Healthy Food Prescriptions: How Local Efforts Can Contribute to Humanitarianism

By Neha Chava

As a medical student in Detroit, I have learned that a community being underserved is not just having a lack of access to affordable healthcare or not enough providers (although that is present). It also means that families continue to be buried under the weight of broader structural and political systems every single day, making it harder to stay healthy, access resources and feel seen.

One way I saw these social determinants of health in full effect was when I considered the disparate amount of food insecurity in Detroit compared to the rest of the state. In 2021, the Detroit Food Policy Council published a report that said around 70% of families in Detroit are food insecure. The families and children of Detroit are struggling to get the basic human need of food, especially nutritious food. Today, policies to reduce SNAP funding and cut nutrition education programs will harm community members who are already facing immense challenges. This is what it means to be underserved. There is an unmet basic need due to circumstances beyond the control of individual families.

However, there may be hope if communities can come together. The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship through Authority Health has provided the foundation for me to address this human need in a small but impactful way in Detroit. We are working to optimize Fresh Rx, a preexisting community program, for families at Wayne Pediatrics. This is a produce prescription program that will provide a “prescription” so families can get free vouchers for fresh produce and/or delivery boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables. There will also be nutrition education incorporated into the program so families may make sustainable, healthy choices in their diet for them and their children. We aim to create an intervention that responds to the needs of community members and provide families with tools and resources to address food insecurity. Access to food and healthcare is and should be considered a human right, which makes this project a humanitarian effort.

Especially in this time where policies will further worsen healthcare disparities, we must come together, stay resilient, and find ways to uplift the people around us. The aim of this local program is to offer some relief for families who are struggling with financial and food insecurity to get healthy food for their children. It is also important to advocate on a larger scale for this humanitarian effort. Advocacy may initially start by offering support to one family at a time but may also be writing to legislators about the importance of SNAP funding and sharing the stories of the people around us!

The Schweitzer Fellowship continues to teach me the importance of cultural humility, servant leadership, and the power of advocacy to see change. Through this program and clinical rotations, I am inspired every day by the people of Detroit who demonstrate resilience in the face of these structural barriers. I hope as a community we may work together through local initiatives and fight back against the gross injustices that continue to threaten the goal of humanitarianism.

Neha Chava is an Albert Schweitzer Fellow. She is also a medical student at Wayne State University and represents WSU on the Board of Directors for Michigan Universal Health Care Network. World Humanitarian Day is Aug. 19.