Better Food, Better Health: Creating a Blueprint for Success

Continuing our video series on UPMC Health Plan’s “Better Food, Better Health” pilot, faced with significant challenges, the team at UPMC Community HealthChoice, MANNA, and Philabundance was compelled to reassess their approach. They realized that the true measure of the project’s success could not be determined using traditional clinical data.

Instead, the team began prioritizing the qualitative feedback they were receiving from participants, and they began to gauge the program and participant success by tracking subjective improvements. These included positive outcomes such as experiencing more energy, feeling in a better mood, and learning new skills. This qualitative focus meant celebrating moments like the excitement of a participant trying an artichoke for the very first time—for many participants, the weekly produce boxes they received introduced ingredients they had never seen—or gaining the confidence needed to cook with new ingredients, explains Amba Kasongo, assistant director, Healthcare Partnerships, Philabundance.

The surprising result of this challenging exposure? “The excitement that grew from people,” Kasongo adds, “and them wanting to get renewed or to keep going with the programming. But it was a happy sense of surprise.”

The team understood that despite their initial ideas and experiences with partners, they had to be prepared for the unknown and "be able to pivot.” The entire program structure was intentionally flexible, allowing them to make necessary changes as the pilot intervention progressed, and they knew that the broader significance of this experience extends beyond the immediate benefits to individuals.

The ultimate achievement of the pilot program was the creation of a systemic blueprint to address the barriers that exist when health care meets the realities of everyday life.

"Ultimately, the true value of this program isn't just in the individual lives it touched,” Crystal Clark, MD, MPH, chief medical officer, UPMC Community HealthChoices, says. “It's in the playbook it created for any organization that's trying to tackle these complex human-centered health challenges.”

Editor's note: Since this interview, Amba Kasongo has become program director of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.