The Poverello Center Inc
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Some chronic disease in our area is preventable through lifestyle changes like healthy eating and moderate exercise. Other components of health are more structural like social determinants. Some disease is caused by simply not knowing how healthy eating and food preparation can assist our bodies to function at their optimal level. Other diseases are aided by healthy eating, structural changes, education, and food selection. Living more healthy days is achievable by maximizing our ability to eat, live and be well.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Poverello Eat Well Center
The Poverello Eat Well Center is a healthy foods, 100% participant choice food pantry that serves people with critical or chronic illnesses throughout South Florida. The Eat Well Center features 76 different varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and nuts each year. There are 115 different grocery, refrigerated, frozen and shelf stable items from which to choose each curated by our staff licensed nutritionist.
Poverello Live Well Center
The Poverello Live Well Center offers all program participants of the Poverello Center, free wellness services (Chiropractic, Reiki, Acupuncture, massage), full gym and hair care. Showers are available and clothing, household items for those in need are also available.
Poverello Be Well Program
The Poverello Center, Inc.'s Be Well Program recognizes that people sometimes need help fully maximizing their health. Through cooking classes, nutritional counseling (one on one or group), tastings, Diabetes Prevention Program, educational programs, linkage to care programs, and substance use and mental health screenings, the staff and volunteers assist program participants to learn to maximize health.
Fuel Packs for Kids and people without permanent Housing
The Poverello Center Inc. strives to help youth in poverty have enough to eat at times when school lunches aren't available. The hope is that food insecurity is lessened when kids have access to their own fresh fruits, vegetables and easy to prepare foods on the weekend. These "Fuel Packs" are curated by our nutritionist to meet the caloric needs of the ages of children served and are provided on Fridays to needy kids. We also support LGBT Youth in Miami who don't get enough to eat during the week and people without permanent housing to get enough to eat.
Where we work
Awards
Harkin on Wellness Designation 2022
Harkin Institute
Trailblazer Award 2021
Clear Health Alliance
Affiliations & memberships
Harkin on Wellness Designation 2022
Food Is Medicine Coalition 2022
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of health outcomes improved
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Men and boys, LGBTQ people, Adults, Ethnic and racial groups
Related Program
Poverello Eat Well Center
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We aspire to reach those who are not virally suppressed but have HIV with high quality healthcare, add people to prevention services to reduce HIV transmission and erase food insecurity among the ill.
Number of HIV-positive people who achieve or maintain an undetectable viral load
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Men and boys, LGBTQ people
Related Program
Poverello Eat Well Center
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Viral load refers to the amount of HIV virus found (counted) in about a teaspoonfull of blood. The lower the viral count, the harder it is to contract HIV from the person living with HIV.
Number of clients living with HIV receiving assistance to access healthcare benefits
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Men and boys, LGBTQ people
Related Program
Poverello Be Well Program
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Percent of client population with HIV who are in Primary Care (at least one visit in the past year).
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
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.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
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.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
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
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
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.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
The Poverello Center Inc
Board of directorsas of 08/15/2023
Ms. Jodi Reichman
Community Organizer
Term: 2015 - 2023
Mitch Bloom
Wells Fargo
Term: 2016 - 2023
Mitch Bloom
Wells Fargo
Clark Wycoff
KPMG
Julie Carson
Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC
Dr. Precious Skinner-Osei
FAU
Raul G Cantu
Chen Medical Senior Center
Jose Camino
Simply Healthcare/Clear Health Alliance
Justin Azpiazu
RockOrange
Candy Sicle
AvMed
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 05/06/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.