We love working with partners who understand our work isn’t just about getting any food to those facing hunger. It’s about getting healthy, nutritious food to them on a regular basis. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) is one of the top health plans not only in the state but in the country. The team there understands the role of nutritious food in overall health better than almost anyone and their commitment to supporting organizations like ours is exceptional.
Our partnership with BCBSMA has been invaluable throughout the pandemic with the company’s shift to trust-based giving. Instead of requiring organizations to use funding in certain ways, BCBSMA allowed nonprofits to use funds as they needed. This was huge during the pandemic because things changed every day and unrestricted funding allowed groups like ours to make quick decisions, pivot, and do what was right for the community.
To learn more about Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, our partnership, and its overall commitment to fighting hunger with nutritious food, we spoke to Jeff Bellows, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship & Public Affairs.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has made significant investments in helping the communities they serve through their work with nonprofits. Among other specific areas, I know hunger has been a focus for you. Why have you chosen to focus on food insecurity?
Nutritious food is essential to our good health. Yet, we know everyone does not have the same access to the quality food they need and deserve. Food insecurity has always been an issue impacting our communities, but the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, nearly doubling the rate of food insecurity to almost one in five people. We’ve chosen to focus on addressing food insecurity across Massachusetts to help build a sustainable food system and increase access to healthy, culturally relevant food.
What impact did the pandemic have on your work with the nonprofit sector?
The pandemic emphasized the need for trust-based philanthropy. Throughout the pandemic, priorities shifted rapidly. In order to allow our partners to address their greatest needs, we knew it was crucial to shift the funds we had earmarked for signature initiatives to unrestricted funding so they could adapt quickly. We want to ensure that our support makes it easier for our partners to do their work, not harder, so we have reassessed our processes so that they align with the needs and respect the bandwidth of our partners.
What is your approach to supporting local communities? Did the pandemic make the connection and need to support the local community even stronger?
As a Massachusetts-based not-for-profit health care company, we have always been committed to serving our local communities. We believe in a community-driven approach to our corporate citizenship work and rely on the insights and guidance of our civic and nonprofit partners to guide our investments and volunteer efforts, so they meet the specific needs of that community.
While we’ve been aware that different regions and neighborhoods across the state face unique challenges, the pandemic only heightened this and further emphasized the health inequities that exist. These blatant and disturbing disparities are the catalyst for our new focus on health justice and commitment to address the physical and social barriers in our local communities that prevent good health.
How do you measure the impact of your work?
When it comes to grantmaking, we have taken steps toward embodying trust-based philanthropy, including simplifying lengthy reporting requirements and shifting toward multi-year unrestricted support. Nonprofits spend an inordinate amount of time on reports and applications. A more relational approach consisting of streamlined applications, the use of existing reporting, feedback loops and responsive/adaptive pro-bono support helps build a deeper partnership and understanding of the work – a commitment to a shared and common goal.
Why is it important to the company to ensure Blue Cross employees are involved?
Blue Cross is a not-for-profit company, so serving our community is core to our business and culture. Our associates are enthusiastic about supporting the health of our members and community and are eager to lend their talents, expertise, and time through volunteerism. Our associates are also our company’s greatest asset and possess a wide range of professional skill sets as well as personal passions. It is a win-win for our associates and our nonprofit partners when we are able to engage them in a service that gives them the opportunity to test their skills outside of the office to give back to our communities.
We’re proud to have engaged our associates in Food For Free’s mission through our regular one-day BlueCrew projects, company-wide Service Day, skills-based volunteer program, and board service.
This year marks Food For Free’s 40th anniversary. What are you most proud of when it comes to the work you have done with Food For Free to fight hunger in the community?
We’re proud to support Food For Free’s innovative work to address the challenges within the food system. Your unique model is working to fill the gaps in Massachusetts’ emergency food system by rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste and creating new distribution channels to ensure families in need have access to fresh produce. We love that you prioritize redistributing whole foods and are not only addressing hunger but are committed to providing nutritious food that positively impacts one’s health.
Jeff Bellows, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship & Public Affairs at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), leads the corporate citizenship and public affairs teams at the company, helping to enhance its reputation through strategic community investments, focused volunteerism, environmental sustainability activities and effective outreach to community organizations, civic, business, and elected officials.
He is responsible for strategically linking corporate social responsibility, public affairs activities, and community investments to the overall business strategy of the company, highlighting BCBSMA’s commitment to corporate citizenship and grassroots initiatives in Massachusetts and helping to enhance the overall brand and reputation of the organization. Jeff also serves as an adjunct professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
Food For Free is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the Greater Boston community with reliable access to fresh and nutritious food. Food For Free accomplishes its mission through food rescue, partnerships with schools, colleges, and community food programs, and our own direct service programs.
