Food Access

Access to fresh, healthy food has a major impact on a person’s health. Through partnerships, we provide screenings, access to mobile food pantries and external resources to strengthen food security across our community.

Our efforts include:

• Hosting a ‘Kids Eat Free’ program at Atrium Health Stanly and Atrium Health University City, in partnership with Sodexo, to provide children 18 years and under with a free, nutritious breakfast and lunch when school is out for the summer
• Screening hospitalized patients for food insecurity and utilizing care managers to help those in need access food and other resources
• Providing Atrium Health Biddle Point patients, identified as being food insecure, with 2 days of shelf-stable food and referrals to other local pantries
• Partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina to present Sort-A-Rama, a service event where volunteers help fight hunger by assembling nearly 100,000 meals for families who have limited access to food during the summer months
• Providing volunteers at 22 Second Harvest mobile food pantries at Title 1 schools across 11 counties
• Filling over 5,000 backpacks with nutritious food for families in need every week at Atrium Health’s new teammate orientation
• Launching the Atrium Health Summer Food Bus in Lincoln County, NC, to provide free to-go meals for children and teens ages 18 and younger in partnership with Lincoln County Schools. Each day during the summer, children receive both a nutritious lunch and breakfast for the following morning. And on Fridays, kids receive meals for the day and the upcoming weekend.
• View the summer 2021 Cabarrus schedule and University City schedule.

The Second Harvest mobile food pantry program helps address food insecurity across several counties, including Mecklenburg, Gaston, Stanly, Lincoln and York, among others. Each mobile food pantry is equipped with quality items for on-site food shopping, such as meats, produce, non-perishable items and dairy products, on average providing 40 to 50 pounds of food per family.