CMC and NH Food Bank Launch Preventative Food Pantry

CMC and NH Food Bank Launch Preventative Food Pantry

Preventative Food Pantry to Address Hunger and Health with Donation from Bishop's Charitable Assistance Fund

Catholic Medical Center (CMC), in partnership with the New Hampshire Food Bank, a program of Catholic Charities NH, and the Parish of the Transfiguration Food Pantry, has launched a transformative, first-in-the-state program. The Preventative Food Pantry helps patients with chronic medical conditions obtain wholesome foods and nutrition counseling in an effort to improve their overall health.

A full news release about this landmark initiative can be read online here.

The Bishop's Charitable Assistance Fund provided the food pantry with a donation of $4,000 in April of 2018 so they could purchase a commercial grade refrigerator, freezer and startup costs for food so they could open the food pantry. This new program will identify patients who are experiencing food insecurity and assist them in gaining access to the foods they need to address related illnesses and under nutrition. The program will also help to fill the therapeutic gap by linking physicians to nutritionists to patients. Individuals with special nutritional needs are referred to the food pantry by providers who write food “prescriptions” for supplemental foods that will best promote physical health, prevent future illnesses, and facilitate recovery.

Photography by Raphael Bastek and Samantha Russo.