Health Professionals

Individuals working in a clinical setting have access to Feeding America’s Food Insecurity Screening Training. Screening for food insecurity is appropriate and warranted in all clinical settings, especially in environments where a significant percentage of the patient population has been identified as low-income. By recognizing patients’ food insecurity status, it allows health professionals to provide more appropriate, patient-centered care.

For health professionals working with populations who face the challenge of coping with both diabetes and food insecurity, Feeding America strongly supports the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) action to include food insecurity guidelines in a clinical setting within the 2016 Standards of Medical Care.

Diabetes Educators
For health professionals working with populations who face the challenge of coping with both diabetes and food insecurity, Feeding America strongly supports the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) action to include food insecurity guidelines in a clinical setting within the 2016 Standards of Medical Care.

Pediatricians

Pediatric physicians can access the Childhood Food Insecurity Course, which is designed to provide continued medical education. Through five modules, this free 1-hour course covers child health and wellness, prevalence and predictors of food insecurity, food access and choices, the relationship between food insecurity, health and development and intervention strategies. It was developed by Oregon State University and the Childhood Hunger Initiative of Oregon.

With the November 2015 policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics encouraging all physicians to screen children for food insecurity, this course will assist in providing some necessary tools to assess and address food insecurity among children.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs)
In an effort to better train and prepare future RDNs, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation, Feeding America and the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) developed a Food Insecurity and Food Banking Supervised Practice Concentration funded by the National Dairy Council®. The activities found in the Supervised Practice are designed to help dietetic interns develop the knowledge and skills necessary for an entry level RDN position in a food bank, and provide the intern with experiences in nutrition education, food bank management and food systems. Any of the activities can be used as stand-alone experiences, but the full concentration includes twelve activities to be completed within 120 practice hours.

An additional resource for RDNs is The Future of Food Partnership webinars that focus on topics such as understanding the contributing factors associated with food insecurity, developing and identifying effective nutrition education handouts and understanding the obstacles and opportunities food banks face in distributing more healthful foods for families.

Geriatricians
The Food Research & Action Center and AARP Foundation have developed a free, one-hour online course to educate health care and community-based providers around the country about the extent of senior hunger and solutions that exist. The course, “Screen and Intervene: Addressing Food Insecurity Among Older Adults,” provides training on how to screen patients 50 and older for food insecurity, as well as intervention opportunities.
Upon completion of the course, learners will be able to define food insecurity, identify the risk factors for food insecurity among older adults, identify the negative health outcomes that food-insecure patients may face, use the Hunger Vital SignTM screening tool, and connect individuals to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance programs and partners. The course is approved for 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM (for MDs and DOs).

Hunger-Relief Professionals

If you work in or with a food bank, this free nutrition policy course, Developing a Food Bank Nutrition Policy, will contribute to your knowledge and skills in advocating for, leading or participating in efforts to develop a food bank nutrition policy. If you are not a food banker, you will learn more about how charitable food assistance operates and why it is important to improve the nutrition quality of foods available.

For program developers seeking to learn about successful nutrition education solutions designed by food banks, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Feeding America led the development of GENIE: Out of the Bottle and Into the Food Bank. It is an easy-to-use online checklist tool designed to help apply the latest research to create effective nutrition education programs.