Chattanooga CARES Opens Food Bank

Another food bank opened its doors in Chattanooga today….but this one is serving a very specific clientele.

The Chattanooga CARES Market held their ribbon cutting ceremony at the Chattanooga CARES office on East Third Street Monday afternoon.

Chattanooga CARES is a non profit that provides healthcare and other support services to people living with HIV.

With assistance from a nutritionist brought over from the YMCA, patients can now get nutritional advice and a large selection of food tailored to their unique health needs.

Chattanooga CARES Executive Director Matt McAdoo spoke with News 12 about the market’s purpose.

"What we wanted to do here at Chattanooga CARES in addition to providing a more accessible alternative to receiving nutrition assistance, we wanted to provide more nutrient dense foods that are tailored to those of our clients as well as coupling that with nutrition education", he said.

The CARES Markets works alongside the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to provide the food for its clients. The nutritionist works with health care providers and along with USDA guidelines, these unique clients receive healthy food.

"These are government supplemented and provided meat resources that we’re able to access from the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and then deploy to our clients", said McAdoo.

The Chattanooga CARES website states there’s 939 people living with HIV in Hamilton County alone.

 In 2014, Chattanooga CARES tested over 12,000 people for HIV.

Chattanooga CARES is located at 1000 East Third Street near the Erlanger Medical Mall.

Information about how to donate and their services can be found at ChattanoogaCARES.org.

Reported by Andy Santoro