The Poverello Center Inc

Increased Food Security for those experiencing critical or chronic illness.
Healthy food competency among the poor and vulnerable and increased levels of exercise for those at risk of chronic disease.
Improve access to the social determinants of health through supports.
Maximizing community volunteerism to provide for those who are most vulnerable and create a space for belonging.

Eat Well Center - is stocked with healthy food items curated by our onsite nutritionist to provide participants with many healthy choices. We also deploy our Pop Up Eat Well Center into areas of poverty and poor fresh foods access.

Live Well Center - provides a gym and wellness center featuring free programming like Reiki, Chiropractic, Massage, Haircuts and Acupuncture by our generous volunteer providers for any of our program participants.

Be Well Programming - Implementation and support of evidence informed strategies like Diabetes Prevention Programming, ARTAS and SBIRT.

With 31 part/full time employees and over 350 monthly volunteers, the Center is well suited to fulfill its mission.

Our Poverello Eat Well Center’s Medically Tailored Grocery Program (just under 3,000 participants)
The Medically Tailored Grocery Program (MTGP) at Poverello Eat Well Center is a program that provides medically tailored groceries to individuals with chronic illnesses. The program is designed to help individuals improve their health outcomes by providing them with the healthy foods they need to eat.
To be eligible for the MTGP, individuals must have a chronic illness and be referred by a healthcare provider. Once an individual is eligible, they will work either with a registered dietitian or a specially trained staff member to create a personalized grocery list. The dietitian will consider the individual's dietary needs, preferences, and budget.
The groceries are then delivered to the individual's home on a weekly or biweekly basis. MTGP has been shown to improve health outcomes for individuals with chronic illnesses. For example, a study of the MTGP in New York City found that participants had a lower risk of hospitalization and readmission to the hospital.
We offer a variety of medically tailored grocery plans to meet the dietary needs of our clients. Our plans are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, Eat Right Nutrition Care Manual and USDA My Plate. Plans can be combined to meet the needs of the individual and each program participant may choose their own groceries from among our 117 different groceries, frozen, refrigerated, and fresh items. See our nutritional standards for products here: https://poverello.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Food-Pantry-Nutritional-Analysis-Updated-September-2021.pdf
Through our Pop Up Eat Well Center, we pour available resources into areas of need located in UDSA FARA database “Low” healthy food access, high poverty and CDC defined “vulnerable” at a score of 90 or higher. We are collaborating with organizations already in our prioritized areas that allows us to serve their clients with their choice of healthy foods in a dignified and high-quality manner that can include delivery if the client wishes. Our services can include a true pop up that is attended by the community and works well with other collaborating organizations or arrangements to distribute from our collaborators offices in the prioritized areas. Collaborators have included various community organizations.
Being well involves one’s state of mind, coping, emotional and spiritual health. The Be Well program at Poverello includes Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), and facilitates access to the community’s available resources. Poverello’s series of classes and workshops are designed to help people improve their health and well-being. The classes are offered at the Poverello Center in Wilton Manors, Florida, and are open to the public.
The Be Well programming includes a variety of classes a

We have implemented 100% Customer choice in all food programming, all items offered in our food pantry are healthy based upon nutrient, fat, and salt contents.

We need to replace our aging fleet of vehicles to expand our Popup Eat Well Center that goes into areas of poverty to distribute healthy groceries.

Last year, we helped 1,811 people with HIV in Broward County and 135 people with HIV in Palm Beach County with an average of 7 weeks worth of groceries to achieve food security. In Miami-Dade we helped just under 70 people with HIV to achieve food security through partnerships with payors and community organizations that we partnered with to distribute our medically tailored groceries.