The Produce Prescription program works to help residents in low-resource neighborhoods foster healthier eating habits through
- fostering healthier eating habits through partnerships between community health clinics and farmers’ markets,
- providing economic incentives and nutritional education to encourage participants to make healthy food choices, and
- increasing the use of farmers’ markets.
Project Activities
During summer 2016, the program enrolled 450 patients at six community health clinics, including three Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services (NEON) clinics in Hough, Collinwood, and East Cleveland as well as Care Alliance Health Center in Central, Stephanie Tubbs Jones (part of Cleveland Clinic) in East Cleveland, and St. Vincent (part of St. Vincent Charity Hospital) in Central. Each of these are designated as “safety net” clinics because more than 30% of their patients qualify for Medicaid.
PRx participants receive vouchers for use at local farmers’ markets so that choosing fresh vegetables or fruits is an economically feasible choice. The Gateway 105 Farmers Market added a market at the NEON Hough clinic, and the Bridgeport fresh produce mobile van began make twice-weekly stops at the Care Alliance clinic, making it easier for PRx participants to use those vouchers.
The PRCHN’s Produce Prescription Program was one of seven innovative community-partnered projects highlighted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 2018 Health Equity Research Snapshot. Watch below:
Visit the AAMC’s website to view all of the videos.
Dissemination
Publications
- V. Schlosser, PhD, MSW, *Kakul Joshi, PhD Candidate, MPH, Samantha Smith, MA, Anna Thornton, MPH, Shari Bolen, MD, MPH andErika S. Trapl, PhD. “The coupons and stuff just made it possible”: economic constraints and patient experiences of a produce prescription program. Society of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 9, Issue 5, October 2019, Pages 875–883, https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibz086
- V. Schlosser, PhD, MSW, Samantha Smith, MA, *Kakul Joshi, PhD Candidate, MPH, Anna Thornton, MPH, Erika S. Trapl, PhD, and Shari Bolen, MD, MPH. “You Guys Really Care About Me…”: a Qualitative Exploration of a Produce Prescription Program in Safety NetClinics. J Gen Internal Med. 2019 Sept 11;p1-8; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05326-7
- Trapl, ES; Smith, S; Joshi, K; Osborne, A; Benko, M; Matos, AT; Bolen, S. Dietary Impact of Produce Prescriptions for Patients with Hypertension. 11/15/2018 Preventing Chronic Disease. 2018 Nov 5;15:E138. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30447106
- Joshi K, Smith S, Boeln SD, Osborne A, Benko M, Trapl ES. Implementing a produce prescription program for hypertensive patients in safety net clinics. Health Promotion Practice, January 2018. PMID 29380633. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839917754090
- Erika S. Trapl, Kakul Joshi*, Morgan Taggart, Alison Patrick, Erika Meschkat & Darcy A. Freedman. Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Produce Prescription Program for Pregnant Women. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. 2016. 12:4, 529-543. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2016.1227749
CDC Success Stories
Toolkits
Presentations