Supplement Source Podcast
Supplement Source Podcast
Supplements With Purpose: How Industry Leaders Are Expanding Nutrition Access Through the CRN Foundation Access Initiative
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What happens when supplement manufacturers, charitable clinics, and healthcare logistics experts join forces to tackle nutrition inequity in America?
In this episode of Supplement Source, CRN’s Jeff Ventura sits down with leaders from VitaQuest, Direct Relief, and the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC) to discuss the rapid success of the CRN Foundation’s evolving Access Initiative. Together, the panel explores how a first-of-its-kind collaboration is delivering multivitamins directly to underserved communities through a scalable charitable distribution model.
Guests Gregory Drew (VitaQuest), Katie Lewis (Direct Relief), and Ariana Gordillo (NAFC) discuss the overwhelming early demand for the program, the realities of food deserts and healthcare access gaps, and why preventive wellness tools like multivitamins can play a meaningful role in community health. The conversation also highlights how cross-sector partnerships, logistical infrastructure, and industry participation are helping transform charitable giving into sustainable health access.
The episode offers a compelling look at how the supplement industry can move beyond conversation and create measurable impact—one clinic, one family, and one bottle at a time
About the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973 and based in Washington, D.C., is the leading trade association representing the dietary supplement and functional food industry. Bringing together manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and service providers, CRN unites its member companies around a shared commitment to science, transparency, and responsible business practices—advancing a strong, credible marketplace that supports consumer health and industry growth.
In an increasingly complex regulatory and media environment, CRN serves as the industry’s front line—shaping science-based policy, defending market access, and countering misinformation. Through strategic advocacy, self-regulatory leadership, voluntary guidelines, and evidence-based communications, CRN ensures that responsible companies are recognized, protected, and positioned to innovate and compete. Learn more at crnusa.org and follow @CRN_Supplements on X and LinkedIn.
Please note that the Council for Responsible Nutrition, CRN, does not endorse any guests appearing on this podcast or any products or services they may discuss. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of CRN. Thank you and enjoy the episode.
SPEAKER_00You are listening to Supplement Source, the official podcast of the Council for Responsible Nutrition. And now your host, Jeff Ventura.
SPEAKER_04Hello, and thank you for listening to Supplement Source. My name is J.D. Ventura, and I am the Vice President of Communications here at the Council for Responsible Nutrition. I am so excited today for this particular episode because it's something near and dear to my heart. We're talking today about the Access Initiative, and more specifically, we're talking to uh folks from Direct Relief and VitaQuest and NAFC about a recent collaboration that I am very excited to tell our listeners about and for them to share with you folks in our listening audience. So uh without further ado, I want to introduce our panel today. We've got Katie Lewis from Direct Relief. She's the regional director of U.S. We've got Greg Drew, who we've had on before, Gregory Drew. He's the VP of Innovation at VitaQuest. And we also are joined today by Ariana Godillo, the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at NAFC. Very exciting to have all of you come on to our little show today. Thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_04So we've got some uh I've got some questions that I want to ask you guys specifically about what's been happening in terms of the most recent elements of this initiative that really have come together quite nicely. Why don't we start out by just someone just uh run me kind of through the the basics? The program's initial supply was fully allocated within just one week. What did that level of demand signal to each of you about the need for nutrition access in underserved communities? Maybe we can start out just to kind of lay the groundwork with Greg, because I think that you really could kind of give us just the backstory of what we're talking about, uh, and then we'll just kind of get into how this early success really came together.
SPEAKER_05Uh happy to. Hi, everybody. For VitaQuest, what really started as an employee wellness program turned into an initiative to open access to multivitamins uh across the country. And we we manufacture multivitamins, that's what we do day in and day out. And you know, what better way for us to have an impact in opening access to those that don't have easy access to dietary supplements or multivitamins? So that's how it all started. And you know, Jeff, what's really awesome about today is having the four partners that that really m make the execution work, from flavoring and pressing a tablet here in our factories to delivering it to the patients and clientele of the clinics across the country.
SPEAKER_04Let's get back to that question for a second, because it really, and I'll open this up to the group. Oftentimes we talk about need and we don't you don't necessarily know unless you do something like this where you you know you make something available and then all of a sudden this these supplements are gobbled up. I mean they people are the clinics are taking them, ordering them. So that says, I think, that the there is a recognition that there is some benefit to uh fortifying nutrition in this way for this particular population, there seems to be an early sign that we are indeed filling a need with this. What do you guys say to that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I think that it's important to understand that nutrition, first of all, is incredibly foundational to healthcare, right? And so when you're looking at patients of free and charitable clinics, these are people who do not have the ability to prioritize um preventative wellness products like supplements, like vitamins, when they're really trying, they're struggling to even afford housing, transportation, food, medicine. And so what we have seen with this is that in this case, multivitamins uh supplements are really outside of traditional health care as many systems see them. And so for these patients to be able to get this tells you very clearly that there is a gap. And it helps them kind of connect, make that connection between preventative wellness, health care, and kind of ties it all in together, makes it an easier thing to be able to manage. So I really believe that you know programs like these are filling in that gap that traditional healthcare systems often overlook.
SPEAKER_04Let's hear from direct relief for a second. So is this a is this uh a surprise to you, you folks, that that there is this sort of demand already for the program?
SPEAKER_03Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, you know, it's not a surprise at all. I think it really identifies and actually confirms these gaps that Ariana was talking about. You know, direct relief is a logistics organization or support organization. So we work with free and charitable clinics every day. And having you know, Ariana and any the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics come to us with this, you know, this idea, this program through VitaQuest and Gregory really just connected the dots and is the foundation of Direct Relief's work. We connect resources to free and charitable clinics across the country. And so I think you know, we see we see this every day where Direct Relief is supporting these organizations with pharmaceutical items, with over-the-counter items, and then seeing this really high need for nutrition support. I think it really reflects current and and real unmet patient needs.
SPEAKER_04I think one of the things that's fascinating about your model uh that a lot of people may not be aware of, and maybe I'm incorrect, but this is my understanding. It's not like suddenly Greg pushes a button and and all of these shipments arrive at X number of clinics with unsolicited. I mean, this is a case where you make the you make these products available through your channel, right? And so these clinics are actually asking for these. Is that is that correct?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, from my direct release side, absolutely. Um so what what our organization does, what direct release does as a support organization is work directly with organizations like BidaQuest to increase access to not only medicine and supplies, but to nutritionals, to vitamins, to supplements really for clinics and health centers to treat the primary care needs of people all across this country. The NAFC has this vast network. We partnered with them on many initiatives, this being one of them, to just ensure that access happens on a continual basis. You know, it's really wanting to have that consistency in supply that is going to help close some of these gaps, especially around nutrition and nutrition access. If patients are coming in today into clinics with unmet needs, you know, vitamins aren't, these multivitamins aren't covered by insurance. They're not something that people can purchase every day. So, really in the scope of this whole health care healthcare spectrum, this is um really helping to close those gaps.
SPEAKER_04Ariana, I think about food deserts uh specifically when I have this conversation. You know, you were talking about these populations uh having trouble prioritizing and access accessing nutrition, and some of that is this whole food desert idea that we hear about so often, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. I mean free and charitable clinics, just us, we represent about almost two million patients every year who have no access to health care, mostly all uninsured. That is just a small number out of the tens of millions of people in the United States that do not have coverage of any sort. And so these are people that may be located, and mostly many of them are located in places where the closest nutrition supermarket, let's say, might be a fast food restaurant within 20 miles. And what if they don't have transportation? What if they have one car for a household with multiple people that have multiple jobs, and so they have to figure out how logistically how to move themselves around? How do how do you eat healthily at a fast food restaurant, let's say, as just as an example. So, yes, many of them have incredible, uh there's an incredible number of food deserts out there where there just isn't healthy food necessarily in the traditional way that we see it. Um, and so outside of our clinics being able to, and many of them have programs, like they will take our patients to a something like a dollar store or anything like that, and show them how could they possibly purchase as healthily as possible. But outside of even having that or providing them with food themselves, there is this missing component of that supplement that could really help as an entry point to health care. And so, yeah, so uh our patients are eating what they can, what they have access to. And as you know, with food prices, with everything price-wise on the rise right now, a family has to make the impossible choice of deciding whether to put the healthy food on the table, what they can afford, being able to pay the rent if that's the case. And so our patients are dealing with these kinds of choices literally every day. So, yeah, this is that's why this is so important, especially many of them that are in rural areas.
SPEAKER_04It frustrates us here at the council uh because we we see all the time uh these news articles written by very high high top-tier publications that are very dismissive of supplements. And their their shorthand is all they always interview a cadre of physicians that they always go to that will always say when asked, you know, well, it's better to get your nutrients from food. Food rich in, you know, salmon is rich in this and rich in that. It's like, well, yeah, okay. But to your point, I mean, food prices in particular right now uh are so astronomical. I mean, good luck buying a big piece of salmon and not leaving leaving a good portion of your paycheck on the on the you know at the cash register. I can see, you know, really the value here. Let's switch gears a little bit and just talk about success and scale. Greg, tell me about that. What what does success look like for you? Like i in terms of the program, when is it successful?
SPEAKER_05Uh we're successful today. I mean, the amount that of impact we've already have uh made, and uh I had a chance to visit Direct Relief, and I had a chance to visit uh an NAFC clinic in St. Louis. And obviously uh here at VitaQuest, we're you know, we're we're we're uh an amazing organization in the dietary supplement business, but we're a group of factories. When I talk about top-notch partners to make to execute this initiative, that's where one of the reasons I say we've already been successful is because we put a team together that can get a pill into the hands of someone who can't otherwise get it. And at I was I was really, I mean, walking through direct reliefs facility and you know, seeing everything they do from filling a airplane full of pallets that might get dropped to another region in the world to pick and packing individual cases of multivitamins to send to individual clinics around uh the country, you know, through SAP with exactness and the ability to really have data behind it. Oh, really impressive. And then, you know, visiting the clinic in St. Louis, it was you know, it was a real experience. And spending an hour and a half there just seeing the work that was done and and volunteering with you, Jeff, and a few other members to really understand what the clinics are doing. And, you know, my biggest takeaway amongst the takeaways was uh the clinic director in St. Louis saying something to the effect of you know, people generally come here when they need to, right? When they need a medical service or when they need some sort of care. Certainly not preventative and certainly not in any regular way. Even if they're coming to help on one of these, you know, dollar store trips for access to other things. It's it's it's as needed. Whereas the multivitamin is, you know, it's a 30 or it's a 60-day turnaround, right? And maybe more depending on how many kids you have. Um right? Because we have a we have an adult multivitamin and we have a kid's chewable multivitamin chewable that tastes great to impose compliance. What the director there told us is the vitamin is actually what we think will have the patients come back. Right. Not be and they'll come back not because they need necessarily a medical service or procedure, but that's what turns it into preventative visits because if they know they're gonna come three or four or five times a year instead of only as needed, so they see it as an anchor type of tool for them to meet their efforts.
SPEAKER_04So well, and I think Ariana, you probably can speak to this, but uh sometimes you know you do. You need like, you know, you need to change the conversation from a reactive, emergent, you know, emergency environment, you know, where you're constantly just treating illness to you know a narrative where you're maintaining health, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And just to round out uh what Gregory mentioned, impact success is measured both quantitative quantitatively and qualitatively. In terms of quantitatively, we're seeing the fact that direct relief was able literally ran out of the first huge shipment almost immediately. That says so much. Looking at the geography of all the clinics that were um able to be helped, the fact that they were, I believe, in over 25 different states already, that's huge. We we can see that. But it's also about that qualitative proportion of what Gregory was mentioning. It's it's understanding and the meaningfulness of how quickly clinics engaged, but also paying close attention to those stories, to that feedback that's coming directly from the organizations that are the most trusted um partners in the community. That is success. It's it's numbers combined with that qualitative feedback that tells us and reinforces the importance of programs like these, which are incre this is incredibly unique. I just want to make sure that we put that there.
SPEAKER_04And I think I think that that kind of dovetails nicely into talking about the innovation, the innovativeness of this model, because I remember, you know, the and not to, you know, not to uh I'm not by any means criticizing the former version of the Access Initiative, but I mean we did an Access Initiative uh version that predates me. And when I came on board three years ago, it was very, you know, we kind of gave member companies three different choices to pair up uh their donations uh to these different organizations. Uh and then they would it was kind of left to them whether or not they wanted to uh do anything on the ground in terms of uh volunteerism with their employees and that sort of thing. And people stepped up. I mean, it was a great initiative. But what's so incredible about this uh is it really is a system. You know, there is a you know, a distribution sort of system in place that I think it you know, we've mentioned it's fairly unique. I mean, I'd love I'd love to hear uh from you, Katie, about you know, is this is this a unique kind of model, or do you see this kind of model uh with other uh goods and services being donated through your channels?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean this is a unique model. I mean, this at VidaQuest, they're manufacturing specifically for charitable use. That's highly unique. That's the intent of the donation, that's the intent of of the team behind these decisions, and that is, you know, that's what we want to see more of. Um I think you know, when we're talking about success, we're really this this donation, this first round really demonstrated that we're filling, you know, an unmet need. There is a need there, and we're we're helping to fill these gaps. And so I think really it's taking a business approach to a charitable purpose. And we have the network through NAFC, we have the distribution channels. So turning that up, I mean, we can we can scale that up as as big as we need to. I mean, I think really the goal here then is around that predictability and scalability.
SPEAKER_04Well, let's talk about uh it's an exciting idea and let's talk about the scalability of this and really the call to action to those in our audience, which are mostly I mean I mean, most of our audience members uh are in the supplement industry, stakeholders in the industry. Well what's a call to action? I mean, obviously get involved. But Greg, what do you think what do you think the call to action is in terms of scalability and and sort of taking this to the next level?
SPEAKER_05We're taking it to the next level, and you know, we're we're not we're not alone. Uh we do have our first corporate partner, a CRM member that is pledged to also support, and maybe we'll make that announcement in our next podcast, Jeff. Yep. But that's really what it's about. It's about you know stakeholders of the industry stepping up and us, you know, walking the talk, right? Uh there is an unmet need for dietary supplements. Who wants to join in and help get access through direct relief through NAFC clinics? And really the actual transactions are easy through the CRN Foundation, you know, who's really stepped up to make sure that everything is aligned with nonprofit standards and the folks that do participate, and there are many ways to participate can leverage that donation uh however they wish. So, you know, we invite members of the dietary supplement industry and beyond suppliers, manufacturers, brands, even retailers across the spectrum to participate. And we can, the four partners are here to be able to execute on that, but the scale is really through growing our partnerships. It's it's an easy, it's very easy to participate with either uh donations of funds or uh other creative ways as well.
SPEAKER_04Ariana, you had uh something to add?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just I wanted to add to kind of add to what Gregory was saying. This partnership, it is easy to get involved in the sense that this partnership is a perfect example of cross-sector collaboration. And the whole point of it, of its success and what we've seen so early on, is that each one of the organizations it's playing to its strength. Each one of the organizations brings that unique, unique strength to the table, whether it's CRN helping to um spark that connection, CRN helping to bring visibility to this issue, to this opportunity, VitaQuest being able to make that frankly incredible decision to create products specifically for uh charitable distribution, and then which again we've talked about is highly unusual and impactful and unique, um, but then direct relief being able to bring that logistical expertise, making it happen, and then you know, the NAFC being able to connect the program directly to the trusted um free and charitable clinics already embedded in our communities nationwide. So I think that that cross-sector collaboration, we have already seen so quickly is easy if everyone just plays to their strength. So we're not asking anyone to you know recreate the wheel in any way or create something different. I'm sorry. Um so as Gregory mentioned, it's it's something that I think is relatively easy by being yourself in terms of whether you are a manufacturer, uh, you know, uh any kind of organization you are, you can plug into some a collaborative like this, um, sparked by the CRN Foundation and really make a real impact, you know, not just numbers, but like stories and real change.
SPEAKER_03Connecting those dots. I mean, I think that that's the beauty of this, and this is a perfect example of an ideal type of program that we all want to participate in. I think at the end of the day, what we're getting now, we're getting through this, is again predictable planning for the clinics, predictable access that's gonna that's gonna result in more reliable patient care, better adherence over time. So to have these, you know, large names and entities and organizations come together for that intended purpose is really um a special and wonderful thing, I think, that we're all, you know, we're all here for and all want to be a part of. And welcome others to join us.
SPEAKER_05It's an open call for partners. It it really is a partnership. I mean, it's it's a co branding experience. These are, you know, this is a brand of multivitamins. It's a charitable brand that's available at these clinics, and partners, you know, have the opportunity to be part of. that brand. So it can be and there's no minimum, right?
SPEAKER_04The member that you talked about having already signed on, I mean, it's not eight bajillion dollars. So I mean that's important, right? Because of these I mean because this is a collaboration, gosh, you know this Ariana. I mean in the in the world of clinic in these clinics, I mean it's it's really a constellation of support, whether big or small, from a multitude of different stakeholders. And I think that's an important point, don't you?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean the the the the minimums are really just around ease and logistics. So you know we'll run a batch of vitamins and we'll fill an even pallet or two or ten depending on the demand and the the support at the time. So it's generally around you know the you know what makes sense to get it from point A to point B. But it's not a again our our first partner ship that should be should be announced relatively soon. You know, which we're really really excited about and I think is you know will be the model for the way other other folks can join really easily.
SPEAKER_04Yep. Well I want to just thank all of you uh for taking the time out today but also uh for just stepping up I mean it's an incredible thing. Uh every single time somebody uh takes you know some of these supplements and is improving their health or their family's health I mean there's no words for that. I mean it it really is an incredible thing. And it's made possible in no uh small uh way by Katie Lewis Gregory Drew and Ariana Cordillo uh we thank you and we thank you for being part of this uh this podcast today