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. 2015;43(2):148-62.
doi: 10.1080/10852352.2014.973251.

Food Rx: a community-university partnership to prescribe healthy eating on the South Side of Chicago

Anna P Goddu  1 , Tonya S Roberson, Katie E Raffel, Marshall H Chin, Monica E Peek
Affiliations

Food Rx: a community-university partnership to prescribe healthy eating on the South Side of Chicago

Anna P Goddu et al. J Prev Interv Community. 2015.

Abstract

Patients living with diabetes in underserved communities face significant challenges to healthy eating. To support them, we need interventions that integrate community resources into the healthcare setting. A "prescription" for healthy food may be a promising platform for such a community-linked intervention: it can promote behavior change, provide nutrition education, include financial incentives, and connect patients to local resources. We describe Food Rx, a food prescription collaboratively developed by a university research team, Walgreens, a local farmers market, and six health centers on the South Side of Chicago. We share preliminary lessons learned from implementation, highlighting how each stakeholder (university, community partners, and clinics) contributed to this multifaceted effort while meeting research standards, organizational priorities, and clinic workflow demands. Although implementation is in early stages, Food Rx shows promise as a model for integrating community and healthcare resources to support the health of underserved patients.

Keywords: behavioral prescription; community; diabetes; disparities; nutrition.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
From left to right, starting at top: front of Food Rx; back of Walgreens Food Rx; back of Farmers Market Food Rx; front side of the educational handout with guidelines and healthy food examples; map of the South Side of Chicago labeled with participating Walgreens stores and Farmers Market.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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