When the cost of living becomes a health issue

For many families, health decisions are made at the grocery store or kitchen table. Rising food and housing costs mean making tough choices about what to buy, what to skip, and what can wait.

During a recent roundtable conversation hosted by Intermountain Health, community members in Colorado shared stories about those choices. They discussed the stigma that can come with asking for help, and why having healthy, familiar foods is just as important as access to care. Their conversation explored how food insecurity is about more than hunger. It affects dignity, stability, and health, and the solution involves us all. That’s The Power of We.

Why food insecurity matters to health

National data shows that almost 1 in 7 households faced food insecurity in 2024. That’s about 47.9 million people, including 14.1 million children. Each number stands for a real family making daily choices that impact their health.

Community organizations across Intermountain’s footprint are seeing these same challenges.

“In Colorado at this time, we are seeing the highest levels of food insecurity that we’ve seen in over ten years,” said Monica Buhlig, chief impact officer at Food Bank of the Rockies.

When families don’t have regular access to nutritious, familiar foods, it’s harder to manage chronic health problems, help children grow, and stay healthy overall. Food insecurity also adds stress, makes medical care more complicated, and can delay treatment when families must focus on urgent needs instead of long-term health.

As these problems increase, food insecurity is appearing more often as a priority in Intermountain’s Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs).

“This reflects what communities themselves are experiencing firsthand,” said Lisa Nichols, vice president of Community Health. “Listening to these real experiences helps ensure our responses are grounded in dignity and focused on what will make the greatest difference.”

Listening to communities, responding with care

Like our CHNAs, the roundtables are a way to listen and guide action. It’s clear that the best solutions come from listening to the people who are impacted and the community organizations that help.

In Colorado, community organizations work with Intermountain to make fresh food more accessible through projects such as community gardens, mobile pantries, and food delivery programs. Intermountain Health is helping Food Bank of the Rockies, a food bank that supports local food pantries across the state, to expand the Food for Health program. This program delivers healthy food each week to help people with chronic illnesses improve their health.

At Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah, food insecurity is a main concern. Programs like Meals to Go give families food during emergency visits and help them find longer-term support. Food pantries in our children’s hospitals offer familiar foods to any community member, with signs and labels in both English and Spanish, including allergy and quantity details. They also share recipes to help families feel comfortable using new foods.

In Southern Nevada, food pantry visits in the last four months of 2024 were up 16%. Seventy-five percent of those seeking help were first-time visitors. Intermountain works alongside community leaders and organizations like Three Square Food Bank to respond to food insecurity as a critical social driver of health. These collaborations  help connect families to support that strengthens physical health, mental well-being, and family stability.

All of these efforts share the same goal: support should be easy to access, respectful, and based on what families say they need.

The Power of We: Shared stories, shared solutions

As families across the communities Intermountain serves continue to face rising costs and difficult choices, listening remains essential to shaping effective and compassionate responses.

The roundtable gave people a chance to talk openly about barriers, stigma, and what respectful support really means. By learning from these real experiences, Intermountain and the local community organizations it collaborates with can make food access more reliable, respectful, and supportive of health. That’s The Power of We.