it up with you. You've actually, the program that we're going to talk about, you actually learned about that in a recent visit to Ara. So maybe start by telling us a little bit about how this episode came together.
Josh Matejka (00:43):
Yeah, my recent visit to lovely Sioux Falls, yeah, we were up there recording a different project and Lindsey and I and a few other members of her team were talking about what's some other stuff that we could learn about while we were there with the film crew. And she's like, well, we have this wellness pantry program that I think would be a really great story. And so we got there and it was so impressive, the amount of dedication that each one of their team members had to it and how excited they were about it. One of the things that I kept hearing when we were talking to everybody that was involved with the program is there's almost too much interest. We don't have the bandwidth to cover the amount of people that want to be a part of this, or we don't have the bandwidth to grow this the way that we want to, which is always a good problem to have because you're always looking for ways that you can expand operations.
(01:37)
And then translating that to hearing the impact that they've been able to have in such a shorten amount of time and how bought in and how personally everybody feels about this issue of food insecurity in their community. It made me really feel like, oh, this is something that's important to them on a personal level, not just on an organizational level, which I think is really key when it comes to tackling issues like this. So I'm really glad that we get to have Lindsey on the show to talk about this program. I think it's really, really cool.
Brian Reardon (02:06):
And a lot of our members and a lot of health systems and local hospitals work on issues of food insecurity, but I think this program's got some unique components to it. So let's bring in now Lindsey Meyers, again, she's Vice President of Communications PR and Community Engagement. Lindsey, good to see you.
Lindsey Meyers (02:23):
Yes, great to see both of you again,
Brian Reardon (02:25):
I think with this program that we're going to talk about, what kind of prompted it, you guys, like all Catholic health systems, you do community health needs assessments. So maybe you could start by talking a little bit about what your needs assessment shown or has shown over the years and how that prompted the creation of this program.
Lindsey Meyers (02:44):
Great question. So Avera has about 37 hospitals in the upper Midwest, and over 90% of those are critical access hospitals. So I just want to share that because when we talk about community health needs, I mean we're really talking about some of the most rural and remote areas of the United States. And so we do have a large tertiary center in Sioux Falls, and that's where some of our food insecurity work is happening, but we're really serving this broad footprint. And so when we were looking at our community health needs assessment and our social determinants of health over the last few years, we were seeing food insecurity rates rising. And I'm from a very small town. I'm from a town of 200 in South Dakota, so a very small area. It does not have a grocery store anymore and hasn't for years. And so access to fresh fruits and vegetables and just some of those basic human needs is not there.
(03:43)
And so we have to meet that in unique ways. So we have a program called Community Partnerships, which looks at the social determinants of health and really looks at how we can work with nonprofits because healthcare, we can give the best care within our facilities, but when we turn people out into an environments that have a lot of food insecurity or housing insecurity, lack of transportation, things like that, we're not really caring for our community holistically. And so we have to look at all of those needs. And there are nonprofits who are experts in these areas, so we partner with them to help to meet those needs. So that's really what we've done through our food pantry and our wellness pantries
Brian Reardon (04:23):
And food deserts come to mind when you mentioned the town you grew up in. And we think of food deserts a lot in more urban areas where there might only be a convenience store that sells junk food, but that's a real problem in rural America.
Lindsey Meyers (04:36):
It really is. And so for years, Avera has been trying to help with this need by funding a mobile food pantry because mobile is a really great way to get food access increased in some of these communities. So we were actually funding a mobile food pantry that was taking fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins out to our most rural areas, our reservations as well. And it served about 55 different communities. And we really thought that was a great way to meet that need. But it's come to our attention in recent years. That's really one of the most expensive ways to meet that need as well, because you have to have a driver and a truck and you're transporting things. And so they were only able to access a lot of those areas about once a month for food insecurity given their budget. And so when we looked at this issue, we knew we had to increase how people get access to food on a regular basis. And so that's really where our wellness pantries came in. But our wellness pantries within our clinics are really not a sustainable food resource, but they're kind of a continuation of care where they get people to those sustainable food resources.
Brian Reardon (05:45):
I'm curious, you call it a wellness program, not a food assistance program. Why that term wellness?
Lindsey Meyers (05:53):
Well, I think all of us know that food is so core to our health and wellness. And so that's really why we call it a wellness pantry because it really looks at that patient's health overall and how food impacts their health and wellness. Because if people don't have access to healthy fruits, vegetables, proteins, lean meats, some of those things that are basic building blocks for health, they have higher incidents of diabetes, higher incidents of all issues actually in health. And then with children, if they go hungry, they have trouble learning. So you can see how many different aspects of health this impacts across a lifetime. And there's so many people, like right now, South Dakota is seeing over a hundred thousand people in our state that are food insecure. And that may not sound like a lot when you live in a urban area, but we have under a million people in our whole state. And so that's a huge issue for us.
Brian Reardon (06:57):
One in five, 10% of Yeah. Wow.
Lindsey Meyers (07:00):
Yeah, one in five children are food insecure in South Dakota. And so this is really an issue we have to work on because throughout a lifetime if somebody experiences food insecurity, they can have many chronic health conditions. And so we need to work upstream on these issues instead of just trying to tackle them when they're coming into our facilities.
Brian Reardon (07:22):
And I want to go back, you talked about the mobile pantries that went out once a month. That's evolved though, right? And you've really looked to a partnership to expand the reach of your efforts to provide food security to folks.
Lindsey Meyers (07:38):
Yes. In our South Dakota area, Feeding South Dakota who covers the whole state of South Dakota for food insecurity has been a great partner of ours. And I've served on their board for a few years. And so that's really how I started to identify that our mobile food pantries were a very expensive way to meet this need and that we needed to maybe look at different access points. So we are not cutting back the mobile pantries. We're basically supplementing those. You still need to have that food access happening in communities. But our wellness pantries are another component of that where we're able to really impact our patients as they're coming in to see us. And so what we do is we have them within our facilities. It's just a basic storage area. And right now we are just doing shelf stable products because of the distance sometimes that people are traveling to appointments and the distance that we're traveling to get food to clinics as well.
(08:36)
And so we're doing shelf stable fruits, vegetables, some whole meal products, rice, beans, milk, things like that that we're able to give to people. And when they come into our facilities and they come to a clinic visit, we basically ask them two simple questions. It's not cumbersome for them, but we ask within the 12 months, have you worried that food would run out before you had money to buy more? And then within the past 12 months has food run out and you did not have money to buy more. So if they answer yes to either of those, if there is a wellness pantry, then we ask them if they'd like to take an emergency supply of food home today. And it's basically three days of food for a family of three to four. And then it also comes with information to get them to a sustainable food resource within their community. So it's really looking at what are those access points? And Avera is really helping to expand those access points within our communities so that people do have that stable access.
Brian Reardon (09:39):
And how has the partnership been able to, first of all, get food donations? Is there grant money involved? Does the state or federal government provide assistance? Can you talk a little bit more about the, I guess the food network to keep the pantry stocked and operating?
Lindsey Meyers (09:53):
Yes. So Feeding South Dakota really has a lot of donors that have an appetite for the wellness pantries and are interested in helping to donate to this effort that we have going on within healthcare in South Dakota. But in addition to that, Avera also qualified for the Healthy Start grant and Healthy Start really looks at the health and wellness of women and children primarily, it's a federal grant and it's a really important piece of the puzzle with this, but because it actually helps with some of our data collection that we do. So we're able to tap into our Avera Research Institute, which are our data experts. They help to run our wellness pantries. They're run primarily by volunteers. Like you said earlier, it's not hard to staff our pantries, but we have to have paid staff that are able to make sure that there are volunteers there to make sure the food is ordered, to make sure the data is collected and shared.
(10:54)
And so that grant helps to supplement this in addition to all the donation dollars, but a lot of it runs off of people's goodwill and the want to help their friends and neighbors. And so that's really been amazing to me because I thought I would be packing bags a lot more than I am, and I'm really not because I have more than enough volunteers who are there every week. I have groups of folks from our American Legion in Sioux Falls who come and pack bags every single week for us. And they feel like that's part of their mission and ministry to give back to our patients.
Brian Reardon (11:31):
And the theme of this season of Health Calls is actually United for Change. And I think this collaboration that you're speaking about really highlights that it takes more than just an anchor facility, like a hospital in the community takes volunteers. It takes those who are willing to give back. So have you seen that sort of desire to help out grow as Avera has gotten more interested? How do your staff get involved?
Lindsey Meyers (11:55):
Yes, it's really taken off. So our very first wellness pantry was set up in one of our rural facilities, Avera St. Benedicts, which is in Parkston, South Dakota. So it's a rural community. And I went to that administrator first because they are such a get-her -one kind of group. And so she said, yes, absolutely, she has a clinical background. And so it really helped because she was seeing this need rising in her community and she can see it within their community health needs assessment. They just finished doing this year. And so she said, absolutely, let's take this on. Let's see how we can make it work. So they were a great incubation site to be able to watch how they set it up and their staff dedicated their time. They come in and volunteer. They basically pack bags over lunch breaks and things like that, and they have more than enough volunteers to make it run.
(12:52)
And what we were very concerned about when you're starting a wellness pantry, there are so many boxes to check already in clinical nursing. And so I was very worried that that would be the stopping point that nurses would say, no, this is really just too cumbersome to do this additional screening. But actually the nurses have been our greatest advocates and our greatest champions. And I would say secondarily, our physicians can see how this impacts their patient's health. And they're really standing behind this. And so when you have all the clinical team members working together with your volunteers who are packing bags, you really start to get that synergy that you need to make programs like this take off. And I went into this very open-minded. I thought, if there's really not a need, if it's going to be too cumbersome clinically, it's okay. We can solve this issue in other ways. But I was very, very pleasantly surprised by how Avera really took this on. And our population health team is very involved in helping to get the pantries set up with the data needs that we need to have. And so it's really a team effort.
Brian Reardon (13:58):
And let's talk a little more about the clinician involvement because I think that's really important again, as we look at Whole Person Care and the spectrum of care. And it's not just that clinical encounter that happens in a pediatrician's office, for example. So can you tell us a little bit more about the interest and involvement in, for example, pediatricians in caring for kids that come in?
Lindsey Meyers (14:21):
For sure. So actually the person who runs our population health program, Dr. David Basel, he's a pediatrician by trade as well, and then also runs population health. And so he was actually the first conversation I had and I said, this may be kind of a crazy idea. It's kind of new in the United States. I'm not sure if it will work. What do you think? And he was pretty skeptical at first because food insecurity is a really invisible need. You can't see it. You can't see when people are hungry, but you can see it downstream, like I said, in a lot of the health issues that we have in South Dakota. And so he knew there might be something there, but he went into it very data minded. And as we looked at the data and as we looked at the food insecurity numbers and the information coming back from our communities, he is the first one to tell me that he was wrong right away about how these pantries could take off and the need for them.
(15:16)
But really having that clinical buy-in is so key because it takes those partnerships to make it happen. And so our Vera Medical Group, our COO, was my second conversation to say, what do you think from an operations standpoint? Do you think this is doable? And he has a very soft heart for social determinants and really wanted us to see and gave us the permission to set up three pilot sites our first year to just see if we could make it happen. And so that kind of collaboration is really important to us. And then since we've set these up, I've had so many physicians reach out to me with interest on having a wellness pantry. And so I'm working with them to see how we can expand. They have great ideas of how to reach their patients in new and different ways and how to help with education on this topic. And so it's really matured in a nice way where I think helping to facilitate it as one thing, but really bringing in those other aspects and ideas is so important.
Brian Reardon (16:19):
And I love the fact that you've talked about obviously community benefit and the community health needs assessment. You've talked about your data folks, you've talked about population health leaders, we're talking about nurses and physicians. So really as you bring all of these different areas of expertise together, what results are you seeing? Are you able to pinpoint data that shows yes, this is having that sort of upstream effect on your patient's health?
Lindsey Meyers (16:48):
Yeah, we are really newly into it. So our first wellness pantry started just almost exactly a year ago today. And then our Vera McKennan, we have a hub and spoke model where we pack bags all in one locations and then they're sent out to all of our clinics across our more urban area in Sioux Falls. And that started last January. So we're pretty new into it, but to date, we've given out over 1600 bags of food to people in need. And then you asked earlier about our pediatric physicians. Our pediatric specialty clinic is one of our high needs areas that we identified, and those are folks that are coming from all over our region and to get that specialty care so they're able to take that fresh food home with them as well and to have that need met. So we're pretty newly into it to be able to see it impacted, but it really came from our health needs assessment that we did three years ago. Now we our food pantries. So I'm very optimistic that the next time we do our community health needs assessment, we'll hopefully see this need being met better than before. Do I think it will solve it? I don't think so, but I'm hoping that we will see food insecurity drop and we're definitely seeing that we're meeting the need within our clinics within our patients.
Brian Reardon (18:13):
Oh, really great overview of the work you're doing. I want to bring Josh back into the conversation. Josh, from what you've heard, do you have any follow-up questions or I guess the other thing we'd want to know, Lindsey, is what's next? Josh, I'd let you wrap things up.
Josh Matejka (18:28):
Yeah, thanks Lindsey. This feels a lot like what I felt when I was in Sioux Falls and talking to people within the program about the program. I have a few follow-up questions, but the first one I would say is you mentioned earlier the importance of fresh fruit and then fresh produce. And I know based on some of the conversations I have that that's something that y'all are hopeful of in the future, even as you're still trying to get your, I mean, I think when I was there you had just little bit of your thousandth bag and now you're up to 1600. So the growth is pretty rapid. But talk to us a little bit about your hopes for the future of the program and how you might be able to integrate some of that fresh fruit and produce into your future plans.
Lindsey Meyers (19:13):
We know that fresh is best. Obviously we do have a very diverse patient population. So some of the things we're looking at are do people actually know how to cook and prepare some of the fresh fruits and vegetables that they receive from us even on our mobile pantry? And so we're really working with Feeding South Dakota on some of those pieces because if you give someone an eggplant and they have no idea how to prepare an eggplant, then that eggplant isn't really doing its intended use. And so we need to make sure that we're helping with that education. So we actually have some great board members who are doing some cooking classes within our community resource worker group, and they're helping to reach out to those more diverse populations using spices and fresh produce that that population really uses every day and wants to consume. With our wellness pantries.
(20:10)
I don't know that we'll expand to having fresh produce anytime soon just because of the difficulty, like I said earlier, of people having to transport that. Other areas we're looking to go into in the future. We obviously hear hygiene products are a big request of folks. So things like shampoo, conditioner, feminine hygiene products, diapers for children and formula are areas that I can see us expanding into in the future as we look at our women's service line is looking at the issue of period poverty right now and things like that. And so I can see our pantry is helping to fill that need since we've already got those access points, we have motivated people who want to help others set up. So those are really the right ingredients for being able to help some of those other deeper issues.
Josh Matejka (21:01):
And that really speaks to the question we kind of started this conversation off with that it's more than just a food pantry, it's a wellness pantry. So when you think about hygiene products and feminine hygiene products, that's something that is just as important to the whole person care that we want to deliver in Catholic healthcare. The final question I have is really related to when I was in Sioux Falls and I was talking to people on the ground involved in this program. I could feel and hear through their answers kind of the way that they personally felt about this program. They're like, we see these kids and we see these families. And I think one person was like, look, if I could give out four bags to everybody, I absolutely would. And so I'm just curious how that speaks to Vera's mission. How does the mission that Avera upholds as part of its care, how does that translate to the wellness program and how do you do such a great job, I guess, of getting that down to the people on the ground level?
Lindsey Meyers (22:03):
I love that question. So Avera is actually a ministry of the Benedictine and presentation sisters. And this year we're celebrating 25 years of those amazing religious women bringing their ministries together to form one health system as Avera. And so it's really top of mind for me as I am having a lot of conversations with the sisters that this is really their ministry. They came to the Dakotas, it was a very bleak landscape when they came here and they formed schools and then later hospitals, and they really looked to meet the needs of what the people had. And so over time, those needs change. And so we're really evolving how we're doing that care. So much has happened. I can't even imagine what our founding and sisters would think of Avera today, but I think they would still see that core ministry that they came to the Dakotas with very alive and well in this project.
(23:01)
And it's so fun because when the sisters find out, we haven't talked a lot about our wellness pantries because they're very new. It's kind of a pilot that we're starting over the last year. But the sisters that have been very involved always tell me, they're like, oh, this is exactly what our founding sisters would've wanted us to be doing. And they love it. And whenever they have an extra bit of dollars that are donated to them for any reason, it always goes back into the wellness pantries. And so it's been an amazing partnership and a great way to uplift that mission and ministry that we have. And I think that's why our employees feel like this is so core. Hospitality is one of our main values, and feeding people is so core to hospitality, especially in the Midwest. When people come over to your house, that's what you want to do is give them something to eat. And so if you can do that in your clinics, that's an amazing gift to be able to give your friends and neighbors.
Josh Matejka (23:58):
No, that's a great way to end it. Thanks, Lindsey.
Brian Reardon (24:01):
No, and it speaks to meeting the needs and meeting people where they are. So really great overview of the program. Great work. We'll keep tabs on it and see how it progresses. But thanks for sharing some insights and how the wellness pantries have evolved. I think it speaks again to our work in Catholic healthcare in evolving and again, meeting the needs of the times.
Lindsey Meyers (24:22):
Yes. Thank you so much for having me. This really is a team effort, so I'm just one of many who are making this happen at Avera. But I'm glad to be here with you today, and if any other health systems have questions about this, they're welcome to reach out to me.
Brian Reardon (24:36):
Appreciate it. Again, that was Lindsey Meyers. She serves as Vice President of communications, PR and community engagement with Avera. Thanks for being with us. This has been another episode of Health Calls, the podcast of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. I'm your host, Brian Rudin. Of course. Josh Mada is our executive producer. We have production support with Sarah Marchant and Health Calls is engineered and produced at Once Films in St. Louis. We appreciate their work. You can listen and download Health Calls either from the CHA website, chausa.org, or from all of your favorite podcast streaming services. And of course, if you like this episode or other episodes, please give us some feedback. Give us a rating and comments. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.