More than 360,000 people in Kansas City – including one in six children – do not know where their next meal will come from. Our community must do more to address health disparities in food insecure populations.
Because of this critical community need, BioNexus KC and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) issued a Request for Proposals for the Transforming KC Health Research Grant. This grant will award up to $400,000 over two years to help partnering organizations research the relationship between food insecurity and adverse health outcomes.
This is the eighth year of Blue KC’s partnership with BioNexus KC to improve the health and wellness of those living in the Kansas City region. This year, Blue KC more than doubled the financial commitment to the grantees in an aim to better understand the links between the socioeconomic, behavioral, and environmental factors that shape our community’s health outcomes.
Understanding that health and nutrition are strongly related, BioNexus KC and Blue KC and KC aim to address and improve social determinants of health for the Kansas City region by improving access to wholesome food options. This research grant not only aims to study the relationship between food insecurity and negative health outcomes, but it also hopes to evaluate how to best implement programs designed to address health disparities in food insecure populations.
Letters of intent are due on April 22, 2019. Full applications will be due May 29, 2019. Awards will be funded starting on October 1, 2019.