A prescription for fresh fruits and vegetables might seem unconventional, but a program in Roanoke has gained national recognition in the form of a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s one of just 11 initiatives across the country to receive funding.
The grant award, totaling $479,918, will be used to expand the Southwest Virginia Produce Prescription Program, or SWPRx, over the next three years. The project is a regional collaboration between the Local Environmental Agriculture Project, or LEAP; Carilion Clinic; Radford University; Virginia Fresh Match; and Feeding Southwest Virginia.
[Disclosure: Carilion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Produce prescription programs provide patients, often those with chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, with “prescriptions” or vouchers for free fresh fruits and vegetables. These programs aim to improve health outcomes by addressing food insecurity through partnerships between health care systems and community food systems.
According to a 2021 study by DAISA Enterprises, a business management consulting firm, just over 1,000 produce prescription programs were launched between 2021 and 2020 in partnership with health care systems across the United States.
Most of those programs are located in urban centers, said Rachel Burks, the community health education manager at Carilion. SWPRx is unique because it serves those living in both urban and rural settings.
“I think [this grant award] really speaks to the strength of our partnerships and our history of working on a small-scale pilot project and our planning and intentionality that we brought to making this more scalable,” Burks said.
Produce prescription programs started out at farmers markets and quickly gained traction, said Maureen McNamara Best, executive director of LEAP and project director of SWPRx.
“As they’ve gotten more attention, everybody wants bigger numbers, and bigger numbers don’t necessarily mean deeper impact. And so I really think that the way that we’ve structured this, we’re able to scale and still have deep impact at the community level,” McNamara Best said.
The pilot for this program started in 2015, when Carilion’s community health needs assessment showed high rates of chronic disease among those with limited income. The program was paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but was redesigned and relaunched in 2023, said McNamara Best.
The program is now more closely tied with Carilion Clinic, where doctors can use the health system’s electronic health records system, Epic, to refer eligible patients to SWPRx.
In order to be eligible to enroll in the program, the patient must be on Medicaid and have elevated blood pressure or diabetes or show early signs of either of these health conditions, Burks said. Patients who live in Roanoke, Radford, Floyd and Franklin County are eligible.
Once enrolled, patients will have access to free fruits and vegetables at Feeding Southwest Virginia locations or any Virginia Fresh Match site. Virginia Fresh Match is a network of farmers markets, mobile markets, farm stores and community food stores that double SNAP benefits for fruits and vegetables. This includes LEAP’s farmers markets and both Roanoke Co-op locations, McNamara Best said.
With the USDA grant, SWPRx will be able to run multiple cohorts at a time with 12 people per group. By the end of the three-year grant, about 300 patients and their families will benefit from the program.
Participants will attend nutrition and cooking classes throughout the six-month program, and, if needed, will be connected with other resources in the community.
Previously, much of the funding for the SWPRx program came from one-year grants, with no assurance that additional funding would be available in the future, McNamara Best said.
“That makes it really hard to do any long-term planning, it makes it hard to do more in-depth evaluation and it makes it hard to do a longer program,” she said. “We didn’t have additional support and we would have to limit the program to 12 weeks or 16 weeks. A lot of the research says it should be at least six months, but that’s a lot more food and a lot bigger budget than we’ve had.”
The three-year grant allows the collaborative to expand the program and conduct more research on how to create an effective program.
Researchers at Radford University will evaluate the program’s impact by tracking health metrics such as changes in blood pressure and blood sugar levels, which serve as indicators for conditions like diabetes, Burks said.
In addition, researchers will examine health care utilization, which is a novel area of focus for produce prescription programs, to better understand if participation reduces the need for medical interventions over time, Burks said. The team will also explore ways to enhance the program’s sustainability and maximize its benefits for patients.