Your Stories: Community Health and Well Being Awarded Grant for Food is Medicine Program

The Food is Medicine program, including a Food Pharmacy and Teaching Kitchen, is set to launch in early 2024.

Trinity Health and EPIC awarded Community Health and Well Being a $100,000 grant to launch the newly designed Food is Medicine program at Saint Francis. The program is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2024 as the construction of a Food Pharmacy and Teaching Kitchen is completed.

The Food is Medicine program is a comprehensive, six-month program designed to target behavioral changes and nutrition counseling for patient who have been identified as frequent utilizers of the Emergency Department for uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and congestive heart failure. The program is designed to have Community Health Workers support as an intervention method and to connect patients to resources in their neighborhood to support them and their family on their ongoing health journey.

The program will initially enroll three cohorts –Black women diagnosed with endometrial cancer; pregnant women who are at risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes; and a group from the Saint Francis Safety Net Clinics.

“We are grateful to Trinity Health for believing in our design method, which has promise to show improved outcomes of our patients and families,” said Carolyn Alessi, Regional Director of Community Health and Well Being. “The partners involved made sure the design and intervention model had the community and patient as key stakeholders, where we designed the program WITH them and not just FOR them.”

The Food is Medicine program was designed by Community Health and Well Being in partnership with the Gengras Clinic, Saint FrancisRx, Saint Francis Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, University of Saint Joseph’s Dietetic and Nutrition Department, University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, Urban League of Greater Hartford, the City of Hartford Department of Health and Human Services Healthy Families Program, WISEWomen Program, Keney Park Sustainability Program, CVS Health Alliance Systems, and the Community Action Task Force to address two of the most pressing needs stated in the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment – obesity and access to healthy foods.

Submitted by Carolyn Alessi, Regional Director of Community Health and Well Being.

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