By Stacey Butterfield
Internists attending Internal Medicine Meeting 2021: Virtual Experience have many medical tidbits to learn, but Suja Mathew, MD, FACP, would like them to also take away at least a few facts about food insecurity in the U.S.
“It's far more prevalent than most of us can imagine, and than all of us should tolerate. At the same time, there are resources, both public and private, and strategies, homegrown strategies, that can be utilized to address nutrition insecurity across the country,” she said. Dr. Mathew, an ACP Regent, is one of two speakers during Thursday’s microsession, “The Growing Crisis in Food Insecurity.”
At 4:45 p.m., she and fellow Regent Molly Southworth, MD, MPH, MACP, will spend 15 minutes explaining food and nutrition insecurity, how these problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and most importantly, what internists can do about them, both medically and philanthropically.
Dr. Mathew’s involvement in the issue came out of her children’s philanthropy. “Both of them, when they were in junior high, began doing some volunteer work at a local food pantry,” she said. They eventually developed an app that helps those in need find local food assistance, including pantries and soup kitchens.
This project led them to become involved with the national nonprofit Hunger Free America (HFA), and Dr. Mathew, in turn, to become a founding member of that group’s physician arm.
“We call ourselves Doctors for a Hunger Free America,” she said. “We advise and support HFA in various activities and also try to increase the awareness of hunger and food insecurity and now, more broadly, nutrition insecurity in the medical community across the country.”
In support of that same goal, the philanthropic focus of Internal Medicine Meeting 2021 is on food insecurity. The College is encouraging donations to Doctors for a Hunger Free America, and the session by Drs. Mathew and Southworth will be followed by a moderated discussion on the topic in the ACP Membership booth in the conference’s ACP Resource Center. Nonattendees who want learn more can visit HFA's website.
“As far as I'm concerned, ACP is the voice of medicine and the conscience of medicine,” said Dr. Mathew. “As the voice of medicine, we can draw great attention to nutrition and food insecurity and the role that poor nutrition plays in causing and exacerbating disease. As the conscience of medicine, we can really draw attention to the inequity of hunger across our country and how impactful hunger is in worsening disparities.” ■