Rediscovering Service: Meeting the Needs We See

My name is Allyson Kang (she/her), and I am currently serving as the Quality Improvement and Diabetes Care Coordinator at HealthRIGHT 360, a federally qualified health center in San Francisco. In college, I volunteered at a farmers market to redistribute surplus to students who were living with food insecurity, and an elementary school garden that provided nutrition and gardening education. Now, I help run HealthRIGHT 360’s food pharmacy, a 6-month program for patients with chronic health conditions. 

Food access is foundational to health. Through HealthRIGHT 360’s program, participants receive weekly produce boxes and attend educational classes on topics like Type 2 diabetes, cholesterol, and mindful eating. After they graduate from the program, they receive Vouchers 4 Veggies so they can purchase produce on their own. After completing food pharmacy, one patient said they made progress on their health goals “as a whole family using the healthy food.” Another patient shared that food pharmacy “benefited my health and taught me how to choose foods that are good for my health.”¹ As one participant stated, “Food really is medicine… When I was eating [unhealthy] food… I was not getting good sleep and even though I was doing other things, diet really has a lot to do with your ability to function and feel good.” 

The program aims to increase people’s access to fresh produce and deepen their knowledge of their health conditions. As a part of that effort, I plan food orders, create recipes and health handouts, present classes, call and message patients to engage them in care, set up the food pharmacy, and try to continually improve the experience for participants. In the previous cohort, we noticed language barriers were limiting how one patient could express her preferences. After researching translations, I revised the food board and labels to include Spanish and Cantonese. The next week, instead of answering with just “eggs,” she paused and looked over the board before pointing out what she wanted. 

With the newest cohort, I created a pre- and post-intervention survey after rounds of feedback with the clinic’s Quality Improvement Manager, Maya. Patients have always gotten labs to measure how their health indicators have changed, but we hoped the survey would allow us to see how people’s lifestyles have shifted. We are also using the survey to plan our food orders around what the newest cohort actually wants. 

AmeriCorps has redefined what service means to me. I came in with ideas about what service should look like, but through my term, I’ve realized service isn’t a specific set of actions or a certain role. Service is about meeting the needs I see in front of me. Service can look like researching translations or designing a survey. It can also mean conducting screenings, listening to people’s stories, helping patients navigate insurance, printing resources, or troubleshooting phones. Some days, service is quieter. It’s entering the wifi password for a patient in the lobby, or sitting with someone who asked me to stay with them. 

With each new cohort, with each new place, what service looks like will change. What I will carry with me, regardless of the setting, is the practice of asking people what they need, listening carefully, and trying my best to meet the needs I see. 

HealthRIGHT 360’s food pharmacy reflects the work of many people, including: Sophia, Ally, Maddy, Dasha, Jessica, Stephanie, Sophie, and Erick. It is not possible without support from The Hellman Foundation, the Food as Medicine Collaborative, the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, and Arcadio’s Produce. 

1. This quotation was translated from “Me ha beneficiado con mi salud y cómo seleccionar alimentos buenos para mi salud.”