A Food As Medicine Approach to Address Food Insecurity in Rural North Carolina

Increasing fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, and reducing saturated fat, salt, and added sugar are central lifestyle recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to prevent chronic disease. Yet, while diet is modifiable, numerous barriers exist for lower-resourced families to engage in healthy dietary behaviors. In particular, rural families face structural and systemic inequities, such as inadequate access to affordable healthy food. Thus, this project, PhytoRx Families, an innovative produce prescription (Prx) program, will address health disparities in rural North Carolina (NC). This project will pilot test and explore the impact of PhytoRx Families (PhtyoRxF) on nutrition-related outcomes. This study will define impact on FV intake using the ASA24 dietary recall (primary outcome) among n=30 adults and school-aged children (adult-child dyads; children 8-14 year olds, 2nd-9th grade). The study will also explore the impact of PhytoRxF on cardiovascular health-related outcomes (blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), height, weight (BMI calculated)). Finally the study will examine the change in healthcare utilization among PhytoRxF participants.