In partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, the VA is piloting a produce prescription program in VA healthcare systems in Salt Lake City and Houston to support veterans who are food insecure and have diet-related health conditions. The pilot program offers enrolled veterans a $100 prepaid debit card with parameters limited to fruit and vegetables each month for up to one year. Veterans enrolled in this pilot program received assistance with meal planning, recipe ideas, shopping on a budget, and other valuable nutrition resources to help veterans achieve their health goals. According to the VA, the University of Utah researchers will evaluate the project’s impacts on health, healthcare costs, utilization, well being measures and participant satisfaction. Lessons and data garnered through these pilot projects will help to inform the development of more impactful policies and program design to scale the reach of Food is Medicine as a benefit for Veterans across the VA health care system. In a panel discussion titled “Food is Medicine: How Food is the Future of Healthcare” that took place at the 2024 South by Southwest event, Dr. Christine Going, senior advisor for the VHA Food Security Office, Roy Steiner, senior vice president for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation; Dr. Kevin Volpp, director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics and Scientific Lead, Food is Medicine Initiative for the American Heart Association; and Wesley Daniel, United States Navy Veteran (retired) discussed the need and value of this program and programs like it. Daniel discussed his experience with the program: “This thing has worked. It has propped me up tremendously.” Daniel shared that he had been in and out of homeless shelters due to illness and injury that made it difficult and then impossible to work. He was unable to walk and needed knee surgery. “Surgeon said, ‘Sorry, buddy, you’re 9.1 A1c…You’re not going to have surgery for 12 months.’” ‘Doc, I can’t walk. I can’t work.’” It was a nurse at the VA who connected him to a nutritionist and the Food is Medicine program, which included conference calls, cooking classes and
financial support. “In 90 days on this program,” Daniel shared, “I went from 9.1 to 6.5.” Because of his success, he got surgery on his knee. Even though he was still recovering during the panel, he walked onto the stage. The program’s results will be available to support the argument for other programs like it to prescribe food as healthcare. Dr. Going stated that anyone can use their research to prove this point. “If we can figure out the model that works best in the VA,
29 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com May | June 2024
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