Durham company gets millions to expand access to ‘prescription’ fruits, vegetables
A Durham-based organization that offers “prescription” fruits and vegetables received $10 million in the state budget this year, which the group says is the largest investment ever made in a program of this kind.
Eat Well is part of a national “food as medicine” movement that argues that making a healthy diet accessible will reduce chronic diseases and improve racial equity in the United States.
“There are pathways for doctors, providers, plans to just cut a check for medicine,” said the program’s director, Sam Hoeffler. “There’s no pathway to pay for someone’s food.”
Eat Well distributes prepaid debit cards that are accepted at most major food retailers and work exclusively to purchase produce, which is often pricier than processed foods.
The average balance on the card is $80, Hoeffler said, though collaborations with certain partners, like the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, may have higher monthly allotments.
The cards are reloaded with money on the first of every month — as long as the organization has enough funding.
Hoeffler said she hopes programs like hers will be a benefit covered by insurance companies in the future but until that happens, Eat Well can only replenish the balance on these cards for as long as they have the money to do so.
“Right now, we have to raise the funds to pay for people’s food,” she said. “You can imagine if they’re spending a million dollars a month, that’s a lot.”
Eat Well has several strategies to make sure the cards are reaching North Carolinians who need them the most.
Doctors who partner with the organization can give the cards to patients who would benefit from a healthier diet but have said they cannot afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
Eat Well has also worked with insurance companies, which look through their database of members and make a list of people with certain chronic illnesses that fall under a specified income level. Those selected members get a text message from the insurance company to sign up to receive a card online.
“Someone is just in their living room and their health plan is saying, ‘Hey, we know you need this, here it is,’” she said. “It’s like kind of changing the paradigm on what it means to receive health care.”
Sometimes, medicine isn’t the best medicine
Hoeffler said the purpose of her organization is to change how the health care system treats chronic illness.
“We cure diabetes with a pharmaceutical mentality in the U.S. and I think that’s kind of not only been expensive, but I think, in some ways dehumanizing,” she said.
She said she feels that many patients with chronic illnesses are given prescription medications — even if they have burdensome side effects — instead of the opportunity to make lifestyle changes.
Eat Well’s goal is to remove the financial barriers that can prevent low-income North Carolinians from picking out healthy foods at the grocery store.
State funding for the program began in 2020 when the General Assembly granted Eatwell $3.5 million in the budget.
With each state grant, she said, her organization has been able to target a different vulnerable group in the state. One year, they sent cards to veterans in Durham in partnership with the Durham VA. Last year, they used their money from the state budget to give the cards to people around Charlotte who were pregnant or recently gave birth.
So far, she said, it seems as if the program is working.
The 40,000 North Carolinians who are currently receiving funds from Eat Well spend about $1.5 million on fruits and vegetables per month, she said.
A study published by UNC researchers in 2021 found that an earlier iteration of Eat Well’s program, called SuperSNAP at the time, led to “meaningful increases” in healthy food purchasing.
Teddy Rosenbluth covers science and health care for The News & Observer in a position funded by Duke Health and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published December 7, 2023 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Durham company gets millions to expand access to ‘prescription’ fruits, vegetables."
