• Rx for Food
    Care for the food insecure
    A health care provider solution to address "food insecurity" experienced by their patient and their families.
  • Area Supporters
    According to a 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 42.2 million people
    live in food insecure households with 10.9 million of these households having "very low food security."
  • Facts about food insecurities
    1 in 6 Americans don't have access to enough food as hunger has NO boundaries.

Identify

Identify, in health care settings (your office), families that are food insecure.

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Feed

Feed families, particularly their children if they are food insecure.

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Help

Help you develop an office process for:

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Welcome To Rx for Food

Rx For Food is a health care provider solution to address "food insecurity" experienced by their patient and their families. If you are a health care provider of any type, interested in addressing food insecurity any where in the USA, please read on for information about our program and how you can easily initiate a program in you office for your patients.

Food insecurity is defined as the inability to consistently assure at times sufficient high quality food and nutrition for their families such that there is low risk of disorders of malnutrition: under-nutrition, obesity, deficiency disorders. According to a 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 42.2 million people live in food insecure households with 10.9 million of these households having "very low food security."

Who We Are

Burke Pediatrics, LLC is a pediatric and adolescent medical practice in a private community, established in 1947, in Burke, VA(Metro Washington, DC). We are 7 clinicians (2MDs & 5 NPs) who service 7,000 active children, adolescents and young adults (A typical privately owned pediatric practice).

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What We Do

"Champion" for pediatric and other healthcare resources and an untapped, under-utilized referral source for "food insecure" families. We are a traditional office-based pediatric medical care practice (just like your practice).

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(millions)
People living in food insecure US households

1 in

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Children living in food insecure US households

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(millions)
American kids getting free or reduced-price lunch at school

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(%)
of 42M Americans weigh between paying their electric bill or purchasing food

Our Leadership

We are excited to work alongside Burke Pediatrics on this innovative and important project!

Fredric Garner, MD

Dr. Fredric Garner, a Harvard trained Board Certified Pediatrician, has practiced General Pediatrics since 1966. Counted amongst his finest achievements are his family of seven children, four grandchildren and his wife Connie. Five of his children are working as teachers in the Fairfax County School System.

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William Rees, MD

Dr. William Rees has been in private practice in Northern Virginia since 1975. He is a native of Schuylkill County, which is in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. After graduating from LaSalle University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology Major and Philosophy Minor ( also lettering in varsity tennis for 4 years), he went to Georgetown University Medical School.

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Our History

Please view the history of the program through the years.

2016

  • Awareness of the issue , Food Insecurity, and extent of the problem in Fairfax county
  • Agreed to be "Medical Champion" of the subject
  • Developed a "creative, cooperative" relationship with Food for Others ( a local food bank)
  • Formed a voluntary committee of local public/county social service, dietary, medical and health insurance volunteers
  • Pilot Project Development: Provide Food for children weekly from "food insecure homes" during the summer months, July and August, when 2 meals a day was not available in school because of summer recess.

2017

  • Implementation of Food Insecurity Screening in Burke Pediatrics, LLC
  • Referral of all insecure families to Food For Others by "prescription"
  • Collected data
  • Lessons learned:
    • Screening was accepted by most patients
    • Approximately 9% ( 200) of patients households were "Food insecure." ( 2000 patient visits, April through August)
    • 35% of Food insecure families were commercially insured
    • 33% of Medicaid insured patients were Food Insecure
    • Screening was reimbursed by most Third Party Payers
    • 7000 pounds of food distributed to 41 families in July and August
    • Non participant families were surveyed. Reasons: lost RX, did understand program

2018

  • Fairfax County-wide recruitment of medical practices to participate and screen
  • 13 practices of 200 MDs contacted agreed to participate in 2018
  • 10,000 pounds of food and nearly 100 families received food

2019

  • Continue to screen and recruit in northern Virginia
  • Develop an "inform and teach" web site to distribute via AAP Chapters