Revive and Thrive Expands Access to Healthy Food and Nutrition Education for West Michigan Residents Managing Chronic Illness
Jake Newby
| 5 min read
Jake Newby is a brand journalist for Blue Cross Blue...
Key Takeaways
- Revive and Thrive's registered dietitian program helps Grand Rapids residents battling cancer, diabetes and heart disease build healthier eating habits.
- Through personalized coaching, nutrition education and meal delivery, participants gain practical skills that support long-term wellness beyond treatment.
- Program data shows participants reported fewer emergency room visits, improved eating habits and better overall quality of life.
- Support from a BCBSM Foundation grant helps expand access to nutrition services that improve health outcomes and reduce costs.
Making major changes to your diet can be overwhelming if you’re fighting cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It can be even more overwhelming for those with limited access to healthy foods.
Many Michigan residents in underserved areas find themselves in this exact predicament. It’s important for everyone to eat healthy to avoid disease and chronic conditions, but even more so for those actively fighting them. However, not everyone has the resources, energy and nutritional knowledge to prepare the healthy meals they need to eat.
Revive and Thrive has centered its mission on lifting some of the burden from high need residents of the Grand Rapids area through its registered dietitian and nutrition education program. The West Michigan nonprofit hired a registered dietitian who visits clients personally to provide easy-to-make recipes, personal nutrition coaching and more. The nutrition coaching program started in January 2026 and has seen measurable success since.
"These diseases can be incredibly overwhelming for our clients," said Amy Thomas-Mellema, executive director of Revive and Thrive. "You get a diagnosis of cancer, diabetes or heart disease, and all of a sudden you're filled with doctor's appointments, tests and medications. You're completely overwhelmed. Then you're told, 'Eat healthy.' And you're like, what does that mean?"
Support from a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Foundation Community Health Matching grant has helped the organization launch this program by supporting the organization's registered dietitian position and allowed the organization to implement technology improvements that make it easier to stay connected with clients.
“We are changing lives, but we cannot do it without the support of the community,” Thomas-Mellema said. “For Blue Cross to step up and say, ‘We see value in this work and want to support it,’ means the world to us. We truly appreciate having a partner and a funder that recognizes the value of what we're doing.”
Teaching clients how nutrition fits into their everyday lives
Thomas-Mellema said Revive and Thrive’s average client household income is approximately $28,000 annually. Transportation challenges, limited grocery access and busy treatment schedules can make preparing healthy meals difficult.
Revive and Thrive staff members meet these individuals where they are by delivering meals directly to clients' homes and equipping them with practical nutrition knowledge they can continue using long after their participation ends.
Those enrolled in the program are eligible for up to 24 weeks of service. Revive and Thrive landed on that figure because it believes that is enough time to teach clients recipes and let them experiment with what they like and they don’t like and to extend these teachings and habits to their families.
“We provide meals not only for the clients but for their whole family because we know this has to be a family event,” Thomas-Mellema said. “If we just provide meals to mom or dad, they're going to give them to the kids.”
The hope for Revive and Thrive is, after 24 weeks, clients can take those learnings and turn them to everyday habits, long after their time in the program ends.
“Clients have the opportunity to meet with me one-on-one,” said Registered Dietitian and Revive and Thrive Client Services Manager, Skylar O’Donnell. “We can sit down together and look at recipes, daily lifestyle habits and treatment schedules.”
O'Donnell prepares individualized educational materials, recipes and nutrition resources tailored to each participant's health condition.
“Those one-on-one sessions give us a chance to explain things in a way that works for them,” she added. "A lot of our clients with diabetes, for example, understand that they need to count carbohydrates but they don't necessarily understand what that means. It gives them an opportunity to sit down and get more information and get it explained in a way that works for them."
How Revive and Thrive’s Registered Dietitian Nutritional Education Program is reducing healthcare costs in Grand Rapids
Revive and Thrive survey data shows that 96% of participants reported their eating habits improved during the program, according to Thomas-Mellema. Additionally, 93% said the organization taught them about nutrition and healthy eating and that they continued trying new healthy ingredients after completing services.
Since a healthy lifestyle is proven to slow the development of diseases and chronic conditions, it’s no wonder that clients who started eating better have reduced their need for healthcare services.
Revive and Thrive data shows participants report a 34% reduction in emergency room visits, along with fewer overnight hospital stays. This in turn is leading to clear improvements in quality of life.
“We see improvements in quality-of-life measures,” Thomas-Mellema said. “We had a client with diabetes who started feeling better, began walking to get the mail, then working in her garden. She told us the only difference she made was receiving our meals.”
O’Donnell shared a story about a woman who enrolled in the program after being diagnosed with both cancer and diabetes. Her main objective was to gain weight.
“When she started with us, she weighed 115 pounds,” O’Donnell said. “She had been told by her doctors that she needed to eat more, gain muscle and get stronger, but she didn't know how. By the end of the program, she weighed 122 pounds. Considering how nutrient-dense the meals are, that isn't always easy to accomplish. But because the meals were convenient and readily available, she was able to do exactly what her doctor had recommended.”
Successful outcomes like these reinforce the importance of community-based programs that improve access to nutritious food and nutrition education, particularly in underserved communities.
"Access to nutritious food is one of the building blocks of better health," said Audrey Rogal, program officer for the BCBSM Foundation. "Revive and Thrive is helping remove barriers that prevent people from making healthy choices while giving them the knowledge and confidence to maintain those habits long term. It's exactly the kind of community-driven solution that can improve health outcomes and help reduce avoidable healthcare costs."
Learn more about the BCBSM Foundation’s Community Health Matching grant program by clicking here. And click here to learn more about the community-driven solutions BCBSM funds to address healthcare affordability for all.
Photo credit: Revive and Thrive
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