Rosie Dutt and the St Louis Food Angels
Rosie Dutt is a St George’s alumna who is now completing a PhD in Imaging Science at Washington University in St Louis, United States. Rosie has been active in supporting her local community in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Biomedical Science graduate, Rosie, helped set up St. Louis Food Angels after seeing the difficulties some vulnerable residents in her area faced trying to access good quality, affordable food as a result of the current crisis.
Rosie explains, “In 2018, one in nine Americans were living in ‘food-insecure’ regions. The clinical implications of living in these regions are known to include obesity, cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses. When I moved to St. Louis, it was disheartening to see the stark change in the quality of diet after driving just 20 minutes out of the neighborhood that I live in.
"With our growing interest in food insecurity, we decided to brainstorm ways in which we could reduce the barrier to healthy and affordable food. This brought about St. Louis Food Angels.”
“Our mission is to serve the at-risk community by mobilizing a collective effort during this time of crisis. We are a collection of many members from the St. Louis community. We’re lucky to partner with a number of wonderful organizations, including the Salvation Army, various food hubs and housing authorities to ensure that we are reaching all those in need.
“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the support of students from Washington University in St. Louis, Fontbonne University, Saint Louis University and other individual community members across the city and county. We also partner with Mode Health, a meal-planning app. We are so grateful to these organisations for providing valuable support to those who need it more than ever.”
The organisation delivers these orders to members of the St Louis community free of charge and all deliveries are supported by local volunteers who are trained to ensure contactless safe delivery.
Rosie adds, “We are reducing the chance of exposure to the Covid-19 virus among the most vulnerable people in our community, as well as reducing the exposure of those with Covid-19 to others.
“We are doing this through food delivery as a non-profit organisation. Volunteers take care of the delivery of pre-purchased food to an individual’s home and also help with the delivery of food from existing charities (such as food banks) that need assistance getting food to individuals’ homes.
“We also provide grocery shopping or pickup services on behalf of those who have ordered items, as well as assisting those without internet access to help them place orders online.
“I’m pleased to be able to support vulnerable members of our local community and educate them in a way that they can continue eating in a healthy manner and reduce their risk of developing chronic illnesses”.