Food As Medicine

At Grady, we know that good food is important for good health. This is why we have joined together with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Open Hand Atlanta in the Food as Medicine partnership. Our vision is that all members of the Grady community – patients, families, employees, visitors, and neighbors – have access to healthy, affordable food.

The Food as Medicine Partnership is bringing back the true purpose of food. To fuel our bodies and bind us together as a community with a renewed focus on health and healing.

Located just outside Grady’s main entrance in the Butler Parking Deck, Jesse Hill Market is a public café offering a range of healthy items. Purchase nutritious, affordable prepared meals, grab-and-go entrees and sides, and local, fresh produce, at the first retail location of Atlanta’s own Good Measure Meals.

For details and directions, visit Jesse Hill Market.

Jesse Hill Market also features a Food Pharmacy and Teaching Kitchen to help patients better manage chronic conditions and make healthy lifestyle changes. These services a part of a comprehensive Food Prescription Program that includes fresh food pick up, nutrition education, and cooking classes. Eligible patients must be referred to the program by their Grady primary care provider.

Who is eligible to participate in the Food as Medicine Food Prescription Program?

• You must be a Grady patient.
• You must have a diet-related chronic disease.
• You must meet screening guidelines established in Grady outpatient clinics.
• You must have a referral from your Grady primary care provider.

The Food as Medicine program is a multipronged intervention to address both chronic disease and food insecurity among Grady patients. Once fully implemented, all patients throughout Grady will be screened for food insecurity and connected to resources depending on their health status.

Food prescriptions will give patients access to the Food Pharmacy with a range of visit frequencies from one visit for inpatient referrals to 3-6 month prescriptions that allow two visits per month and are renewable up to one year. At the Food Pharmacy, patients will receive fresh vegetables and fruits and healthy starches, grains, and proteins for their household. In addition to food, patients will be enrolled in nutrition and cooking classes to equip them with the knowledge and skills to achieve healthy diet changes and manage their health conditions.

Open Hand Atlanta is a 501(c)3 founded in 1988 by friends who began preparing and delivering freshly cooked, nutritious meals for 14 people living with AIDS who were too sick to cook for themselves. As the need for nutrition services among individuals living with symptomatic HIV/AIDS in the Atlanta area continued to grow with the AIDS epidemic to hundreds of meals each day, so did the requests for us to extend our quality meal services to persons with other health conditions/disabilities in the community. In response to these needs, Open Hand expanded its mission in 2000 to providing prepared meals and nutrition services for homebound seniors and individuals with critical/chronic illnesses or disabilities such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, spinal cord injuries and others, who do not qualify for any other existing meal programs. Subsequently updated in an effort to emphasize the impact on client health the agency’s services offer, Open Hand’s mission is to help people prevent or better manage chronic disease through Comprehensive Nutrition Care (CNC) and untimely death caused by nutrition-sensitive chronic disease among low-income people with disabilities and other health conditions who have neither the access to healthy foods nor the nutrition guidance necessary to maintain or improve their health.  Open Hand Atlanta’s vision is to eliminate disability and/or untimely death due to nutrition-sensitive chronic disease.

In 2005, Open Hand Atlanta launched the social enterprise Good Measure Meals (GMM) as a program of its organization, allowing the nonprofit to expand its mission across the entire socioeconomic spectrum and provided financial sustainability to ensure key programs and services could continue services through difficult economic times. GMM offers fresh, nutritionally balanced, ready-to-eat meals to the paying public and returns 100% of the net proceeds back to Open Hand Atlanta. The Jesse Hill Market is the first retail outlet for Open Hand Atlanta/GMM.

Learn more about Open Hand Atlanta.

Every year, the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) works with more than 700 nonprofit partners – like Grady – to distribute over 65 million meals to more than 755,000 people in 29 counties across metro Atlanta and north Georgia.

The Atlanta Community Food Bank works to end hunger with the food, people, and big ideas needed to ensure our neighbors have the nourishment to lead healthy and productive lives. Far too many people in our own community experience hunger every day, including children, seniors, and working families. With over 150 employees, nearly 30,000 annual volunteers, and our network of over 700 nonprofit partners, we help these hungry neighbors get healthy food every year. Our goal is that all hungry people across metro Atlanta and North Georgia will have access to the nutritious meals they need when they need them. It takes the power of our whole community to make that possible.

Learn more about the Atlanta Community Food Bank.