((PKG)) CALIFOOD
((Banner: Through Food))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martinez))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((NATS))
((Richard Ayoud, Executive Director, Project Angel Food))
This is the first time in the country that a state has invested in a program like this. So, they’re investing in Project Angel Food and five other organizations across the state that provide medically-tailored meals. And they’re targeting people with congestive heart failure because they use the healthcare system the most.
So, there’s going to be a thousand clients over three years who are going to look at them a year before they got the food, while they got the food, and a year after they got the food, to see how they did, how their life changed, how long they stayed out of the hospital.
((NATS))
If we keep someone out of the hospital for one day, it saves five thousand dollars, and five thousand dollars will pay for this whole program for three months, providing them three meals a day, three months, and the nutrition counseling they need.
((NAT))
This one is barbecue shredded pork.
((Marjory Smith, Beneficiary, Project Angel Food))
I am part of Project Angel Food, and I do receive my meals. They come every Monday and I receive seven meals, which is one meal per day. It’s a blessing to me, when I can get up and just be able to put a meal in the microwave. And it goes according to our diet. It’s whatever our doctors put us on.
((Richard Ayoud, Executive Director, Project Angel Food))
There is science behind what we do, and it’s the registered dieticians who provide that science. They go through all the different guidelines, from the different associations, the Diabetic Association, the Heart Association, and look at what the requirements are, and then we build meals that fulfill those requirements.
((Marjory Smith, Beneficiary of Program))
Even though we still get weak and out of breath and all those things, but the point is, I do have a nutritional meal coming in, to where yes, it helps you.
