Hudson County officials will cut the ribbon on a new “food pharmacy” at the Metropolitan Health Network site at 935 Garfield Ave. in Jersey City tomorrow morning.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Now more than ever, the issue of food insecurity requires innovative, effective solutions like this one,” Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said in a statement.
“I am convinced that our partnership with these Federally Qualified Health Centers will make a real difference in the lives of individuals and families who can draw on food pharmacies directly to help ensure better nutrition and the resultant better health outcomes we want for them.”
The event will highlight the official launch of a new, $500,000 countywide food pharmacy initiative that seeks to improve nutrition and health outcomes for low-income residents with pre-existing medical conditions through the consumption of more fruits and vegetables.
The initiative is funded by a grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food & Agriculture, specifically the The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program [GUSNIP] Produce Prescription Grant.
The Hudson County Produce Prescription and Food Pharmacies Initiative will employ the USDA funding to operate a prescription and food pharmacy model program in partnership with three federally qualified health centers serving low-income residents: Alliance Community Health Care, Metropolitan Family Health Network, and the North Hudson Community Action Corporation.
Hudson County and the three partner agencies have developed on-site food pharmacies, where patients provided food prescriptions can redeem vouchers of $40 for free fruits and vegetables on a bi-monthly basis.
The fresh, seasonal produce will be provided through a partnership with The Common Market, a regional non-profit food distributor whose mission is to provide urban communities with food from sustainable family farms.
The vouchers will be distributed via a reference system based on diagnoses of pre-existing conditions for pre-diabetes, diabetes and/or hypertension. Participants must attend nutrition education classes twice per month to receive vouchers.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, participants will have their blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipid levels, and weight measured over time.
Furthermore, the Rutgers University Department of Family and Community Health Sciences working in partnership with the health care provider-partners will conduct rigorous project evaluation based on this data.
The hope is that this will provide clear evidence of the value of these kinds of nutrition-focused community interventions that make more fruits and vegetables available to underserved, food-insecure groups.
“Our goal is to see better health outcomes via better nutrition, which should improve quality of live and lower health care costs for our residents,” added Craig Guy, DeGise’s chief of staff and the Democratic nominee for Hudson County executive.
“Better health begins with better nutrition and that requires greater access to healthy produce for our most vulnerable residents.”
The event tomorrow, which starts at the site at 11 a.m., will include a welcome from DeGise, and remarks by county officials and representatives from Metropolitan Family Health.
Staff from the Hudson County Department of Health and Human Services will be on hand to explain any questions related to funding or details about the program and the ribbon cutting will conclude the program, county officials said.
