A Collaborative Pilot to Support Patients With Diabetes Through Tailored Food Box Home Delivery

We conducted a randomized, controlled prospective pilot study to determine feasibility and impact of food bank and health system collaboration to home-delivered food to adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus experiencing food insecurity. Treatment group received biweekly, ethnically tailored, home-delivered food for 24 weeks. Analysis included intervention feasibility and impact on healthcare utilization, HbA1c, and other health-related measures. Intervention was feasible and successful with high levels of participant satisfaction. At baseline, participants with highest HbA1c reported poorer health, lower medication adherence and self-care, and higher diabetes distress and medicine for food tradeoffs. At 24 weeks, treatment group reported improved food security and health status. There were no differences in HbA1c or healthcare utilization measures between the two groups. It is feasible for a community food bank and nearby hospital to successfully collaborate and provide supplemental food staples to food insecure adults with type 2 diabetes and improve food insecurity and health status. Public policy efforts should utilize and expand this strategy with the goal of improving health and reducing health disparities. Future work could include more comprehensive food support focused on those with poorest glycemic control, and expanded, coordinated interventions directed at other social determinants of health. Future programming and policies should be cocreated with community input to ensure greatest success.