How LVHN and Its Community Partners Improve Access to Healthy Food

At Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), we believe health happens in the communities we serve. With a reach that spans more than 5,000 square miles and includes more than 2 million residents, LVHN’s commitment to health stretches across seven counties. Viewing health through the lens of the Vital Conditions framework, which names the things we all need to thrive, LVHN recognizes that access to nutritious food, safe environments and preventive care is foundational to good health. That’s why one of the core pillars of our community health strategy focuses on Basic Needs for Health and Safety – a vital condition that serves as the entry point to well-being for individuals and families across our region.

The ways we support healthy food access vary across our region, but one thing is constant – our commitment to make sure residents have access to healthy foods. Whether it’s ensuring children receive healthy meals over the summer, supporting fresh food access at local markets or partnering with innovative organizations that meet families where they are, LVHN is committed to working alongside our neighbors to strengthen the building blocks of health.

In this edition of our blog series, we’re highlighting four local examples of how our partnerships and programs exercise this commitment to life across the region.

Through its long-standing partnership with the Kellyn Foundation, LVHN is bringing nutritious food and preventive health services directly to neighborhoods where they’re needed most. The Kellyn Foundation emphasizes a “Healthy Lifestyle – Healthy Communities” approach that combines food access with hands-on education. Through school-based healthy lifestyle programs, medically backed lifestyle mentoring for individuals and families and kitchen demonstrations, residents are empowered to make choices that nourish both body and mind.

Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital has proudly supported Kellyn Foundation’s school-based healthy lifestyle education programs, which provide grade-specific education about healthy eating and lifestyle choices to elementary school students, since the 2016-17 school year. The Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital partnership has grown to sponsor in-school education in 40 elementary schools in the 2024-25 academic year across the Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Whitehall, Salisbury and Nazareth school districts.

Students learn to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods, interpret nutrition labels and make informed decisions when dining out. Complementing these efforts, the “Garden as a Classroom” program offers direct experience in growing and harvesting produce, reinforcing the connection between nutrition and food sources. By also engaging teachers and families, the initiative empowers students to become healthy lifestyle champions who influence positive change within their homes and neighborhoods.

At the heart of the LVHN collaboration is Kellyn’s Neighborhood Immersion Strategy, which layers multiple healthy lifestyle initiatives within one place or neighborhood. To make this happen, Kellyn’s Eat Real Food Mobile Market, offering locally grown produce and healthy prepared meals at affordable prices, travels to locations across the Lehigh Valley.

In 2024, the Leonard Parker Pool Institute for Health (LPPIH) expanded this collaboration by coordinating the deployment of the Eat Real Food Mobile Market in the Franklin Park Neighborhood of Allentown. Part of LPPIH’s neighborhood development and health improvement strategy, this placement builds on years of iterative collaborations with Kellyn and LVHN to provide mobile market food vouchers for patients and residents facing food insecurity. These vouchers can be used on top of public benefits such as SNAP and the Farmers Market Nutrition Program benefits, allowing residents to get more fresh fruits and vegetables at a lower cost.

The Eat Real Food Mobile Market is in Franklin Park twice a week, year-round, creating the consistency that deepens relationships with residents. In the first year, the mobile market provided over $150,000 worth of food vouchers to more than 1,450 households, 75 percent of which were Hispanic, and 86 percent screened positive for food insecurity. The mobile markets are close to Kellyn-supported school programs and gardens at Hays, Ramos and Central Elementary – all within Franklin Park. This tactic emphasizes “place” and the powerful impact of layering collective efforts.

Another bold investment in healthy food access and long-term health is LVHN’s role in sponsoring and supporting several Blue Zones initiatives across the Lehigh Valley.

Inspired by regions around the world where people live the longest and healthiest lives, Blue Zones takes a community-wide approach to creating environments that naturally promote well-being. Blue Zones Project-Allentown invites schools, worksites, grocery stores, restaurants and faith-based organizations to adopt evidence-based changes that make the healthy choice the easy choice. These changes include everything from adding plant-based options in cafeterias, to encouraging walking clubs and community gardening, to redesigning public spaces to promote safety and connection. 

With LVHN’s support, the project kicked off in Allentown in spring 2025 with a goal of sustainable lifestyle improvement throughout the region over the next five years. Additionally, LVHN has invested in Blue Zones Activates, three-year, policy-focused initiatives in Bethlehem and Easton, allowing for regional collaboration in the food systems sector across the entire Lehigh Valley.

Now in its seventh year, LVHN’s Summer Meals Program addresses food insecurity by providing free, healthy lunches to children and families throughout the summer months when school lunches are not available. What began as a small initiative has grown significantly, with the program evolving along with the families it serves.

The program is available to any family in Allentown who might benefit. There are locations throughout Allentown, and LVHN has sponsored a site over the last seven years at the School of Nursing Building at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–17th Street. Two years ago, the program introduced grab-and-go meals, allowing families to pick up food and take it off-site. This change proved more convenient and increased participation. Since then, the program has expanded its impact year after year.

To date, the Summer Meals Program has served thousands of children across the Lehigh Valley, with averages reaching as high as 100 meals distributed per day. In 2023, LVHN expanded the program to LVH–Dickson City, increasing its regional footprint and supporting even more families with nutritious, ready-to-eat meals. The program served 75 students a day this summer in Dickson City.

By prioritizing access, dignity and nutrition, LVHN’s Summer Meals Program remains a vital part of LVHN’s commitment to ensuring every child’s basic needs for health and safety are met – even when school is out.

In the Pocono region, a long-standing partnership with the Monroe Farmers Market and the Pocono Mountains United Way helps support healthy food access.

Since 2017, LVH–Pocono has supported Double Up Food Bucks, an opportunity for SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps) participants to double their dollars spent (up to $20 per day) at the Monroe Farmers Market. The program allows low-income families on a limited budget to receive high-quality nutritious foods and incentivizes and supports local farmers in increasing access and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables.

With only 9.3 percent of U.S. adults meeting the recommended daily vegetable intake, and just 12.2 percent meeting the fruit intake recommendation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, efforts to increase access to healthy food remain critical. The Double Up Food Bucks Program offers three benefits: SNAP participants have access to nutritious food, local farmers gain new customers and more dollars stay within the local economy. Approximately 250 residents participate in Double Up Food Bucks each year, providing critical support to the health and well-being of residents in Monroe County.

Through collaborative efforts like these, LVHN continues to advance its commitment to providing access to the basic needs – like nutritious food and safe environments – that form the foundation for lasting well-being across our region.