Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an intervention to provide food support to families who are part of government or self-pay insurances will provide benefits. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Determine the effect of implementing an in-hospital food support intervention for low-income parents on reutilization and family-centered outcomes.
• Among families with baseline food insecurity, determine the effectiveness of a post-discharge food support intervention and as-needed social work referral on reutilization and family-centered outcomes.

Researchers will compare the in-hospital food support intervention and will be rolled out to sequential hospital units. In addition, the post-discharge food support intervention will be compared to standard discharge.

Some participants will:

• Receive in-hospital meal cards or standard care during hospitalization
• Receive post-discharge food support intervention or standard discharge
• Complete a 14-day post discharge follow-up survey

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• All families of patients less than 21 years of age with Medicaid insurance or uninsured will be eligible

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients admitted for end-of-life care, patients who will be discharged to a location other than home, patients who live independently, and patients in county custody.