Could MANNA save the healthcare system?

Sue Daugherty is the executive director of the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA). MANNA provides medically appropriate meals—three a day, free of charge, meeting very specific dietary needs—to people who are at acute nutritional risk and battling critical illnesses such as cancer, renal disease and HIV/AIDS. It serves 950 patients and 75,000 meals a month in nine counties in the greater Philadelphia region. MANNA provides a crucial, lifesaving service—that's why Daugherty got into the work to begin with. But as she and her team recently learned, MANNA's work could do an even greater good, if given the chance: it could bolster health care's bottom line.