Feeding Families: How Charities in the Hudson Valley Help Food-Insecure Cancer Patients

Food insecurity is a real problem in the Hudson Valley, and adding a cancer diagnosis only makes it worse. Local charities are working to combat it.

For many families dealing with a cancer diagnosis, access to fresh produce becomes limited due to financial strains. Photo by Scott Warman on Unsplash

There are few things harder for a family than a cancer diagnosis. While the emotional and physical strain on a family takes its toll, the financial burden of cancer treatment makes it even harder. As cancer treatment costs continue to rise, patients can find themselves in a state of food insecurity, which many people in the Hudson Valley face. 

A recent study published by The National Cancer Institute estimates that, in 2024, over 2 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed. The Mesothelioma Center estimates that the average cost of treating cancer is $150,000, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that cancer patients are 71% more likely to experience a severe adverse financial event than healthy people. It is not uncommon for cancer patients to fall into food insecurity due to these financial strains.

According to Feeding America’s Food Insecurity Map, the food insecurity rate in the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York is 11.4%. The number of food-insecure people in this area is estimated to be over 331,000. In Poughkeepsie, New York, an estimated one in four households are considered food insecure — roughly 26.8% of the city’s population.

Dutchess Outreach is a Poughkeepsie charity that features a variety of programs to help food-insecure people in the city. Its community meal program serves about 600 meals a day, and their self-choice food pantry sees about 1,800 visits a month, according to Executive Director Renee Fillette.

The amount of food-insecure people in Dutchess County is rising. “We know that, between 2021 and 2023, food insecurity in New York State increased by 85%, so it almost doubled. Before the pandemic, we would get 200 to 250 visits to the pantry a month, and now we have almost 2,000,” said Fillette. 

Dutchess Outreach also has a medically-focused food “Farmacy,” which utilizes food to help those with medical problems. Currently, it focuses on patients with high blood pressure.

“All of the food we purchase for that program is guided by two registered dietary nutritionists, and they're meeting with the patients when they come in,” Fillette said.

Much of the food used in the Farmacy is locally sourced; Dutchess Outreach rescues 100,000 pounds of food a year from local grocery stores. While the Farmacy currently only caters to those with hypertension, Fillette is looking to treat patients who are getting chemotherapy. 

“We're just starting ‘Food as Medicine,’ which is all sorts of screening and meal programs for people with all kinds of medical situations and food insecurity. We don't have the data yet, and that's why we started the food pharmacy to start with one diagnosis, which is uncontrolled hypertension, but, eventually, we'll move on to people getting chemotherapy too,” she said. 

Dutchess Outreach is not the only organization working on feeding food-insecure people with medical complications. The nonprofit Sparrow’s Nest was built on the same principle. 

Krista Jones, executive director and founder of Sparrow’s Nest, started the organization after a friend of hers lost her battle with colon cancer. Jones would help prepare home-cooked meals for her friend, and, after she passed, Jones realized others who are sick could also use that help.

“Sparrow's Nest was created in order to give people some peace, to offer them some financial relief and some mental relief, meals that they don't have to make, meals that they don't have to purchase and they don't have to plan for. With food, it's comfort, and we're trying to give them comfort during a time when nothing is normal,” she said. 

A study published in November 2023 by the European Medical Journal found that up to 55% of cancer patients experience food insecurity. There is a greater than 50/50 chance that a cancer patient has experienced some form of food insecurity while undergoing treatment.

Jones acknowledged that the cost of cancer treatment directly correlates to a family’s food insecurity level. “You are changing somebody's financial status, which is now putting them in this spiral…things like food are now the things that they're cutting back on, because you have to have a roof, and you have to have heat and you have to have electricity.”

The financial burden impacts not only the amount of food a family can buy, but the quality of the food itself as well. According to the EMJ study, cancer-related malnutrition is present in 75% of cancer patients and accounts for around 20% of cancer-related deaths.

“Our goal here is to make sure it's fresh and it's local. If you are not getting the nutrition that you need, you're not able to get your cancer treatments, you're not able to take chemo that week. If we can't fuel your body with good foods, you're not able to go through the treatment the way you need to, and it prolongs treatment in some cases up to 25%,” Jones said. 

Sparrow’s Nest is currently feeding 425 people, which is around 105 families. It specifically focuses on households with children under 18, sending food to five different counties in the Hudson Valley. 

Because of the growing need for food, and the rising costs of cancer treatment, Jones said that Sparrow’s Nest is looking to remove the ‘children under 18’ requirement for receiving food from the organization.

“Next year, we're going to start with Dutchess County residents with any diagnosis, so you don't have to have children living in the home, which means it opens it up to senior citizens. It opens it up to people that have never had children. We feel that this 425 number will easily be at 550 by the end of next year,” Jones said. 

As cancer costs rise, Jones stressed that it is important to be aware of the systemic problems with our food in the U.S. Food insecurity is not just a problem for those with a cancer diagnosis, but rather, it is a problem for all. 

“We have to make our food sources more cost-effective for anyone and everyone. That would probably eliminate a lot of the sickness that we see, especially here in the United States,” she said.