01/27/2026
Dysphagia Outreach Project strongly condemns the violent actions being undertaken by ICE against communities across the US. As a health equity organization focused on providing relief to low-income people with special needs, many of whom are part of marginalized communities, we cannot stress how harmful the actions by this administration have been for this population.
We've now received several reports that people with critical medical needs are currently afraid to use nonprofit resources, including ours.
To be clear, Dysphagia Outreach Project does NOT ask about Visa status or citizenship status in our application for assistance. We do not ask for social security numbers. We do not collect any information that could be used to determine legal status. We only require demonstration of medical necessity and financial need (which does not have to be a pay stub - email us for options) and a US address for shipping.
All of our recipient information is stored securely, in compliance with HIPAA requirements. We limit access to recipient information to two people. One of whom is me and the other is our Food Bank Manager. Multilingual volunteers assist us as needed on a case-by-case basis, with permission of the recipient.
Our mission from the very founding of our organization has been to help as many people as we can among the most vulnerable amongst us. If you or someone in your community needs help with dysphagia supplies, we will do our best to assist you.
If you or someone you know needs our assistance but is afraid of sharing their personal information for any reason, we are willing to work around that. Email us at team@dysphagiaoutreach dot org for specifics.
Hillary Cooper,M.A., CCC-SLP, Doctoral Candidate
President & Co-founder
Dysphagia Outreach Project