Food is medicine.

Friday, Oct. 1, Ebenezer Medical Outreach boxed up their final 2021 “Farm-acy” Program which began in August. The 15-week program offered patients fresh new opportunities to learn healthy recipes through cooking demonstrations. Each week, the patients were allotted one box filled with fresh produce. The most important added benefit many patients received throughout the program is the ability to see how fresh food makes a positive impact on their lives. Along with gathering a box of produce, patients checked in weekly to have their blood pressure, weight, and sugar levels monitored.

The Farm-acy program began in 2016 in Wheeling, WV, as a way to assist West Virginians in their struggles with obesity and chronic disease. But, the data gathered through The Health Research Department of the The WVU School of Public Health revealed another great advantage to the Farm-acy prescribed fresh produce. In 2020, the Farm-acy program helped decrease the participants running out of food by 16.7%. The prescription produce boxes also helped food insecurity throughout rural Appalachia by decreasing the costs for those who could not afford to eat healthy meals by 70%.

We are so proud of our 16 EMO patients who picked their prescription for wellness through our Farm-acy program. We are already looking forward to next year’s Farm-acy program, and another dose to prescription fresh food!