Welcome to the Preventive Food Pantry at Boston Medical Center!
Created in 2001, the Food Pantry works to address nutrition-related illness and undernutrition for our low-income patients. It fills the therapeutic gap by linking clinicians to patients. Patients who screen positive for food insecurity are referred to the Food Pantry by BMC clinicians who write “prescriptions” for supplemental foods that best promote physical health, prevent future illness, and facilitate recovery. The pantry is often used by patients with cancer, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other chronic conditions.
1,000,000 lbs.
of food distributed annually
First
hospital-based therapeutic food pantry in the country
1.5 million+
people served since 2001
About the Program
Families can visit the Food Pantry every two weeks (maximum twice per month) and receive three to four days’ worth of food for their household each time. A key feature is the provision of perishable goods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables and meats all year round—items that are often costly and therefore often lacking in a low-income family’s diet.
In FY 2025, the Preventive Food Pantry provided food to 87,256 patients and their household members (an average of 7,271 monthly).
The Food Pantry is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is managed by four staff members and many food pantry volunteers. The Pantry Manager is a registered Dietetic Technician, qualified to determine what foods correspond to a patient’s dietary needs, as prescribed by a BMC clinician. Pantry staff members are fluent in four languages and have been essential in assisting BMC’s non-English speaking patients.
Patients must be screened and referred to the Food Pantry by their clinicians. Please see below for instructions for placing referrals using Epic.
Location and Contact
The Preventive Food Pantry
Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Fax: 617.414.3940
Refer a Patient to the Food Pantry
Please use Epic to refer patients to the Preventive Food Pantry:
- Click “Communications.”
- Click “Letters.”
- Search for “Food Bank.”
- Answer the two questions that appear.
- Open the Referral Form.
- Print and provide to the patient.
The letter will say “Boston Medical Center, Nutrition Resource Center, Referral Form” at the top.
Please give your patient this referral form to take with them to the Food Pantry.
Stay Connected
With the Nourishing Our Community email newsletter, you can stay up-to-date on Preventive Food Pantry news, Rooftop Farm updates, Teaching Kitchen class offerings, upcoming events, and what’s happening within the Food as Medicine community at BMC to help you eat well, learn, and feel your best.