Dr. Winifred Oniah (left) and FAITH Farms manager Freida Graves shows the produce grown on the farm

FAITH Food is Medicine and produce is the prescription

Contributed By: The 411 News

Methodist Hospitals Dr. Winifred Oniah will soon be among the physicians writing 'farmacy' prescriptions for patients to purchase fresh produce at FAITH Farms in Gary.

"Everyday I'm preaching about healthy foods, but when there is no food available to our patients, then how can they really get better. This is great news," Dr. Oniah told the gathering at Progressive Community Church on Monday, October 17.

"It's the kind of produce, the fresh food that we know leads to better health," said Matt Doyle, Methodist Hospitals president and chief executive officer.

Food is medicine and produce is the prescription are the forces that brought the Gary hospital and the Gary farm to collaborate in a program to expand access and consumption of healthy foods. They want to duplicate the successes of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Food is Medicine programs seen across the country.

FAITH Food is Medicine is in the planning phase now, said Rev. Curtis Whittaker, pastor of Progressive Community Church which operates FAITH Farms under the umbrella of FAITH Community Development Corporation.

“In the first year, we will have 75 participants that will receive a $20 box of food every week for two years. In the second year, we are adding another 25 that will receive a $20 box every week for one year,” Whittaker said. The goal of the program is to provide access to healthy food for patients who are clinically diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease, or obesity.

The Center for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE) at Indiana University Northwest will keep the program's records while the School of Medicine on IU's Bloomington Campus will evaluate the program's performance.

Local farmers will be paid to grow the food.

The program started September 15 and will take about 3-7 months to get all the systems in place, Rev. Whittaker said. "We are meeting with others in Indiana who are further ahead than we are."

"We want to expand the program to 100 and more, to impact as many people as we can. We understand that not everybody who receives a box will go home and cook it. They don't know how," Rev. Whittaker said. "We want to hire a chef to prepare meals for some of them. If we get additional funding for the program, 25 of the first 75 will receive a healthy chef prepared meal every day for two years.”

Paying for all this is a $500,000 grant from the USDA's Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). The program encourages partnerships between food and healthcare systems to improve the nutrition status of participating households as well as collect and aggregate data, and identify best practices.

"This is about getting outside the 4 walls of the hospital, being able to provide this type of service. We want to be an example for all communities on what can occur when you have community-based organizations, the community itself and the health care provider in a partnership," Doyle said.


FAITH Farm partners and supporters gathered at Progressive Community Church for Monday’s announcement

Story Posted:10/20/2022