Drawn from the Well
Inspired stories and testimonials about our ministry
Boxes For Better Health
This article was contributed by Emily Sharif, who did her final Masters Degree practicum in cooperation with The Well Outreach. The research she did has provided us with an opportunity to further study how we might better attend to dietary needs with the food we provide our guests.
An introduction…
My name is Emily Sharif, and I had the opportunity to complete my Master of Public Health practicum project with The Well Outreach, where I explored how the pantry’s existing food resources could be used in an even more targeted way to support guests managing chronic diseases or specific dietary needs.
The idea was simple: if the right foods are already available in the pantry, why not make it easier for guests to identify and receive items that better fit their health needs?
Connecting with The Well Outreach
When I proposed the idea of creating chronic disease-specific nutrition box guides, The Well Outreach was immediately open to it. Their team shared the belief that food assistance can go beyond providing enough food, it can also help guests make choices that support their health. The Well already works hard to serve families with compassion, flexibility, and dignity, so this initiative was a natural extension of the support they provide every day.
Using feedback from The Well’s pantry guests, I reviewed common health-related dietary needs and developed three primary nutrition box guides:
Diabetes - Blood Sugar Friendly
Low Sodium - Heart Healthy
Dairy Free
Each guide focuses on foods that may already be available through the pantry, making the initiative practical and realistic rather than requiring an entirely new inventory system.
The need for this type of support is significant. According to the CDC, more than 40 million Americans are living with diabetes. In Tennessee alone, approximately 817,000 adults, or 12.7% of the adult population, have diagnosed diabetes, with an estimated 56,000 adults diagnosed each year.
Heart health is another major concern. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, heart disease is the number one cause of death in Tennessee, accounting for about 25% of all deaths, and the state has one of the highest heart attack rates in the country.
These statistics really helped reinforce the importance of the diabetes-friendly and heart-healthy box guides. The goal is not to prescribe a perfect diet or replace medical nutrition guidance. Instead, these guides can give staff and volunteers another tool to help guests who may already be trying to manage diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or to simply stick to a dairy-free diet. By organizing existing foods with these needs in mind, guests may have an easier time selecting items that fit the recommendations they have received from their healthcare providers.
What I appreciated most about developing this project with The Well Outreach was the organization’s willingness to consider new ways of serving its community. From the beginning, the focus was on one question: How can we make the resources we already have work even better for the people who need them?
Food insecurity and chronic disease are often closely connected, and access to appropriate foods can make managing a health condition much more difficult. Initiatives like these nutrition box guides show how food pantries can continue to evolve—not only helping families put food on the table, but also supporting their ability to make healthier choices with the resources available to them.
I am grateful to The Well Outreach for giving me the opportunity to develop this initiative and for being so receptive to an idea centered on the health and individual needs of pantry guests. It has been rewarding to see how a relatively simple concept can build on the incredible work The Well is already doing throughout the community.
