Healthcare doesn’t start in the exam room; it starts at the dinner table

By Ellen Duffield

Across Pennsylvania — and across the country — food insecurity remains one of the most urgent public health challenges of our time. Rising costs have deepened the strain.

In 2023, nearly 48 million Americans lived in food-insecure households. Here in Pennsylvania, nearly one in eight residents struggled to reliably afford nutritious food. Behind each statistic is a family navigating impossible choices: groceries or gas, produce or child care.

Healthcare often begins far too late — in an exam room, after something has already gone wrong. Increasingly, we’re learning that what happens long before a clinical test matters much more. What we eat, where we live, and how we connect with others shape our health in ways the medical system alone cannot fix. That understanding ha