The Joint Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development met this morning to hear an informative presentation on FARMacy WV: Prescription for Produce. FARMacy WV is a health initiative in West Virginia that prescribes local fruits and vegetables to patients with chronic diseases, typically diabetes, who meet the Federal Poverty Guidelines. FARMacy incorporates basic nutrition and culinary skills education, patient-provider relationships, health metric collection, and locally grown produce to improve patients’ overall well-being.
“This program is not a food handout; this is an intervention for healthcare improvement, the provider emphasizes that this is equal to taking their diabetes medication,” Amanda Cummins PA-C, cofounder of FARMacy WV, said.
A paper prescription of fresh produce is provided to patients weekly to reinforce the concept that healthy food is medicine. The program provides pre-arranged shopping for patients where they are required to take the fruits and vegetables based on the value of food assigned by farmers. The shopping space is set up as a farmers’ market to reinforce autonomy of choice. After collecting the produce, patients then move to an educational area to learn about, prepare, and taste the food.
Patients’ HbA1c, lipid panels, weight, and waist circumference are tracked pre- and post-program. Patient’s blood pressure is taken intermittently throughout the program as well. There are also pre- and post-surveys administered to patients, assessing changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors. Data received from all sites is entered into the HIPAA-compliant database for analysis, and the end-of-program reports are provided to individual sites.
FARMacy WV data show that 100% of patients strongly agreed or agreed that they benefited from the program. Biometric results indicate an 8-point reduction in total cholesterol, overall healthcare cost savings, and an HbA1C reduction of 0.4 to 0.9 in 15 weeks; 55% of participants achieved 5-10% weight loss in 15 weeks. Data also showed that patients felt more knowledgeable about health conditions at the end of the program.
The committee also heard a presentation on Food is Medicine (FIM) and the WV Grown program. The WV Grown program focuses on promoting local foods and connecting local producers with a market. WV Grown products keep state dollars in the state, with every dollar going back into the farmers’ hands that produced the product when sold. When buying food from chain stores such as Walmart, 14.9 cents of every dollar goes back to the farmer.
“Our branding of the products ensures familiarity and inspires consumer confidence in anything that someone might grow,” Amie Minor, Deputy Commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA), said.”
WV Grown partnered with Food is Medicine to build new partnerships and advocate for local foods in diets, and combined with other programs such as FARMacy.
Presenters stated that the WV Grown program needs legislative support to continue, advance integrating food into medicine within the state, and align agriculture, health care, and economic development within the program.
