Campbell Soup Foundation: Nourishing a Community

When the Campbell Soup Foundation received a proposal to fund the Latino Health Initiative at Saint Luke’s Catholic Medical Services in Camden, “we were intrigued,” said Amanda Tolino, manager, community service at Campbell Soup Company.

Since 2005, the Camden-based company has given $115,000 to support the initiative, which focuses on controlling diabetes and its complications.

St. Luke’s is based in North Camden, a medically underserved neighborhood in one of the nation’s poorest cities. Operating as a private practice, St. Luke’s provides quality, compassionate and culturally competent care to 1,400 patients, regardless of ability to pay.

Started in 1983 by Father Mark Aita, a Jesuit priest and internist, the School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM) developed a formal affiliation with St. Luke’s in 2000 and appointed Lesly D’Ambola, DO, medical director. Dr. D’Ambola recently received Campbell’s Unsung Hero Award for her selfless dedication to her patients.

“Dr. D’Ambola is compassionate as well as a great care provider,” said Ms. Tolino.

The incidence of diabetes in Camden is staggering: 10 percent of the city’s Latino population has the disease. A nurse educator – who is at St. Luke’s thanks to the generous support of Campbell’s and other donors -- teaches patients diabetes self-management skills.

The program has been highly successful. In a group of closely followed patients, none were hospitalized for complications from diabetes at the end of 18 months, compared with 13 percent who required hospitalization prior to the program. The program has demonstrated a statistically significant drop in patients’ blood sugar levels, and initial results from a modified patient education protocol show even more dramatic improvement in another patient group: no hospitalizations, while 25% were hospitalized prior to the program.

“As a company focused on health and wellness, part of our mission is to nourish peoples’ lives every day,” says Ms. Tolino. “We know the Latino Health Initiative at St. Luke’s is doing this. Our dollars are being put to good use by a program that is very unique and solving a significant community problem.”

Other generous donors to the Latino Health Initiative at St. Luke’s include Langan Engineering, the Danellie Foundation, ShopRite Sybase Classic and Holcim, U.S., Inc.