Butler Health System is hoping a new program at the hospital's former cafeteria will lead to better health for those who are food insecure.

Erin Stewart, a lifestyle coach and registered nurse at BHS, and Dr. Kathy Selvaggi, BHS's chief community health officer, discussed the program Wednesday.

Not to be confused with a food pantry, the new Butler Health System Food Institute will give eligible clients the ingredients to make 10 healthy meals per month.

Not only will the clients receive food for the recipes, Stewart said they will learn how to prepare the meals from a professional chef at the institute, which will be housed in the former cafeteria in Butler Memorial Hospital's Brady Street entrance lobby.

Clients can receive the distribution and lessons once per month for up to six months, she said.

In addition, clients will learn healthy-eating basics, such as how to read a label to detect healthy or unhealthy ingredients, how to cook healthy meals on a budget, and basic nutrition information, Stewart said.

“A huge part of this is going to be education,” Selvaggi said.

The clients who participate in the Food Institute will be gleaned from BHS physicians' offices, Selvaggi said.

She explained the program will start with cardiologists' practices, where patients will be asked a series of questions via their electronic medical chart that will determine if the patient is food insecure.Selvaggi said examples of the “hunger vital sign questions” patients will see include whether the patient has run out of food by the end of the month, run out of money for food, or has concerns regarding whether they will have food at the end of the month.If they answer “yes” to any of the questions, they will be referred to the Food Institute's nutritional health liaison and entered into the program if appropriate, Stewart said.“What we're trying to do is see if we can teach people how to eat healthier,” Selvaggi said.The hospital is funding the Food Institute, Selvaggi said. But residents can make donations toward food and other expenses through the BHS Foundation.“The hospital really believes in this because we have a lot of chronic illnesses in our county,” Selvaggi said.Selvaggi is excited to see if the cardiology patients' issues, such as cholesterol readings, improve after they participate in the Food Institute.Stewart said the program will start out by surveying the cardiologists' patients. If successful, the questions will next be asked of BHS' endocrinology practices, then general practitioners.

Should the program prove successful and positively affect the lives of food-insecure county residents, Selvaggi said community partners such as food pantries or certain businesses could help guide clients to the Food Institute.Stewart said clients finishing the program will understand which foods are nutritious, how to prepare healthy food and how their diet affects their chronic health conditions.Selvaggi hopes to expand the program in the future to include offering kitchen utensils to clients. She learned from the leaders of similar programs at other health systems that clients need can openers, plates, flatware and other items as badly as they need food.The impetus for the Food Institute idea came from a 2019 countywide needs assessment that showed an almost 30% poverty level in Butler's 16001 ZIP code, Selvaggi said.The assessment also revealed that in the ZIP code, more than 14% of children are food insecure.“We're trying to improve these numbers,” Selvaggi said. “The hospital felt that as a system, we needed to address these issues.”Stewart and Selvaggi said the cardiology patients will begin to see questions in their electronic charts in April.