April Martinez (right)
With grocery prices rising 30 percent over five years and still climbing, putting healthy food on the family table is increasingly difficult. For busy parents like April Martinez of Dorchester, it takes creativity; shopping carefully, stretching ingredients, and scouting out less expensive food stores.
The challenge inspired Boston Medical Center to launch its Nourishing at Home: Food Boxes initiative in August 2025. Today, a box filled with fresh and prepared food, curated by Nubian Markets in Roxbury, arrives at families’ doorsteps. The program is made possible by a generous $1.5 million gift from the Wagner Foundation, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based foundation that supports health equity and economic well-being worldwide.
“Health equity and economic well-being are inseparable,” explains Caroline Easley, Executive Director at Wagner Foundation. “When a health system contracts with a locally owned market sourcing from regional farmers, a food box becomes more than nutrition. It becomes an investment in the neighborhood itself.”
The program is addressing food insecurity and health-related nutrition needs for young BMC pediatric patients and their families, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Martinez’s story is not uncommon; she works hard to keep food on the table for herself, her husband, and their kids ages 14, 8, and 2. Their youngest child is a patient in BMC’s Grow Clinic because of a condition characterized by inadequate weight gain. Through BMC’s new program, a customized food box arrives at Martinez’s door every other week. Another partner is DoorDash. Through its Project DASH initiative, BMC can have the boxes delivered at a discounted rate.
“The first box that I got, I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ It’s good, and it’s the perfect size for my family. There’s no waste and there’s plenty of stuff in the box that I can use,” Martinez says. “Throughout the week I don’t have to keep going back to the store — I have it all there.”
Strengthening the Local Economy
Customized food box from BMC’s Nourishing at Home: Food Boxes initiative
The meals and ingredients, tailored to each family’s dietary needs, come from Nubian Markets, a local Black-owned grocery and halal butcher shop that provides healthy, culturally diverse foods, employs local residents, and serves as a community social hub. The partnership grew out of BMC’s commitment as an anchor institution supporting local economies and a years-long relationship with Nubian Markets, including BMC’s initial investment to help get the market up and running in an area that otherwise had few healthy food options.
“I love that we’re able to address larger systemic problems while also addressing immediate patient needs,” says Olivia Thomas, MS, RDN, director of nutrition, innovation, and implementation for the program. “Often, you have to choose between the two, and we’ve created something that addresses both.”
Happy, Healthy Patients
The program has now served about 260 families with an average household size of four. In surveys, 91 percent of families reported satisfaction with the food box quality. Nearly all shared that the delivery aspect is essential — helping families overcome transportation and other challenges.
In early focus groups, participants described some of their kids’ “picky” preferences and allergies but also said the food boxes are leading them and their children to try new foods, such as overnight oats. All boxes contain an informational pamphlet with food preparation and storage tips.
Martinez says she finds the tips helpful — like how to make a plain chicken dinner more robust or “spruced up.” The boxes have also led her children to eat more healthy granola bars, yogurt, and fruit.
“I’m really happy with the food box,” says Martinez. “It has a bit of everything, even stuff that I didn’t use in my household or cook for my household, so they can try new things. Every time I open the box, I think, ‘This is the freshest produce I’ve ever seen.’ Honestly, I look forward to the box. It’s like a present for me.”
The program also connects patients to BMC’s Teaching Kitchen, which offers virtual and in-person cooking classes centered around the box ingredients, as well as individualized nutrition counseling with BMC’s pediatric dietitians.
Pathway to Health
MassHealth’s launch of a program that offers insurance reimbursement to providers of medically tailored or nutritionally appropriate home-delivered meals was a major enabler of this initiative.
“For the first time, there was a pathway that allowed us to bill for some of the food assistance work that was happening,” Thomas says. “We thought this was a great opportunity to address BMC’s bigger goal of community investment.”
The Nourishing at Home Food Boxes adds to BMC’s broader Nourishing Our Community effort, which includes the Preventive Food Pantry — launched in 2001 as the first hospital-based therapeutic food pantry in the nation that has served more than 1 million people — as well as BMC’s two rooftop farms and Teaching Kitchen. For families like Martinez, it’s making a meaningful difference.
“I love the program.” Martinez says. “I love where it comes from and everything that comes in the box.”
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