University of Arizona receives $500K for SNAP nutrition incentive program

This proposal uniquely and innovatively brings together an entire community circle of participants from local doctors to nearby refugee farmers to increase the consumption of fresh vegetables of needy SNAP individuals. First el rio health doctors will prescribe SNAP individuals that need to increase their consumption of fresh vegetables with a prescription and gift certificate that has a qr code for purchasing a box of fresh vegetables at tucson village farm (tvf) in conjunction with SNAP dollars. Next tvf which is part of ua pima county cooperative extension will schedule SNAP individuals using the qr code and they are also set up to receive SNAP dollars as payment. In addition tvf will provide monthly family education at their farm and kitchen where culinary chef education will be demonstrated on how to prepare various fresh vegetables so they are tasty and become a part of a family's regular diet and traditions. Lastly new roots refugee farmers associated with irc have been growing on ua campus ag center land that borders tvf for the last 2 to 3 years as part of a beginning farmer grant. These farmers have demonstrated the capacity to produce fresh vegetables throughout most of the year on this site. This project will provide both a good market that is next door to them and a funding source/formal agreement to allow them to keep producing as they have been on this site after the current beginning farmer project expires in 2027.our overarching goal is to provide and demonstrate how the uptake of more fresh vegetables validates farmacy intervention as a holistic health approach for a community. Our first priority is to collaborate with healthcare providers in identifying adults within el rio healthwho have or are at risk for a diet-related chronic health condition (dhc) and are enrolled in the state medicaid program the Arizona health care cost containment system (ahcccs).our focus will be on those with dhc for which there is good evidence that consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables reduces the severity of the conditions:prediabetes diabetes metabolic syndrome hypertension hypercholesteremia hypertriglyceridemia and cardiovascular disease. Regular education is provided by tvf to not only k-12 students but also parents and grandparents with family-oriented events.our project is aimed at changing individual adults' eating habits however our experience as educators farmers and healthcare providers is that these habits occur in the context of family and community. While adults model eating behavior for children children's preferences also influence adults' menu planning shopping and cooking. Thus themonthly culinary chef trainings to impact individual family and community health and well-being.qualtrics is the software program we are proposing to ua irb for obtaining questionnaire responses from SNAP participants. Participants will be requested to provide baseline information on their health and diet whenthey obtain their first gift card for a farmacy box. Information regarding how they prepared the vegetables how many individuals in their family consumed them and what percentage of the product was actually consumed will be solicited about 1 week after they receive their farmacy box. Mobile smart phone numbers will be used for sending text messages with links to short qualtics survey forms for SNAP participants to provide feedback. These phone numbers will also be utilized for coordinating the schedule and logistics associated with picking up farmacy boxes. Phone numbers will also be utilized to remind them of registering for a family-oriented chef culinary training that will occur each month and also provide them with another gift card to help them purchase another farmacy box. Six months after individuals obtain their first farmacy box we will solicit them with questions on how often they currently consume produce each week compared to six months earlier and how often they have used healthcare in the prior six months. Comparisons will also be made with what they provided in their baseline information.a secure web-based cloud platform (i.e. Box) supported by the ua will be used to house the qualtrics survey and participant responses along with other project information. Statistical programs such as stata™ and r will be used to quantitatively analyze responses and to identify significant differences in diet and healthcare visits related to the farmacy boxes and education received.