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Food Access Support Technology (FAST): a Centralized City-Wide Platform for Rapid Response to Food Insecurity

  • Innovations in Clinical Practice
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Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Food access for patients remains a critical need for health systems to address given varying resource availability and inefficient coordination among health and food services.

Aim

Develop and evaluate the Food Access Support Technology (FAST), a centralized digital platform for food access that pairs health systems with food and delivery community-based organizations (CBOs).

Setting and Participants

Two health systems, 12 food partners, and 2 delivery partners in Philadelphia, PA.

Program Description

Using FAST, referrers can post requests for food delivery on recipients’ behalf, which are reviewed and claimed by eligible CBOs that can prepare food boxes for delivery to people’s homes.

Program Evaluation

Between March 2021 and July 2022, FAST received 364 requests, representing 207 food insecure households in 51 postal codes. The platform facilitated the completion of 258 (70.9%) requests, with a median completion time of 5 (IQR 0–7) days and a median of only 1.5 days (IQR 0–5) for requests marked “urgent.” Qualitative interviews with FAST end-users endorsed the usability of the FAST platform and its effectiveness in facilitating resource-sharing between partners.

Discussion

Our findings suggest that centralized platforms can address household food insecurity by (1) streamlining partnerships between health systems and CBOs for food delivery and (2) facilitating the real-time coordination of resources among CBOs.

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Data Availability

The dataset analyzed for the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the people and community partners that have volunteered their time and effort to make this intervention possible: Heather Klusaritz, Patricia Meehan, Deborah Lowenstein, Preeti Advani, Andrew Carroll, Liz Jones, Transmogrify, Collaborative Opportunities to Advance Community Health, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Black and Mobile, Food Connect Delivery, Mitzvah Food Program, Share Food Program, MANNA, Drueding Center, Philabundance, People’s Emergency Center, Redeemer Health Food Pantry, and The Simple Way. Thank you all for your tireless efforts to address food insecurity and support food access in Philadelphia.

Funding

This innovation and study has been supported by the TD Charitable Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tyler Lian BS, Ana Bonilla-Martinez CHES, Emily Eiler BA, Rosemary Thomas MPH, CHES & Jaya Aysola MD, DTMH, MPH

  2. Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tyler Lian BS & Jaya Aysola MD, DTMH, MPH

  3. College of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Emily Eiler BA & Sai Sarnala BA

  4. Health Care Improvement Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Susan Choi PhD

Authors
  1. Tyler Lian BS
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  2. Ana Bonilla-Martinez CHES
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  3. Emily Eiler BA
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  4. Sai Sarnala BA
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  5. Susan Choi PhD
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  6. Rosemary Thomas MPH, CHES
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  7. Jaya Aysola MD, DTMH, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaya Aysola MD, DTMH, MPH.

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Prior Presentations:

Abstracts of this study were presented at the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting 2022 and the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting 2022.

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Lian, T., Bonilla-Martinez, A., Eiler, E. et al. Food Access Support Technology (FAST): a Centralized City-Wide Platform for Rapid Response to Food Insecurity. J GEN INTERN MED 38, 2827–2831 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08291-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08291-4

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