Dozens of people showed up at the doors of Community Services Agency on Tuesday, some arriving an hour early, to get screened for diabetes. It may not sound like an occasion to get excited about, but needy residents of Mountain View appeared eager to take advantage of a new program that takes on diabetes and fights the root causes of the disease.
The program, called Challenge Diabetes, is a four month-long pilot program where people, free of charge, can come in and get their blood sugar tested for diabetes and pre-diabetes. While at CSA, they can pick bags of food, recipes and information on how to stave off the disease. The program is a partnership between El Camino Hospital, Community Services Agency (CSA), Sunnyvale Community Services, West Valley Community Services and Second Harvest Food Bank.
When participants made it past the bustling line outside the door at CSA this week, they were greeted with an extensive screening process including checklists on risk factors, surveys and blood tests. The table in the front included a 3D diorama of all the parts of the body affected by diabetes -- the brain, the kidneys, the feet -- and a pile of fake body fat to give people a visual idea of what can cause diabetes.
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