Harris Health adds food lockers to help diabetes patients access healthy meals

Harris Health is trying to solve a practical problem that can derail diabetes care: patients cannot always pick up healthy food when clinics are open. At Quentin Mease Health Center, 3601 North MacGregor Way in Houston, the system added refrigerated food lockers that give Food Rx patients 24-hour access to meals tied to their care plan.

The lockers were designed for people juggling work shifts, medical appointments, transportation limits and family obligations. Harris Health says the units keep food cold until pickup and offer language support, making the handoff easier for patients who need food that fits a diabetes treatment plan but cannot always get to a health center on a weekday schedule.

For Della Harris, a 63-year-old stroke survivor who learned she had unmanaged diabetes while recovering, the Food Rx program became part of her care after she started at Casa de Amigos Health Center in February. Harris said the program taught her how food choices affect her condition. “It’s about getting fresh and nutritious food when I can, and that’s a huge plus for me,” she said.

Harris Health’s Food Rx program gives participating patients up to 30 pounds of free fruits, vegetables and proteins every two weeks, along with a nine-month intervention that includes 18 visits, one-on-one nutrition education, cooking lessons, portion-control lessons and follow-up care. The system said the program is aimed at patients with food insecurity and chronic disease, especially uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.

The new lockers were funded by a $500,000 sponsorship grant from Cigna Healthcare and built through a collaboration with the Houston Food Bank. Harris Health said Food Rx has enrolled nearly 6,000 patients since it launched its first Food Farmacy at Harris Health Strawberry Health Center in 2019. The program has generated about 65,000 patient visits and distributed more than 2.1 million pounds of food.

Harris Health now operates seven Food Farmacies and three community redemption sites. The system said the model is part of a broader effort with the Houston Food Bank, The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health and H-E-B grocers to connect medical care with nutrition support. That matters in northeast Harris County, where Harris Health says an estimated 55% of residents in the LBJ Hospital service area live at or below the federal poverty level and more than 13,000 people face hunger every day.

The lockers at Quentin Mease are a small physical change, but for patients who miss meals because they miss pickup times, they turn food access into something closer to reliable health care.