Medically tailored meals improve patient recovery at NYU Langone Health

Recognizing the importance of nutrition in a patient's recovery, NYU Langone Health has integrated meal delivery into patients' discharge planning at its Manhattan and Brooklyn campuses through a self-funded partnership with God's Love We Deliver, providing customizable meal deliveries based on a patient's dietary needs and preferences to those in need at home after they leave the hospital.

Bridging hospital care and home recovery through nutrition is the driving mantra behind the partnership between NYU Langone Health and God's Love We Deliver, the only medically tailored meal provider in the New York metropolitan area.

For Nancy Bourges, a Coney Island resident caring for her daughter following a transplant at NYU Langone, the meal delivery service came as an unexpected blessing.

"She gets happy when they come," Bourges said. "She takes out each item and organizes them. When we don't have certain things at the house, she uses the bread they bring, puts it in the toaster, and makes peanut butter and jelly."

The partnership, launched in February 2024, strengthens how patients transition from hospital to home. Instead of being handed a list of community resources and hoping for the best, eligible patients connect with God's Love We Deliver before even leaving the hospital.

Kwan Hong Kim, a social worker at NYU Langone, understands the real-world challenges awaiting patients after discharge, such as managing medications and securing basic nutrition—factors that can make the difference between recovery and readmission.

Being in a hospital is not exactly the most stress-free setting. Some families are very anxious. They have a loved one in the hospital. They're dealing with all these other things going on. Coordinating a meal plan is an added component of patient care involving multiple moving parts that social work is responsible for."

Kwan Hong Kim, social worker at NYU Langone

"What I like about how the program is set up is that the providers from God's Love have access to relevant information about the participating patient's medical conditions and nutritional needs," Kim added. This seamless integration ensures patients receive nutritional support precisely tailored to their medical conditions.

For Allyson Schiff, director of business development at God's Love We Deliver, this represents a shift in healthcare delivery. "We are constantly demonstrating how medically tailored meals are part of a healthcare delivery system in a world that tends to think of healthcare as doctors' offices, prescriptions, and surgeries," Schiff explained. "We build flavor from things like garlic and ginger and carrots and onions. All our meals are low sodium and heart healthy. That's the foundation of a medically tailored meal."

Building trust through consistent care

The reliability and compassion of the delivery service have made a significant impact on families like Bourges's. "The delivery people are very polite with my daughter, very friendly," she said. "It's usually the same guy, and he knows her already. He's so nice and patient with her because she talks to him. I'll say, 'She's got to let you go,' and he'll say, 'No, no, it's all right.'"

This approach reflects mounting evidence that factors outside hospital walls — what healthcare professionals call "health-related social needs"—account for over 80 percent of overall health outcomes. Additionally, research has shown that medically tailored meals can reduce the rate of hospital readmission by up to 13 percent.

"Our goal is to facilitate the transition from the hospital back into their community or home," said Jasmine Bar, MPH, administrative fellow of hospital operations, NYU Langone. "The program and its infrastructure give us insight into the challenges and opportunities that exist for patients and families to get connected to social care resources."

The partnership's structure reveals patterns in how patients engage with support services. "When we rolled it out, the idea was if we offer people free meals, the majority of them would take the resource because it's free. But what we're seeing is there are multiple phases at which they might drop off," Bar said. "For patients who don't enroll in the program or don't want to accept the meals, we have a structure in place for social workers to document why, which can then inform additional interventions."

Bourges initially was hesitant about the service when it was first offered. "I felt that maybe, being that my daughter is a picky eater, I don't want to waste food," she said. "I don't want to take away from somebody that could use it, or it could help them. But when they did deliver it, there was stuff that she did like, and oh my God, she was so happy."

By documenting these experiences, the team can better tailor both their outreach and the meals themselves to meet patient needs.

This attention to patient experience comes naturally to Kim, whose path to social work emerged through personal experience as a caregiver for a parent. "The social workers made me feel like a human being and not just an MRN," Kim said, referring to patients' medical record numbers. That experience now shapes Kim's dedicated approach to patient care, building trusted bonds with patients and families that open the doors for valuable client feedback.

"Some of our patients are used to being the primary cook in their household, so having someone else prepare the meals is a huge logistical and financial weight off of them," Kim said.

While early data shows promise, the team maintains rigorous standards. "Our standards for data evaluation are really high," said Bar. "There are many confounding factors as to why someone might be readmitted to a hospital shortly after they've been discharged. However, we can see the value the program is currently bringing to people's discharge experience and the learnings we will be able to integrate for better care."

For many patients, the transition home is the most difficult part of their recovery. Through a careful approach to both patient care and program evaluation, hospitals can reshape what comprehensive healthcare looks like.