It’s no secret that nutrition can directly impact health outcomes, and it’s well documented that when nutrition is poor, those outcomes can be devastating. One study found that nearly half of the deaths related to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes are associated with suboptimal eating habits (NIH).
MANNA’s mission is to help treat those with serious disease through nutrition. Its medically tailored meal (MTM) intervention is evidence-based and associated with reduced length of hospital stays, decreased hospital readmissions, and improved malnutrition risk (Journal of Primary Care & Community Health).
If proper nutrition can have such a tangible impact on positive health outcomes, then physicians need to know who to turn to for the best nutrition care and resources available to patients in their community. Medical school training is already jam-packed, and physicians don’t have the time or expertise to advise patients on their dietary needs. MANNA’s medically tailored meal program, which includes nutrition counseling provided by registered dietitians, exists to provide community members with the resources they need to maintain their nutritional status while managing their medical needs.
To help future physicians understand the impact of MTM programs, MANNA’s research arm, the MANNA Institute, hires medical fellows each academic year for an applied research experience. The Reid B. Reames Fellowship enables medical students to work on research projects that develop the body of evidence for “food as medicine.” Fellows study topics such as how MANNA’s MTM program affects malnutrition risk and the impacts of MTMs on health among heart failure patients. While some of the students begin their journey at MANNA unaware of the organization’s nutrition therapy mission, they quickly come to experience its role as a change agent in patient care.
“I needed volunteer hours, and my friend suggested that I check out MANNA,” said Kaitlyn Bartholomew, a 2022-2023 fellow. “I figured this would be like volunteering in any other kitchen, but when I watched the volunteer orientation video, I realized that MANNA’s work actually aligned perfectly with my interest in nutrition as a med student. I found out about the MANNA Institute and emailed the team to get involved with research.”
This is a common theme when people visit MANNA’s kitchen – there is a sense of hope, learning that an organization is tackling serious health issues through food. Strangers stand side-by-side in the kitchen, preparing and packing meals together in an effort to not only feed people, but heal them.
“I always had a great time volunteering during my undergrad at MANNA,” said 2023-2024 fellow Jeffrey Zhou. “But I saw my time there as helping provide folks who needed it with nutritious food. Once I started working as a fellow at the Institute, I saw the bigger picture of how incredibly broadly nutrition can affect people, and how this work is not just providing people with good food, but with proven treatments, [delivered] right to their door.”
As these young professionals advance in their careers, they will take the lessons they’ve learned from the MANNA Institute with them.
“Since my time at MANNA, I am now very thorough when I ask patients about their diets, where they live, if they have access to good food and transportation to get to the grocery store,” said Zhou. “I always knew that nutrition is a huge factor for your overall health, and I have personally always had an interest in nutrition and food as a way to stay healthy. But now, I see nutrition through the food-as-medicine lens, and I plan to take this with me throughout the rest of my career to ensure I treat patients to the best of my ability.”
The Reid B. Reames Fellowship program is in its third year at MANNA. So far, six soon-to-be doctors have experienced the “aha” moment that food truly is medicine.
“As with everything we do at MANNA, our goal for the Fellowship program is to enhance awareness, in this case among the next generation of physicians and care providers, of the role of diet in nutrition-related disease,” said Jule Anne Henstenburg, Director of The MANNA Institute.
To learn more about the MANNA Institute’s Reid B. Reames Fellowship program, visit https://mannapa.org/mannainstitute/reid-b-reames-fellowship/.