A broad and growing movement in US medicine shifts the focus away from simply treating disease toward caring for the whole person. Across the country, hospitals are setting up food banks and medical schools are putting cooking classes on the curriculum. Nonprofits are connecting medical centers with community resources to ensure that low-income Americans have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. In 2002, Boston Medical Center set up an on-site food pantry, which has since evolved into a kind of nutrition center where primary care providers send patients for food. Today the pantry hosts free cooking classes and serves about 7,000 people a month. The Greater Boston Food Bank has also launched its own initiatives, striking partnerships with four community health centers across the state to offer free mobile produce markets that have served more than 800 households. The organization also helped develop tool kits that map local pantries, markets that accept government food vouchers, and other resources.
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