Bringing Care to our Communities, Year After Year
At Clover, we try to be more than what people might expect from a typical insurance company and partner with our members to help them live happier, healthier lives. In order to truly be a partner to our members, it’s important that we embed ourselves in our communities and understand the challenges they face when it comes to their health. One thing we hear time and time again is how hard it is for our members to change their diets, many times because people believe healthy food can’t possibly be delicious.
So last year, we introduced the Clover Care Tour to challenge this belief head on. We partnered with a chef who is deeply passionate about healthy eating to create delicious and nutritious dishes to serve to people during Diabetes Awareness Month in November. Attendees joined us (and our bright orange truck) at various senior centers throughout New Jersey to watch our chef demonstrate cooking carefully chosen recipes and learn about each ingredient and its heath benefits. People loved it.
As November rolled back around, we knew we had to do it again. But bigger.
During open enrollment this year, we expanded to offer our health plans in counties within Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas. So we added more stops to the tour and crossed states lines for the first time in our big, orange truck.
Showing up in our neighborhoods in an authentic way is important to who we are as a company, and we wanted each leg of the journey to honor the community, so we partnered with chefs who were well-known for cooking using ingredients local to the area.
Over the two months of the tour, there were many memorable moments. Several of the attendees served as sous chefs merrily chopping up cauliflower rice in a food processor, the gasps of joy when apple cider vinegar deglazed a pan giving the room a wonderful aroma, the many food puns (lettuce celebrate!), new tasty ingredients discovered (quinoa, anyone?), the list goes on and on. It’s these moments that make the tour so special to us.
When we arrived at our very first stop at the Eatontown Senior Center, the knitting group who meets there watched as we set up the kitchen. While they waited, they offered us tips on the pros of the purl stitch and insisted on sending us patterns. As amateur knitters ourselves, we asked questions and soaked up all the knowledge they had to offer. Finally we switched roles, and were able to teach them tips on the best way to select and peel a butternut squash, which they welcomed with equal enthusiasm (hint: seal the squash in a ziploc bag and microwave it for 4–5 minutes, the skin will peel right off!).
In Bridgeton, N.J., as Chef Dillon chopped the butternut squash for his dish, a local farmer told us his own crop of squash was coming in. It was his first time visiting the West Cumberland Senior Center but he quickly made friends, and swapped numbers with several of the people there who wanted to buy his squash after tasting it in our recipe.
At every stop, we were impressed by the kindness and warm welcomes of the senior center directors and staff. One that sticks out in particular was Ralph at the Bayonne Senior Center. Not only did he go out of his way to accommodate our every need, but it was obvious how much he cared for his members, and how much they cared for him. He kept himself busy at the event and a person at every table would ask, “Has Ralph eaten?” “Make sure you get Ralph a plate.” He has dedicated his life to the members of his community, and they showed how much they cared for him in return.
In Pooler, Ga., the mayor show up to cook alongside Chef Tony Seichrist. He stirred the lentils as he and the center director laughed about their high school years together. Many of the people there had lived in the Savannah area their entire lives and were excited to reconnect and reminisce. A married couple, Henry and Mary were so excited about meeting the Mayor and Chef Tony, they had us take their picture together. “Our kids say we never do anything fun, this’ll show them!” Henry said to us.
Reflecting on the months we spent on the road, we’re honored by the moments we were able to share with people and how warmly we were welcomed into the communities. The experience was so moving for us and we’re thankful for the opportunity to spend quality time with the people we serve every day. Yet again, the Clover Care Tour reaffirmed our motivations and strengthened our resolve to create an insurance company that makes the health of our members, and the health of our communities, our number one priority.
We want to extend a special ‘thank you’ to everyone who took the time to invite us into their community and share an afternoon and a meal with us over the last couple of months. You make everything we do at Clover worth it.
You can download the diabetes-friendly recipes from our chef partners below. Bon appétit!
Dillon Peavey Recipe Card.pdf
Christina Pirello Recipe Card .pdf
Tony Seichrist Recipe Card .pdf
John Brand Recipe Card .pdf
