Is a Diabetes Program Right for Us?

Although many food banks are well-positioned to provide diabetes programs, such programs are not a fit for every organization. Completing a readiness assessment can help you determine whether a diabetes program makes sense for your organization and community. If the assessment shows your organization is not ready, it may help you to avoid investing time and resources in a program that is not well-positioned for success. If you do decide to implement a diabetes program, the readiness assessment may also help you to identify specific needs and tailor the program to better address local challenges. Additionally, it helps gauge the availability of resources and support, facilitating a smoother and more effective program launch.

The questions in the table below are designed to help your organization determine whether you have conditions in place that may be required to successfully implement diabetes programs. These questions may be addressable through information sources like the following:

Publicly available data sources, such as US Census data and local public health data
Discussions with leadership or staff at your food bank
Discussions with other community experts with knowledge related to diabetes or the community context more generally (e.g., community health workers, healthcare providers, nonprofit leaders or staff, public health practitioners)
A walk-through of the food bank location to assess available facilities, equipment, and other resources
An internet search of existing resources in the area (e.g., transportation options, other available programs)

Based on answers to these questions, you might consider rating your organization’s readiness in each area (e.g., from “Not at all ready” to “Very ready”) and then consider all those ratings to determine whether your food bank is prepared to adopt new services. Click here to download a fillable/printable version to rate your organization’s readiness.

Readiness Assessment for Adopting Diabetes Programming

Factor	Key Questions
Internal Factors
Facilities, equipment, and infrastructure	Does your organization have the space, equipment, and other resources needed to administer a diabetes program? Resources for education/support programs may include dedicated class space, tables/chairs, laptops, projectors, and printing equipment Resources for food-based programs may include refrigeration, storage, and distribution space
Funding	What would it cost to administer a diabetes program (consider factors such as staffing, equipment, food purchases, and other resources)? Does your organization have that funding available or mechanisms to attract that funding? Can funding be sustained into the future?
Human resources	Do you currently have staff with the skills and knowledge needed for a diabetes program (e.g., diabetes knowledge, nutrition expertise, understanding of the local community) or the ability to hire such staff? Do current staff have the capacity to work on a new program? Is there a highly engaged champion who is interested and available to take the lead on this new program? Do you have volunteers available to assist in implementation? Do you have staff who are able to serve participants with different language and cultural needs?
Leadership buy-in/support	Do you have leadership interest or buy-in for implementing diabetes services? Do you have a pathway toward building buy-in?
Evaluation	Does your organization have evaluation processes already in place? Do you have evaluation tools available to use? Does your organization have staff with evaluation expertise or access to people with such expertise?
Cultural appropriateness	Does your organization have a good understanding of the priority population you’re trying to reach, or do you have ways to gain that understanding? Do you have resources available for participants who have different needs in areas like language and culture or an ability to develop such resources? Are you able to reach individuals who are particularly impacted by diabetes (e.g., American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, and/or Hispanic or Latino communities)? How can you tailor your program approach to ensure cultural appropriateness for the audiences reached (e.g., providing and/or educating participants about foods that are culturally relevant)?
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Community need	How many people in the community have diabetes? Are there enough people to justify starting a diabetes program? Are there diabetes services already available in the community or are there unmet needs? Do you have methods available to understand the needs of your priority population and to ensure that your program approach aligns with those needs, including those of communities disproportionately affected?
Partnerships	What existing partnerships do you have to facilitate implementation of a diabetes program (e.g., healthcare providers for referrals)? Are there other opportunities for partnerships in the community? What types of foods are you currently providing through your food bank, and do these foods fit a diabetes-appropriate diet? Do you have relationships with partners (e.g., food retailers) that could provide those foods? Do you have partners that can help you to reach priority audiences?
Community buy-in/support	Do you have trust and buy-in from community members with diabetes who might participate in programming?
Ability of people to participate/accessibility	Is there public transportation or other transportation options for people to travel to the location where services will be provided? Are you able to provide programming at times that accommodate the schedules of potential participants? Does your organization provide an inclusive environment for people with disabilities (e.g., resources for people who are deaf or hard of hearing or who are blind or have low vision)? Are your facilities accessible for individuals with physical disabilities (e.g., are there accessible entryways and bathrooms for people who use a wheelchair or mobility device)?

In addition to informing your food bank’s decision about whether to implement diabetes programming, the readiness assessment may also surface potential challenge areas or barriers that need to be addressed. For example, if leadership expresses little to no interest in diabetes or views it as a low priority, you may wish to take steps to increase leadership interest in diabetes as a priority issue for your food bank.

“They really need to have their executive director, their CEO, whoever to back them. We’re probably a big pain to the people over in the warehouse, and…because we have excellent support here from our administration, they [warehouse staff] know they must help us and help us get this done. So having that [leadership] support is probably going to be important. If it’s not important to the leadership, then it’s probably not going to happen.”
— Diabetes Program Implementer

Case Example

A food bank aimed to replicate their program providing diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) services in a new site in a neighboring community, and they identified an organization willing to provide space for the program and to help with recruitment. Focus groups were conducted with people from the new community, but a broader assessment was not conducted to evaluate organizational readiness. After the program was launched, several challenges surfaced, including greater than anticipated cognitive challenges among community members, a lack of fully dedicated space for the programming, limited support from staff and leadership, and concerns about the number of potential participants for future classes.

These implementation challenges compromised program effectiveness and sustainability, and ultimately the food bank decided to move the program to a different site. A more robust readiness assessment was conducted for this new site, including factors like potential reach, leadership motivation and buy-in, staff capacity and engagement, infrastructure and facilities, community members’ ability to participate, among others. The assessment demonstrated good overall site readiness but also surfaced some potential challenges that could be proactively addressed with mitigation strategies. For example, the assessment found that the community had limited public transportation options to enable community members to get to the site. To address this challenge, a local nonprofit was identified that was able to provide free transportation to health-related appointments. Ultimately, this readiness assessment helped to ensure that the program could be implemented successfully and that potential challenges were anticipated and addressed.

Lesson Learned: A readiness assessment provides essential information about whether an organization is ready to adopt new programming. It can also help to identify potential challenges that can be addressed through mitigation strategies.