Due to Covid-19, many companies moved to a hybrid work model, leading to their buildings being largely underutilized. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), is taking advantage of its quieter workspace to fight food insecurity in its local communities.
Due to fewer employees working onsite, Blue Cross NC’s cafeteria is seeing less activity. The payer has decided to use its cafeteria to prepare meals and then distribute them to more than a dozen nonprofits, which then provide the meals to those in need in their communities. Some of the meals include a form of meat with two side dishes, while others have a sandwich, fruit and cookies.
“We’re fortunate to have a beautiful campus right in the heart of the Triangle area, which is Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill,” said Kelly Calabria, chief marketing and corporate social responsibility officer at Blue Cross NC. “As we were looking at that space, we realized we had this wonderful cafeteria available … Looking at how we can begin to tackle the food insecurity issues that have plagued our state, the idea came about of, ‘Let’s leverage our facility, partner with organizations in the community where we have deep connections.’”
The insurer is working with Compass Group to make the meals. Its nonprofit partners distributing the meals include the Boys and Girls Clubs of Durham and Orange Counties, Community Health Coalition and Durham Children’s Initiative.
North Carolina is ranked the 10th hungriest state in the U.S., with nearly 1.6 million households not having enough to eat, according to a news release. In the state, more than one in seven people battle food insecurity and one in five children battle hunger.
Blue Cross NC’s onsite meal delivery program appears to be helping that need: about 3,400 meals were distributed in January and the payer hopes to distribute another 4,200 in February. The program is currently set to end March 31, but the insurer plans to analyze if it’s something worth continuing longer term.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“We framed it initially as a winter program,” Calabria said. “We’re looking January through March, but with the goal of assessing as it goes, looking at meal uptake with our partners. Are we meeting a solid need within that three-month window?”
The “food is medicine” movement has been picking up steam in the U.S. The White House held a conference on the topic in September, and several healthcare organizations have launched initiatives in conjunction with the conference, including Kaiser Permanente. Blue Cross NC also attended the conference and launched a two-year $3.5 million effort, which involves providing medically-tailored meals.
But as many buildings sit semi-empty, Blue Cross NC is encouraging other companies to launch similar initiatives to its onsite meal delivery program.
“We’ll put our own skin in the game, leverage our resources to show that it is possible, and then encourage others in our communities who have beautiful spaces that may not be full of employees because we’re in a hybrid model still because of the pandemic,” Calabria said.
Photo: vgajic, Getty Images
