Wholesome Wave awarded USDA grant to launch innovative, equity-centered fruit and vegetable prescription program for pregnant participants in Hartford.
Leading Connecticut public health organizations have high aspirations for a new food-as-medicine model that centers community fidelity, equity, and dignity.
December 21, 2022 - Hartford, CT - Today, the teams at Wholesome Wave, Hispanic Health Council, and Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC) announced a collaboration to investigate a new model of implementing the proven produce prescription treatment and prevention intervention – a pillar of the food-as-medicine interventions that have shown immense promise nationally.
“Fidelity, Equity, and Dignity (FED) in Produce Prescriptions; Participatory design for social justice and healthy food systems” is a three-year project which will engage a cohort of pregnant patients served by the Hispanic Health Council to co-design and implement a produce prescription (PRx) program that ensures fidelity to community, equity, and dignity, to improve health and wellness outcomes. The partners expect the innovative co-design methodology will lead to even more robust improvements in 1) fruit and vegetable intake; 2) household food security; and 3) self-reported health outcomes, such as gestational weight gain, and overall physical and mental health and wellbeing for a cohort of pregnant participants. Finally, the project will assess potential outcomes that may contribute to health and wellbeing including participant self-efficacy, social cohesion, and dignity.
“Wholesome Wave is honored and deeply grateful for the opportunity to explore equity-focused improvements to produce prescription interventions,” said Benjamin Perkins, the Director of the FED initiative at Wholesome Wave. “We know that food insecurity and diet-related diseases disproportionately impact communities of color. The FED model of the PRx intervention centers patient expertise in developing the intervention in a way that best serves this particular Connecticut community.”
Sofia Segura-Pérez, MS, RD, who leads the project implementation as the Chief Program Officer of the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, CT said, “Pregnant women served by the Hispanic Health Council will have the unique opportunity to benefit from a community-engaged person-centered produce incentive program. In addition to the incentives, they will participate in engaging hands-on culturally appropriate nutrition sessions delivered by a bilingual Latina Registered Dietitian, complemented with supportive text messages.”“Research shows that Latina women are not consuming enough fresh fruits and vegetables during pregnancy and that there are systemic structural barriers preventing them from doing so,“ said Yale School of Public Health Professor Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, the lead researcher from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in New Haven and Derby, CT. “Our community-centered approach includes co-designing the produce prescription model together with Latina mothers themselves, the Hispanic Health Council staff, and other key partners to maximize the intervention’s impact.”
For 15 years, Wholesome Wave has created and developed innovative produce prescription models across Connecticut and the Nation. The cumulation of our experience has led to this profound commitment to equity and a hypothesis that in Hartford, a program that centers dignity will lead to even stronger outcomes for the community. Our aspiration is that one day this model will be utilized by Husky Health, Connecticut’s Medicaid program for qualifying members.
In addition to the close partnership between these leading Connecticut public health organizations, this project was made possible by financial support from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP).
“Every mother deserves access to nourishing fresh fruits and vegetables to support a healthy pregnancy. The Produce Prescription Project will increase such access to pregnant mothers in communities of color, where food insecurity is most prevalent. This project is one step forward towards bridging the gaps,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal
“This is exactly why we passed the American Rescue Plan: to ensure our community has what it needs while our nation combats and recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to this grant funding, pregnant women in need can access nutritious fruits and vegetables to stay healthy during a very important time in their lives. I am proud to have worked in Washington to bring this funding right back home to Hartford,” said Rep. John B. Larson
About Wholesome Wave
Wholesome Wave is a national non-profit established on the belief that everyone, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, or income has a fundamental right to choose healthy food. Wholesome Wave’s mission is to address disparities in diet-related disease and enhance nutrition equity by making fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable to low-income community members through systems change. Founded in 2007 by James Beard Award-winning Chef Michel Nischan and former USDA Undersecretary of Agriculture Gus Schumacher, Wholesome Wave successfully established the legal framework and advocated to fund the doubling of SNAP benefits when spent on fruits and vegetables—a program that has reached millions of community members across the country and has been established as a permanent program in the 2018 Farm Bill, named the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program. Today, Wholesome Wave is leveraging our 15 years of experience to support, accelerate and advocate for innovations like Produce Prescriptions to be included as a covered health care benefit in government-sponsored health plans. For more information, visit www.wholesomewave.org.
