Key Takeaways
- Integrate food insecurity screening into EMR workflows to systematically identify at-risk patients and facilitate immediate referrals to nutritional resources.
Food insecurity is more than a social issue—it’s a daily crisis for millions of Americans, especially in rural states like Oklahoma, where access to healthy food is often as much about infrastructure as economics. But a quiet transformation is underway. Across central and western Oklahoma, clinics, hospitals, and food banks are redefining how and where patients access nutritious food. At the heart of this movement is Keeley White, MPH, PMP, Director of Community Health Programs at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, who brings a deeply personal commitment and public health expertise to the fight against hunger.
In this interview, White shares how her team partners with medical providers to screen for food insecurity, overcome transportation and funding barriers, and ensure that every Oklahoman regardless of zip code can access not just calories, but health.
Oklahoma’s medical clinics are tackling food insecurity because they see first-hand how nutrition impacts patient outcomes. “Food insecurity isn’t just about missing meals. It’s about chronic health crises, expensive diets, and the stress that comes with illness,” says White. Her own experience battling childhood cancer made clear that “maintaining a healthy diet while going through treatment was a struggle—not just physically, but financially for my family.”
Clinics are motivated to act for several reasons:
By integrating food support into clinical care, Oklahoma clinics aim to break the cycle of poor health and poverty.
The primary barriers are geography, infrastructure, and community resources. As White notes, “Oklahoma is a very rural state… we cover 53 counties of central and Western Oklahoma, and so it’s really important to us that we really focus on equity.” Rural areas struggle with:
Urban clinics, while better resourced, face other issues: “In the urban areas, we deal with issues… like crime or general safety of some of our members,” White says, which can discourage patients from seeking food or healthcare.
No two communities are alike. White’s team tailors solutions, including:
These solutions require not only creativity but deep trust and collaboration with community members.
Clinics start by screening patients for food insecurity and then act quickly to provide resources. The Regional Food Bank’s model begins with direct partnerships:
This process ensures that food insecurity is not just identified but directly addressed—without burdening already overworked healthcare providers.
Partnerships vary depending on local context and resources. White explains, “Some of our healthcare partners do have their own foundation that they’re able to fund the program, but a lot don’t—federally qualified health centers, especially, free clinics, critical access hospitals are already struggling.”
To avoid adding financial stress, the Regional Food Bank aims to offer services at no cost to most partners. This is possible through:
Fiscal discipline is essential. As White puts it, “I am juggling many, many grants… and definitely have had to get really good at that and build those skills sometimes through, you know, learning the hard way.”
Customization is the rule, not the exception. White’s team relies on a network of Community Connections Managers who work “grassroots” in each county. Their job is to:
“Once you go to one food pantry, you’ve been to one food pantry,” White says. “They’re all very different… and have their own culture. We never want to go in and say it’s our way or the highway.”
Programs are built with communities, not for them. This collaborative approach ensures that solutions are sustainable and genuinely effective.
1. Do Your Homework: “Obviously do some landscape research… it’s so much better to not reinvent the wheel if you can avoid that at any cost,” White advises. Know what models exist and what’s already working.
2. Start Small and Learn: Pilot programs are essential. “We did a two-year pilot to start with, to really kind of figure that out… it’s a pilot so it’s a mess, and you have no idea what you’re doing at all.” Embrace imperfection and iterate.
3. Involve the Community: Talk to people who are managing similar programs, understand barriers, and ask local partners what will work best.
4. Expect Mistakes: Flexibility and a learning mindset are critical. “The most important thing to do is to learn. Remind your team that it’s not going to go perfect… bear with me, you know, as much as you can.”
5. Build Trust, Not Dependence: Respect the unique culture of each community and empower local leaders to take ownership.
Growth has been rapid. The Regional Food Bank’s Healthcare Partnership Program started as a pilot in 2016-2017 with a single clinic. Now, as White shares, “we went from just a few healthcare partners in 2019 to now we have 57 across central and western Oklahoma. That includes major hospitals, clinics, critical access hospitals, federally qualified health centers, free clinics, even some mobile clinics.”
These programs are associated with:
While quantifying direct health outcomes requires longer-term studies, the program’s reach and popularity are clear evidence of its value.
Healthcare executives and community leaders should recognize that food insecurity is a health crisis hiding in plain sight—and one that demands proactive, collaborative solutions. Oklahoma’s model demonstrates that with the right partnerships, data-driven screening, and community-driven design, medical clinics can do more than treat illness; they can prevent it at its roots.
Start by:
Keeley White puts it best: “Always happy to share anything we can do to expand the impact as far as we can. That’s the whole idea.” If you’re looking to move the needle on health, food is a powerful place to start.
<p>It's really important to us that we, you know, really focus on equity and trying to make sure we're we're filling all the gaps. We're identifying all the barriers and trying to find ways to alleviate those barriers for um the Oklahomaans that we work with. [Music] Hello everyone.</p> <p>This is Cole from the American Journal of Healthcare Strategy joined by a special guest today doing some really important work that I think can honestly have a lot of impact when we apply the insights to some of our organizations at the health system level. Uh Key White, uh can you please introduce yourself and your current role? Sure. Yeah. Hi, I'm Key White. I'm the director of community health programs at the regional food bank of Oklahoma.</p> <p>Um we serve 53 counties of central and western Oklahoma and I uh actually oversee all of our health and nutrition programs including our partnerships um with hospitals, clinics, federally qualified health centers um as well as our older adult focused programs. We really appreciate you coming on.</p> <p>And I know we don't usually um bring on, you know, individuals who are in that kind of uh nutrition space, but with food as medicine getting more popular uh and also I've seen a lot of impacts of of it with our members, I really wanted to bring someone on who is really transforming in the space. You uh were a dietitian by uh training in undergrad, right? In 2012, you got your degree in in uh dietetics in in clinical nutrition. 10 years later, you got your M. PH.</p> <p>What got you into that space to begin with? Why did you want to go into this nutrition dietitionian, you know, food area? Yeah. Um, that's a great question. So, I actually had a childhood cancer growing up for about seven years and um really kind of learned the not only the importance of just maintaining a healthy diet while trying to go through, you know, everything you have to deal with with treatment and surgeries and things like that.</p> <p>Um, but it it was certainly a financial strain on my parents and our household. And so really kind of kind of getting a a small glimpse um in that experience and um you know how how expensive eating healthy food is and how difficult it is to maintain um just a healthy diet and lifestyle in general, but especially when you're going through a health crisis um especially a chronic health crisis lasting multiple years. Um, so that kind of got me interested in the nutrition space.</p> <p>And then, um, I did a lot of work, uh, nonprofit work kind of in, um, food assistance, um, globally overseas in Haiti and Rwanda, Tanzania. Um, and really that really kind of opened my eyes to public health. Um, and now working kind of in the food and security space here in Oklahoma. I just I had been really wanting to get my masters in public health just to make me even better at my job. Um, and in 2020 I thought, well, I'm not doing anything else.</p> <p>So, uh, other than working, so might as well go ahead and do that. And how did that change things for you in terms of your career trajectory and and the work that you do? Oh, I mean having a public health lens is is so helpful. It really helps to helps me have a better understanding of the root causes of food insecurity of um everything that really needs to be considered um when designing and building programs.</p> <p>Um, and just, you know, making sure that the the people that we're working to serve are are considered and are um a part of building that program and they have a voice. And um, you know, it it's it's certainly helped me to raise uh the impact of the work that at least I'm involved in here.</p> <p>because you started as a mobile pantry coordinator and then you know for 10 years you you've been with regional food bank of Oklahoma and you've moved up right every it looks like every two years one year here uh about a year there all the way up to where you are now as the director of community health programs and that's an important role and so it makes sense how you've had this blend of that um public health perspective that I think is really important what are the biggest challenges that you've seen through your 10 years in the community uh in Oklahoma you know I'm from the Northeast.</p> <p>I'm not as familiar with Oklahoma, so I'd love to hear more about it. Yeah, definitely. Um, yeah, it's been a really, really great experience. Um, I've had the opportunity to work directly with um, individuals and families that we serve every day. And, um, kind of also work directly with a range of different age groups um, and individuals with different sets of barriers.</p> <p>Um, but I would say probably one of the biggest hurdles that um, we have to constantly try and um, find resolutions to is Oklahoma is a very rural state. Um, and we as a food bank um, cover one of the largest um, service areas of food banks across the nation. We cover 53 counties of central and western Oklahoma.</p> <p>And so it's really important to us that we, um you know, trying to find partners that can start a food pantry or or be some kind of a program partner in um rural small towns that have very limited resources um can be really challenging. There's there's, you know, some incredible partners that we have. We couldn't do our work without them.</p> <p>and and some of them honestly amaze me at how resourceful they can be even in small towns that don't have a lot of resources whether it's financial whether it's um roads whether it's um volunteer resources I mean there's kind of a a wide range of of things that um it takes to run a food pantry in that in a rural town so I would say that's probably one of the biggest biggest hurdles We have so in the in the urban areas we deal with issues you know we deal with crime I think is a big one or just general safety of some of our our members they are afraid to you know use transit or go outside but overall there is a kind of a surplus of volunteer support a lot of times and then there of course is usually some infrastructure to help get people around in the rural areas what you're saying sometimes you're just saying there are even road issues with people getting getting to and Um um how how do you fix issues like transportation, like people being able to get the food in these rural areas?</p> <p>I mean, I can imagine if you can't afford a car or you're, you know, too elderly, we're not able to drive, that must be some a real barrier for some people. For sure. You know, that's a really good question and it's something we're constantly having to figure out because not every community is the same.</p> <p>Um, so some you may be able to identify um some public transit organizations that are able to you're able to partner with to help people especially who are um unable to access transportation um whether they can't drive or um you know they live very far away from a bus stop. Um and then there are some communities that don't have that. Uh so there's all kinds of different different ways to try and alleviate that.</p> <p>I know um even with our summer feeding program, we're looking at okay, how can we do doortodoor delivery? Um and then with our senior program, we work really closely with the local public transit embark to um provide food deliveries with them.</p> <p>And um we actually um are working really closely with the state on an incoming transportation project specifically for older adults uh to ex essentially support organizations that are providing that assistance um financially since that's you know also a big part of the issue um is having sustainable funding to do these things.</p> <p>Um, and this hopefully this project will enable more access to transportation for seniors who need to get to a food pantry or need food uh from a food pantry delivered to them, but also to other things um that are important like going to the doctor, going to a grocery store, um you know, going to a DHS office or anything like that.</p> <p>So it's what makes it challenging is is every community is different and you know f so you have to kind of find a solution for that specific community but that's also super important in general. How do you do that? And I think that that is really important, right? Because you you can't, you know, I'm assuming if you're in northern or eastern Ohio, it's a bit different on the completely other end of the or Oklahoma rather. It's different.</p> <p>And you're in Oklahoma City, of course, is where you're based out of, right? So, but you cover a lot more than just Oklahoma City. How do you figure out what works in the community? Do you go there in person? Do you have contacts? What does that look like? Yeah, we so we actually have um a team uh in our department called community connections managers and so they do a lot of grassroots work within communities. They're spread out by kind of their own service area.</p> <p>Um and so they really get to know our partners in those areas. They get to know the community resources that each of those partners um has. They do a lot of grassroots efforts to create um new especially food pantry partners in areas that don't have one. Um so they do a lot of that work and really get to know the community, the community's needs, kind of what the barriers are and what the gaps are.</p> <p>Um and so that's really where we start and then generally trying to work directly with the community to figure out okay what's the best solution. So, we're really lucky to have that team. Um, they do an incredible job and and really help us kind of hone in on that community and and not try and, you know, come in and solve all their problems, but come in and try and support. Yeah, that's so essential. I really appreciate that, too. Come in and support and not Right.</p> <p>Uh, it's like that uh trying to to fix things from within instead of steamrolling everyone. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely don't want to do that. And and we like to say once you go to one food pantry, you've been to one food pantry. You know, all very different. They all um are very much a part of their own community and have their own culture and um you know you it's we never want to go in and and say it's our way or the highway or or you know we think you should do this, right?</p> <p>No, absolutely. Uh what what are are some of the best wins or the the things that you've done in the role that you're really the most proud of? you know, so in my area, um I'm mostly in the health, nutrition, and um uh senior space. So, it's a good question. Honestly, probably um our healthcare partnership program is a really big win.</p> <p>Um it's something that we piloted for a few years and then officially launched a model in about 2016 2017 with one clinic and developed that model with the clinic and began to kind of expand. Um it it was a little bit challenging to expand the first few years to really get people to understand that food insecurity was a major issue and that it did affect um the patients of these clinics that we were talking to.</p> <p>Um and then you know COVID was horrible but the silver lining is it really highlighted uh the issue of food insecurity and health at the same time. Um and so interest really kind of skyrocketed and we went from four um healthcare partners in 2019 to now we have 57 across central and western Oklahoma. So that includes major hospitals, um clinics, includes critical access hospitals in rural areas, um federally qualified health centers, free clinics, um and e even um some mobile clinics.</p> <p>So, we're we're really proud of that and we um we work really closely with some great partners like the Oklahoma Hospital Association, Oklahoma Primary Care Association um and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. What's the first step you take when you get involved in one of these partnerships? Because that I mean that's an incredible rate of growth, of course, which is excellent. Yeah. But that seems challenging. It doesn't seem like it's the easiest thing to do.</p> <p>Yeah, it it it it's been a crazy few years for sure. Um I mean we've really learned a lot through the chaos and have um developed a really uh really kind of seamless onboarding process.</p> <p>So we just meet with the leadership um and hopefully the individuals or staff at the clinic who will be involved in the program and give an overview of the program, answer any questions um and then once you know they agree to be a partner, we u work with them to implement food insecurity screening into their uh EMR. And so that way they're screening for food insecurity, able to identify kind of what the need is.</p> <p>Um, and then from there we train their staff on um, food insecurity in Oklahoma on how it'll affect their patients on how to kind of have that conversation with their patients since it is a very delicate. So they start to kind of identify what the need is. we help them um understand how to have that conversation and and I think a lot of hesitancy that we saw previously was, you know, they hesitate to have that conversation if if a provider doesn't know how to help.</p> <p>And so a big thing that's important for us is we tell them exactly what resources are available, how to help, and then from there we actually implement a um food pantry within the clinic setting so that when a patient is identified as at risk of food insecurity, they um are provided with immediate access to healthy food assistance and then also are referred to a local um food pantry in their area.</p> <p>They're also um referred to SNAP application assistance and other federal program assistance um and just really trying to get them not only immediate access but sustainable access to these resources. And hopefully also um we encourage the providers to have a conversation about how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet.</p> <p>um you know because once you know if you're eating unhealthy and you're already food insecure um developing a diet related disease can really make it even more difficult to escape. So um so yeah we really encourage that and and then go from there. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Um that's really really important too. I agree with what you're saying, right? It's, you know, if doctors say, and we we've discussed this before too, one-on-one.</p> <p>If doctors have to say, you know, are you struggling with affording food or getting food and they say yes, and then the doctor says, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Moved on." Both people come away feeling really negative. The doctor feels really bad because he kind of, you know, he's been uh, you know, I spoke with um Houston Methodist about this. It was same exact kind of conversation. And they said, you know, the doctor goes through 12 years of education.</p> <p>They, you know, they come into the room and they can't help with something. it makes them feel really negative and so then of course the patient feels negative. So I like this a lot. One of the big questions though is how does the funding work? Does u and you don't have to go into details but is it a partnership with the hospital or with the system or is this provided for free? What does that look like? Uh so it just depends on the partnership.</p> <p>Some of our um healthcare partners do have their own foundation that they're able to fund the program to. Um but then a lot of our partners don't you know federally qualified health centers especially free clinics um crit critical access hospitals are already struggling uh and so we actually do a lot of our own um fundraising for this program and aim to always offer it at no cost to our partners. Wow.</p> <p>Um so that certainly is helpful in bringing in new partners since it doesn't um strain their budget. Uh, and you know, we're able to get some or work directly with some fantastic um local foundations like the Integress Foundation um to provide provide this program to especially a lot of their um their providers. So, we we have a lot of great partners that help us fund the program and then we do do our own fundraising to to offer it.</p> <p>That must be very fiscally conservative though or it must be a a kind of a tight environment, right? Because I know a lot of programs when you get funding from the federal government or when you have like a sustained amount of funding, it makes things a lot easier, but this is definitely more of a a cost constrained thing. H how have you gotten good at fiscal management? Is that a skill that you've had to learn in nonprofit? Definitely.</p> <p>Yeah, I'm I'm uh I'm juggling many many grants, both federal grants, state grants, foundation grants. Um so I'm just trying to bring in as many grants as I can to take some of the pressure off our organization um to financially fund this program. Um, and so, you know, definitely have had to get really good at that and build those skills sometimes through, you know, learning the hard way. Unfortunately, luckily I've had 10 years to learn the hard way here.</p> <p>But, um, but yeah, that that can be very challenging for sure. Yeah. Any advice for whether it's experienced leaders or even early careerists? you know, you think to yourself, uh, you know, back when you were just starting your M. PH, um, I guess you weren't really an early career. You already had quite a bit of experience at that point, but any advice on, you know, people look in the community and they say, "I really want to help, but I don't know how to get started.</p> <p>We don't know how to get these partnerships going." Any advice? Uh, yeah. I mean, obviously do some landscape research. Research what programs are already out there. you know, it's so much better to not reinvent the wheel if you can avoid that at any cost. Um, so doing everything you can to kind of figure out, okay, what models are out there, what models, um, have been working and then talking to the people who are managing those programs.</p> <p>Um, and really getting an idea on what barriers they have. you know, kind of going through the whole swap process of strength and weaknesses of your own organization and then looking at um you know, opportunities and threats and and what would work, but then also taking that and going to your prospective partners and asking them what would work. So, honestly, I think the best thing we could have done was we did a two-year pilot to start with to really kind of figure that out.</p> <p>And, you know, obviously it's a pilot, so it's chaos and a mess and you have no idea what you're doing at all. And then, um, and then from there, just building that model with your clinical partner. Um, so I would say do all that, but then also keep in mind you're gonna make mistakes. Um, but I think it's important to have a a perspective of, okay, we're learning and kind of knowing going into it that almost nothing will work out how you plan it to.</p> <p>Um, you know, things are so much different now than what I kind of had kind of pictured originally. Um, just different parts of the model that we use. So, um, but it's so important to just be as flexible as you can and learn from your partners. Yeah, really important advice. So, don't go in blind. Do as much research as you can. Try not to reinvent the wheel, but also realize you're going to make mistakes. It sounds like you've learned this from a lot of experience. Uhuh. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.</p> <p>And, you know, constantly trying to remind myself, especially when you're in the pilot process, um, that the most important thing to do is to learn. Oh, yeah. So, um, and just reminding, you know, your team or or your partners or people around you that not it's not going to go perfect. Um, bear with me, you know, as much as you can. I don't like it when things don't go perfect. Me neither. Me neither. Yeah, that's really tough. It's impressive work that you're doing, though.</p> <p>I really appreciate you spending this time today during um uh your lunch or or I think you're a little bit you're an hour behind us. I think you're in Eastern, right? So, yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I appreciate it. And, you know, we we'll be, you know, staying in touch, of course. We we really hope that we can, you know, bring you on again. As I mentioned, I was actually talking about similar things. How do we start implementing incl clinic food pantries and things like that? It's so important.</p> <p>Um, so I really appreciate you coming on. Yeah, thanks so much for having me and always happy to share anything we can do to to expand the as far as we can. That's the That's the whole idea.</p>
Want to reach healthcare executives and decision-makers? Join industry leaders like HealthMap Solutions on our podcast.
Become a GuestDiscover related content across the AJHCS ecosystem
Articles on the same topic in AJHCS
Abstract Healthcare contact centers are undergoing a structured transition as health systems move from legacy telephony to cloud-based, AI-enabled omnichannel platforms. These platforms increasingly function as centralized digital access hubs for scheduling, triage, navigation, and patient communica...
ArticleAbstract This article presents a comprehensive analysis of hazard-focused frameworks as a strategic imperative for modern public health administration2. As a systematic and proactive alternative to traditional reactive models, this approach enhances preparedness and response to a full spectrum of ev...