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What we do

Volunteers serving warm meals at a community event, focusing on togetherness and charity.

Food in Community Program

The FnC program, created in 2022 by LifeSource Systems Inc. (LSS) and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County (CCE), is a pioneering initiative aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of the impact of food on local communities. In 2023 this intergenerational program brought together youth and adults from Buffalo (urban), East Aurora (suburban), and Eden (rural) to learn about gardening, food systems, and community collaboration. Through hands-on activities such as planting, growing, harvesting, and cooking, participants gain practical knowledge about food while building relationships across communities.  This program bridges the divide and creates a “common table” for families previously isolated from one another and encourages conversations about improving food access and reducing food inequities in underserved neighborhoods.

 From 2023 to 2025 over 250 community members, about 20 volunteers, and 25 vendors participated in FnC. Each year, the program concludes with a fall harvest celebration, where participants share a meal prepared from the food they helped grow. Surplus produce is donated to local food pantries to support families experiencing food insecurity. The 4th Annual Food in Community Festival is planned for September 2026, with event details to be announced soon on our website and social media channels. 

Food As Medicine

Since 2023, LifeSource Systems, Inc. (LSS) has partnered with the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) Department of Health and Well-being and has sponsored the Food as Medicine (FAM) programs. We believe that addressing food as a social determinant of health through public health food and nutrition programs alongside community partners will bring us closer to achieving health equity.

 Our goal is to educate community members about the importance of:  

  • Optimal Nutrition: The practice of consuming a nutrient-dense, balanced diet tailored to support the body’s maximum health, energy, and longevity.
  • Physical Activity:  The movement of the body that uses muscles and requires energy.
  • Restorative Sleep: The deep, uninterrupted sleep during which the body and brain repair, rejuvenate, and consolidate memory, leaving you physically and mentally refreshed.
  • Stress Management: The  tools, strategies, or techniques that reduce stress and its negative impacts on mental or physical well-being. It encompasses a variety of techniques, including mental, emotional, and behavioral strategies to effectively cope with stress.
  • Community Connectedness: The degree to which individuals feel a sense of belonging, trust, and mutual support within their community, and the extent to which they are engaged in and benefit from relationships and networks that strengthen social ties
  • Risky Substance Avoidance: The intentional reduction or elimination of the use of substances that, when consumed in excess or in certain contexts, are associated with significant health, legal, or social risks. These substances often include tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, and other psychoactive agents that can lead to addiction, chronic disease, impaired functioning, or harm to others

The BNMC 6th Annual Food as Medicine Symposium will be held on October 15-16th 2026 at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. This year’s theme is: Strategies for A Unified Approach to Lifestyle Medicine

A vibrant, healthy fruit smoothie bowl topped with fresh berries, mango, and almonds.
A senior man and caregiver engage in a meaningful conversation at home.

Social Care Networks

“Increasing and strengthening the delivery of social care services to Medicaid members across New York State.”

LifeSource Systems, Inc. works in partnership with the Western New York Care Collaborative Network to increase and strengthen the delivery of social care services to Medicaid members across New York State.

The mission of New York State is to protect and promote health for all, building on a foundation of health equity. In New York and nationally, there is growing recognition that fully achieving health for all requires a focus not only on physical and behavioral health but also on health-related social needs (HRSNs).

It is now widely acknowledged that addressing social needs such as food insecurity, housing instability, and lack of transportation improves health and lowers health care costs. To ensure that these needs are consistently addressed for New York’s Medicaid Members, New York needs a coordinated infrastructure and set of processes through which member’s unmet social needs can be identified, Members can be connected to services to address those needs, and the organizations who provide those services can be paid.

LSS’s role is to screen and navigate Medicaid members to enhanced services in these counties: Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, and Cattaraugus.  Our goal is to assist with meeting Medicaid members’ non-medical social needs such as housing, nutrition education, respite for caretakers, and medically tailored meals. Meeting Medicaid Members non-medical social need increases positive health outcomes.  LifeSource Systems refers Medicaid members with managed care insurance to dieticians for nutrition education services.