In 2008, Dr. Nisha Thakrar, pediatrician and medical director at the South Boston Community Health Center (SBCHC), came to the Center's CEO Bill Halpin with some alarming news: more and more of her patients' parents were reporting that they were going without food to make sure that their kids had enough to eat.

Without missing a beat, Bill asked Executive Assistant Susan LaPaglia and Social Worker Kate Lufkin to organize an internal food drive. "Within days of putting the call out to staff that there was a real need among our patients, we had a room full of food," says Susan. Equally incredible points out Halpin, is where the contributions came from. "The employees on the frontlines of care, who often earn the least, were the first to step up and help. That was tremendously moving to me."  

Susan notes that as quickly as the food came in - it went out. It was clear that the initiative needed more resources - and space. An area in the basement of SBCHC was identified and reconfigured as a food storage area. During the initial drive, SBCHC's lone social worker Kate Lufkin was approached by members of the Massachusetts Legal Partnership through the Boston law firm, Foley Hoag. They wanted to contribute to the effort. From there, Susan and Kate began soliciting donations from other organizations and through a contact at Stop and Shop, were put in touch with the Greater Boston Food Bank.

"The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) helped to get us up and running as an official food pantry," says LaPaglia. "They provided us training in Food Safety, helped us obtain an operating permit from the City of Boston and added us as a partner agency in their food distribution network."

In those early days, the pantry was serving an average of 65 households a month. As the economy has been slow to recover, that number has grown -- soaring to 322 in 2009. In 2011, the pantry provided groceries to 415 households each month. "A real outcome of the country's economic spiral is that families in struggling communities like South Boston cannot afford to put food on the table," says Halpin. "Many of the families who are coming to us for help are using a food pantry for the first time in their lives."  

As the numbers of individuals and families who are using the pantry have increased, so too have efforts to add more financial resources. According to Halpin, along with food supplies from the GBFB and $1,300 in direct funding from the City of Boston, Partners HealthCare provided $5,000 in important seed funding. In addition, Susan and Kate successfully applied for a $3,000 grant from Project Bread in 2010 and 2011 and recently secured a $5,000 award from BJ's Wholesale Club.  

"We are so grateful for the public and corporate support we have received for the pantry," says Susan. However, where future funding will come from is never far from her thoughts. "The pantry has become such an important part of the health center that we are constantly thinking of ways to fund it and to reach more people in need."

Each week, Susan and Kate order food online, pick up supplies at the Food Bank and unload and stock them in the pantry. Recently, they hired a pantry assistant to help them with food distribution, freeing them up to pursue more funding and to attend to the other demands of their jobs. The food pantry has also found a new home in the health center. It is located on the second floor where it is more visible and provides a more welcoming and dignified setting for patients. Says Susan: "I am proud of the fact that we make every effort to make patients feel comfortable and respected when they come."

SBCHC lets patients know about the pantry by posting signs throughout the facility and advertising it on their website. But more importantly, the Center's doctors make sure to ask patients during primary care visits if they and their families have enough to eat.

"I feel so fortunate to work at a community health center like the one in South Boston where there is a tacit understanding that we cannot keep people healthy if they are unable to meet some of their most basic needs," says Dr. Thakrar. "The food pantry allows our primary care clinicians to serve each patient to the best of our abilities. Without the pantry, our efforts to increase the health and well-being of the greater South Boston community would be severely undermined."

According to Feeding America, a U.S. hunger-relief organization, one in every six Americans do not have access to enough food, and more than 50 million Americans live in "food insecure" households.

Click here to learn more about South Boston Community Health Center.