Medical Students Partner With Community to Address 'Root Causes' of Food Insecurity

In 2017, five School of Medicine students interested in understanding more clearly the relationship between food and human health created a new student group dedicated to addressing food insecurity and other social determinants of health in Durham. They called the group Root Causes, reflective of the role that lack of access to healthy food plays as a root cause of chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. 

In the years since its founding, Root Causes has expanded its scope and made significant progress in improving health by forging partnerships with local community organizations as well as other Duke students and faculty and staff across Duke Health.  One of the most valuable partnership is the Fresh Produce Program, a Duke medical student-founded service that partners Duke and Lincoln Health clinicians to support food-insecure families with fresh produce and nutrition education at no cost.

Food insecurity (a person’s limited or uncertain access to food) is a crucial predictor of increased risk for debilitating chronic diseases and leads to poorer quality of life, worse health outcomes, and higher mortality rates. Sadly, food insecurity also disproportionately affects people of color. In Durham County, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 1 in 4 Latino and 1 in 6 Black residents skipped meals or ate less food because they did not have enough money.

The program sources food locally in partnership with Farmer Foodshare and deliver food boxes and nutrition curriculum right to their doorsteps, lowering the barriers for these families to get healthy food into their diets. Currently, Fresh Produce Program serves 400 families in Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh areas and remains entirely grant and donation funded.

Video filmed and produced by Triangle Blvd