Food as Medicine

The Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market is a grocery store/food pantry hybrid model that serves as a self-sustaining model to address food insecurity. It is open to the public, and proceeds from traditional sales directly benefit the Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market voucher program, which provides patients who screen as food insecure during clinical visits with vouchers to shop for free food at the Fresh for You Market. Cash, debit/credit cards, SNAP and EBT are other accepted forms of payment.

The Fresh for You Market on Wheels is a mobile grocery store/food pantry that is parked at a different location in Indianapolis each weekday and provides accessibility for community residents. It offers a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen proteins and produce, milk, bread, pantry staples, and more.

To learn more about these offerings, please visit the Fresh for You Market page. 

Eskenazi Health SNAP outreach coordinators are available to provide free, confidential Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) application assistance. SNAP is a federal program that provides nutrition benefits to low-income individuals and families that are used at stores to purchase food.

Qualifying criteria for patients to receive SNAP benefits include being a U.S. citizen (non-citizens who are eligible based on their immigration status must also meet other SNAP eligibility requirements such as income and resource limits) or legal resident status of five years or legal asylum; or children who are first generation citizens; and household income at or below the 130% federal poverty line.

Individuals can meet with a SNAP outreach coordinator in-person or via telehealth to assist with the initial application through the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) portal and help guide individuals throughout the entire application process. Eskenazi Health patients are encouraged to ask their health care team for a referral or call an Eskenazi Health SNAP outreach coordinator at 317.880.3316 to learn more about program benefits, eligibility requirements, SNAP application assistance and additional food assistance resources.

Crooked Creek Food Pantry, Inc. operates a drive-thru food pantry at Eskenazi Health Center Pecar, located at 6940 N. Michigan Rd. The pantry is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. For more information, including eligibility requirements and current hours of operation, please visit the Crooked Creek Food Pantry website.

Eskenazi Health is committed to serving fresh, locally sourced food and is proud to partner with nearly 100 Indiana farms and suppliers. Nearly 70% of all food served through retail operations and patient feeding comes from local, Indiana farms and suppliers. This includes 100% of all major proteins including beef, pork, chicken and turkey; 100% of fluid milk; and 95% of all of all other dairy products.

The goal of local procurement is to try and keep the consumer price as low as possible while continuing to raise the quality of the food. The benefits of purchasing local are endless. Farm-to-table time is considerably less than purchasing produce from a large-scale retailer. Reducing the travel time of products also has a positive environmental impact, reducing the carbon footprint of the delivery. Purchasing local also helps provide countless local jobs, helps smaller Indiana businesses thrive and keeps tax dollars within the state of Indiana.

Eskenazi Health offers a variety of medically tailored frozen meals that are prepared and packaged on the downtown campus. Meals have been curated by a team of in-house chefs and nutritionally analyzed by a registered dietitian to ensure dishes provide proper nutrition to meet medical needs and maintain quality of life.

Since 1976, Eskenazi Health has partnered with Meals on Wheels to provide medically tailored meals to residents of the Indianapolis area. Eskenazi Health currently provides meals for seven weekday routes to the homebound and delivers to local adult day centers serving more than 170 clients, totaling about 1,700 meals each week.

Each week, Eskenazi Health provides between 8,000 to 10,000 medically tailored frozen meals to eligible Indiana residents living with HIV through Ryan’s Meals for Life. Funded by the Indiana Department of Health, the program is named after Kokomo, Indiana, resident Ryan White, who battled AIDS until his death in 1990.