Urban Food Alliance Launches AI in Healthcare Fellowship and Introduces GLP (Glucagon-like peptide-1) Support Circle for Patients Navigating Weight-Loss Drug Treatment
Nonprofit invites dietitians, physicians, pharmacists, AI engineers, and public health researchers to join a five-track fellowship building nonclinical support for GLP-1 patients across New Jersey and New York
Princeton, N.J. September 16, 2026, more than 60 percent of patients who stop taking GLP-1 medications a class of drugs that includes Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, named for the gut hormone they mimic, glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, which helps regulate appetite and blood sugar experience rapid weight regain and a return of the intense hunger and food cravings clinicians call “food noise.” Many patients don't stop because the medication failed them. They stop because a pharmacy ran out of their dose, an insurance company denied a refill, or a ten-minute doctor's appointment wasn't enough time to work through a side effect that felt frightening at 2 a.m.
Urban Food Alliance (UFA), the New Jersey-based nonprofit known for its weekly community breakfast programs and AI-powered workforce training, is opening a new front in that fight today: the AI in Healthcare Fellowship, a program recruiting working professionals to help build and staff GLP Support Circle, a new AI-guided support system for people navigating the space between doctor visits.
GLP Support Circle is not a substitute for a doctor, and UFA is careful to say so. It is built for the moments the healthcare system isn't set up to handle: the panic of a missed dose, the paperwork maze of appealing an insurance denial, the discovery that no pharmacy within twenty miles has a patient's prescribed dose in stock, or the quiet shame of hunger and cravings returning after a patient reduces or stops the medication. Where the healthcare system offers a phone tree and a portal, GLP Support Circle offers a same-day, judgment-free first response, then connects people to human professionals in their own county who can help.
“We built our breakfast programs around a simple idea to feed people today, network and teach them to be self-sufficient tomorrow,” said Mushi Bhuiyan, Founder and CEO of Urban Food Alliance. “GLP-1 treatment has the same failure point. People aren't quitting because science doesn't work. They're quitting because nobody built the scaffolding to help them stay on the path between appointments. That's what GLP Support Circle is, and it's why we need clinicians and technologists in the room to build it responsibly, not just engineers guessing at what patients need.”
The fellowship reorganizes UFA's existing AI in Healthcare initiative into five tracks aligned with the GLP Support Circle roadmap: Clinical & Nutrition Research, Community Health Navigation, AI & Data, Product/UX & Health Literacy, and Public Health/Outcomes Research. Fellows will shape features already planned for release. An early module offers patients a calming check-in and simple nutrition guidance the moment they feel overwhelmed by hunger, a missed dose, or a discouraging scale of reading without attempting a diagnosis. A second tool helps patients organize their medical records, side-effect history, and past treatment attempts into a clear packet their doctor can use when asking an insurance company to reconsider a denied claim or approve a refill, a step known in the industry as prior authorization. A third feature is a crowdsourced map of real-time medication availability at pharmacies across New Jersey counties, including Middlesex, Essex, and Bergen, and boroughs and counties across New York, so patients don't have to call a dozen pharmacies themselves.
Later phases add an AI assistant trained exclusively on verified medical guidelines and registered dietitian research, rather than open internet content, to answer everyday questions about hydration, digestion, and injection-site care; an eight-week structured plan to help patients transition safely if they pause or stop their medication, paired with plain-language education explaining why appetite and cravings return during dose changes, so patients don't blame themselves for a biological response; and small peer support groups of eight to twelve people, grouped by where they are in treatment and using nicknames instead of real names to protect their privacy, alongside a vetted directory of local registered dietitian nutritionists and obesity medicine specialists for patients who need to talk to a person directly.
UFA is recruiting registered dietitian nutritionists, obesity medicine specialists, primary care and endocrinology clinicians, pharmacy and insurance specialists, behavioral health counselors, AI and data engineers, user experience researchers, and pre-med and public health students for the fellowship's inaugural cohort. Every safeguard in GLP Support Circle rests on one rule: the system offers nonclinical navigation and education, never a diagnosis, and immediately directs any sign of a medical emergency to a licensed professional.
Fellows will work alongside UFA's existing network. The organization has served more than 3.6 million meals and trained over 5,000 students through its AI workforce programs since its founding, and it sees this population people managing an expensive, socially stigmatized, long-term treatment largely on their own as underserved by both the healthcare system and the technology industry building around it.
Interested professionals can apply at aiufa.org/fellowship. Applications for the inaugural cohort close 9/25/2026.
About Urban Food Alliance
Urban Food Alliance (UFA) is a New Jersey-based nonprofit addressing food insecurity and health equity through direct community programs and AI-powered workforce training. UFA has served more than 3.6 million meals and trained over 5,000 students and operates weekly community breakfast programs in New Jersey and a refugee-serving food program in Queens, New York. UFA's mission rests on two pillars: immediate relief for families facing food insecurity, and the skills of training that helps people build lasting self-sufficiency.
Learn more at aiufa.org and urbanfoodalliance.org.
Media Contact
Mushi Bhuiyan
Founder and CEO, Urban Food Alliance
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