We partner with nonprofit organizations, community residents with lived experiences, and BJC HealthCare's Community Health Improvement team to convene, support, and lead efforts that address individual health needs and systemic barriers to health equity. Your gift funds community programs designed to eliminate health disparities in under-resourced communities in the City of St. Louis, North St. Louis County, and rural areas. Together, we can give all people the opportunity to live their healthiest possible lives.

School Health and Wellness

With support from our donors, BJC Community Health Improvement partners with more than 50 schools and five community organizations to advance equitable health and educational outcomes through BJC's Community Wellness Hub program. The hubs offer families, adults, and children a trusted a safe place for respite, mental wellness programming, and resource connection year-round. Your philanthropic support will empower thousands of families with coping methods to improve their mental wellness each year.

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Healthy Eating Active Living

Thousands of St. Louis neighbors face food insecurity and are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each year. Through BJC's Healthy Eating Active Living initiative, we work to reduce the prevalence of chronic conditions by improving access to healthy food and providing health education. Philanthropic support advances critical BJC programs that provide food, nutrition education, access to safe spaces for physical activity, and social support to patients and their families to create long-term healthy habits.

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Improving Black Infant and Maternal Health Outcomes

Missouri has the seventh highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, with Black women 3.5 times as likely to die during pregnancy or from complications arising during childbirth compared to white women. With support from donors like you, BJC HealthCare is working to eliminate racial disparities by collaborating with community-based doulas and building clinical care teams that reflect the community it serves to help improve equity in maternal health outcomes.

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Equitable Vaccinations and Screenings

Vaccines and screenings play a pivotal role in saving lives, yet vaccination rates continue to fall below targets set by Healthy People 2030. Generous donors make it possible for BJC HealthCare to provide free flu vaccinations, year-round screening events, and other preventative services in under-resourced communities.

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New Responsive Initiatives 

Health equity is about everyone having an equal opportunity to be as healthy as possible. That means addressing the systems and structures that stand in the way of optimal health. Your support will enable us to address emerging community needs (e.g., housing security, gun safety and violence reduction, digital divide, etc.).

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Search the documents below to learn more about the areas that interest you. Discover how your generosity enriches lives, saves lives, and transforms health care.

Food as Medicine

Monday, June 12, 2023

Thousands of people in the City of St. Louis and north St. Louis County struggle with food insecurity and type 2 diabetes. Because of the devastating health consequences of these factors, a collection of team members across BJC HealthCare came together to develop a creative approach to help community members live healthier lives.

Through BJC’s Food as Medicine pilot program, funded through the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, patients with uncontrolled diabetes and their families received medically tailored meals, nutritional counseling, and social needs assistance through a 30-week program in 2022. The pilot showed a 2.1 average reduction in A1c and a 10% reduction in hospital readmissions for participants.

The promising results of the pilot led to an expansion of the program to support patients with uncontrolled diabetes and their families at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Christian Hospital. Additionally, BJC will provide healthy food through a Fresh Food Market launching in 2023 to support food-insecure patients and their families who have been discharged from Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The research project associated with the food discharge initiative was awarded a $50,000 research grant in May 2023 to continue testing the intervention approach as part of the Big Idea Competition hosted by the Healthcare Innovation Lab and Washington University Institute for Informatics. The Food as Medicine study was one of six award recipients. Gifts to the Foundation play a key role in many initiatives like this driven by BJC Community Health Improvement. 

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Tags: community health improvementdiabeteshealth equityfood insecurity
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