Food for Health

Food for Health

How AHF is serving public health, starting with meeting basic nutritional needs

GUEST BIO:

Whitney Engeran-Cordova is the Vice President of Public Health Programs for AHF.

Carlos Marroquin is the National Director of Food for Health Programs at AHF.

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[2:15] - The Current State

Problems Food for Health is built to address

First up in our conversation, Whitney succinctly addresses the primary issues relating to food insecurity. 

“Most food delivery systems are done at a very local level, obviously through churches and through other kinds of institutions. Some of those tend to not be as stable as we would like them to be in terms of how they get the food, how they distribute it.”

Food for Health was designed to bring stability to this system.

[3:38] - Three Models for Success

Varying methods for getting food where it’s needed

The first model for food delivery is food pantries, built to serve people who desperately need food at a very low cost or for free. They offer food that’s healthy, fresh, and designed to meet nutritional needs.

The second model is the AHF Marketplace, which is essentially a storefront. These small grocery stores offer food for sale at very affordable prices, especially designed to be oases in “food deserts”— places where healthy, fresh, and nutritious food is difficult or impossible to find.

Finally, the third model is an experimental concept in which AHF develops a restaurant-style environment. People can come and eat food that’s priced very, very low to be affordable for everyone. This concept is designed to serve people who don’t have the ability to cook their own meals and want hot, well-prepared meals.

[11:59] - The Beginnings of Food for Health

Seeing and meeting dramatic need

Carlos emphasizes that even though the pandemic put food insecurity issues into stark relief, those issues were already quite present before then. 

“We saw lines at the food banks that literally people had to wait for hours to get food, and that was prior to the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, it was chaos because now people couldn't go to work, now people were losing their jobs and there was no access to food. There was very little access. And the regional food banks…were struggling to keep up with the demand.”

AHF leaders such as Carlos and Whitney saw there was a need for long-term solutions, not just short-term fixes. This was how Food for Health was born.

[14:32] - The Next Step in A Legacy of Service

Passionate messages on the future of AHF

Whitney and Carlos both believe that this historical moment is a pivotal one when it comes to serving human need worldwide, both for AHF as an organization and each of us as individuals.

“This is the time,” Whitney says, “for us to really lean in. Whether it's about food, whether it's about housing, whether it is about advocacy and holding government accountable for its actions, whether it is in healthcare… this is our time to be of maximum use to the people that we serve.

“AHF was founded on the premise of taking care of those who were dying and giving them a death … with dignity. That turned into other things, and as that turned into our healthcare, it's now turned into our housing, it's turned into food, it's turned into our care for people in STI clinics. It's turned into so many elements of what we've done…This is really in service of our overall greater mission and that it is perfectly in keeping with what we do and what we know we do well, and that this is our time in this global moment to be of maximum service to those that we serve and to our communities.”

RESOURCES:

• [0:01] About Food for Health