Frank Murphy interviews Rob Patrick, executive director, and David Caudill, senior director of marketing and public relations, for the Knoxville Academy of Medicine Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of the Knoxville Academy of Medicine, the medical society for Knox County physicians. Knoxville Area Project Access (KAPA) is a program under the leadership of the KAM Foundation. KAPA is a broad-based community charity created to provide access to health care for low-income, uninsured individuals in East Tennessee. 

Since 2006, Knoxville Area Project Access has coordinated more than $425 million dollars in donated health care to more than 38,000 low-income East Tennesseans without access to health insurance or government-sponsored program. KAPA coordinated over 103,000 medical encounters from July 2023 - June 2024.  99% of all patient appointments are kept by KAPA patients. KAPA patients receive a full continuum of care administered by a network of over 2,900 physicians and providers, along with all area hospitals, who donate services to help those in need. In January 2017, KAPA began expanding its services to include social service barriers in a pilot called KAPA Connects. These barriers include housing, transportation, food, drug/alcohol dependency, and health literacy. 

The KAPA Kitchen exists to be a life changing bridge for patients experiencing food insecurities while KAPA helps them navigate their health care. Patients will be able to get: immediate food and hygiene products; heart healthy food items; diabetic healthy food items; diet education resources. Learn more at https://kapatn.org/kapa-kitchen