Food Insecurity Resources
(Photo by Rhett Butler)
MOTHeRS Project Resources
MOTHeRS Project Food Guide for Women with Gestational Diabetes
At this link are English and Spanish versions of The MOTHeRS’ Food Guide for Women with Gestational Diabetes, available in both color and black-and-white. Using the familiar visual of a pyramid, this one-sided handout can be used as a food guide for women with Gestational Diabetes. It details the 6 food groups, and provides recommended daily servings, and serving sizes of common foods that fall into each food category. Carbohydrate-containing foods are indicated by a star, and shelf-stable food items are emphasized.
MOTHeRS Project Food Safety Tips
At this link you will find English and Spanish versions of The MOTHeRS’ Project Food Safety handout, available in both color and black-and-white. This 1-sided document offers 10 food safety tips that should be followed by women who are pregnant to prevent food borne illness. The bottom of this handout provides a more comprehensive list of food items that should be avoided during pregnancy for safety concerns.
MOTHeRS Project Plate and Shopping Guide
At this link are English and Spanish versions of The MOTHeRS’ Project Plate and Shopping Guide, available in both color and black-and-white. The front-side of this 2-sided handout is the MOTHeRS’ Plate and can be used to provide basic nutrition education to women who are pregnant. The plate design contains recommendations that reflect appropriate daily serving amounts for each food group, emphasizing shelf-stable food items, and includes a reminder to take a daily prenatal vitamin and mineral supplement. The backside of this handout is the MOTHeRS’ Shopping Guide, and lists additional food items, organized by food group, that should be prioritized when collecting groceries, as they are good sources of nutrients identified to be important during pregnancy. Additionally, this side of the handout emphasizes the use of nutritious shelf-stable products and provides guidance on foods to limit and foods to avoid while pregnant.
At this link you will find English and Spanish versions of The MOTHeRS’ Project Recipe handout, available in both color and black-and-white. This 2-sided handout was designed to provide instruction and inspiration on how to use common food items that are good sources of nutrients identified to be important during pregnancy, but which are often under-consumed. Both sides of the handout include a brief description of each food item, its nutritional significance during pregnancy, and tips on how to use/cook with it. Additionally, detailed recipes are provided for some food items, and QR codes are available for others. Shelf-stable food items and foods provided in the MOTHeRS’ Emergency Food Bag, or available with WIC-benefits are emphasized. The bottom of the backside of the handout offers suggestions of nutritious snack combinations that can be enjoyed during pregnancy.
MOTHeRS Project Technical Report
The treatment of food insecurity in the MOTHeRS project includes providing emergency healthy food bags and tailored patient education to women with high-risk pregnancies and food insecurity, living in rural areas. At this link you will find the description of the food bag developed for pregnant women who screened positive for food insecurity along with the methodology used to develop the contents of the bag and handouts.
Orientation to Screening and Treating Patients for Food Insecurity
At this link you will find English version of the MOTHeR’S Project: Orientation to Screening and Treating Patients for Food Insecurity PowerPoint. There are 44 slides with speaker notes/script. The topics covered include 1) Why the MOTHeRS’ Project is distributing emergency food bags to pregnant women at high risk of food insecurity (Slides 4 to 6); 2) The emergency food bag contents and rationale (Slides 7 to 14); 3) How to screen for food insecurity in the clinical setting, using two validated questions (Slides 15 to 18); 4) How to briefly counsel a woman who screens positive for food insecurity (Slides 19 to 22); 5) How the process of getting food from the Medical Food Pantry to eligible women will work (Slides 23 to 27); 6)How to counsel the food bag recipient, using MOTHeRS’ Project handouts (Slides 28 to 41).
While some of these slides are specific to the MOTHeRS project, they can be adapted for other programs.
Nutrition Consult asking 2 Food Insecurity Questions
At this line is a video clip showing a nutrition consult which incorporates the 2-Question Hunger Vital Sign Screener. These two questions have been validated for use in the clinical setting to identify food insecurity and will be used by practices piloting the MOTHeRS’ Project to identify high-risk pregnant women at each prenatal appointment. A response of ‘usually’ or ‘sometimes’ reflects a positive screen for food insecurity. At this link you will find a short video of a registered dietitian nutritionist asking the validated food insecurity screening questions.
Other Related Resources
Feeding America
Addressing Food Insecurity in Health Care Settings
Food Insecurity Screening Toolkit
Food Research & Action Center
Screen and Intervene: A Toolkit for Pediatricians to Address Food Insecurity
AAFP
Food Insecurity: How You Can Help Your Patients
Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina
A sample of a food bag before it is packaged and sent off to a family in need.