Reaching Rural Populations with Nutrition

God’s Love We Deliver is thrilled that National Public Health Week has chosen to highlight Rural Health today. Rural Health is a very important, yet often overlooked, area of need. Here at God’s Love We Deliver, we serve clients in the five boroughs of New York City, Nassau & Westchester Counties, and Hudson County, NJ, but we know the need for our medically tailored meals extends far beyond these borders. It is for this reasons that our team has been piloting new ways we can reach those who need us.

This past September, we won a Social Determinants of Health Innovation Award from the New York State Department of Health for a proposed pilot to address food insecurity through the delivery of medically tailored meals and medical nutrition therapy to more rural populations. We proposed doing this by using a food-safe shipping carrier and using telemedicine to deliver nutrition assessment and counseling to individuals. This proposal is just one of the many ways we are trying to reach those in outlying communities, especially in a large state like New York, where we know 1.3 million people are living in rural counties upstate.

It is the mission of God’s Love We Deliver to serve those who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves and we are committed to serving those who are the most sick and isolated in their communities, wherever they are. We hope to achieve this important and life-saving goal through collaboration and future partnerships.