The FARM Rx Program

The FARM Rx Program is a produce prescription program that prescribes fruits and vegetables to patients with chronic, diet-related illnesses. This promotes healthy eating and reduces the burden of chronic disease. This prescription, paired with cooking, nutrition, and wellness classes, improves the symptoms of those illnesses as well as the health of the participants. The FARM Rx Program is a proven, evidence-based model of preventative healthcare with a demonstrated impact, resulting in healthier communities, food systems, and local economies.

Support the work of Farmrx!

Want to Participate?

FarmRx is currently done recruiting for the 2024 season. It is 100% free to participate with the program covering the cost of produce, health services, and even transportation. If eligible, participants will receive $1 a day, per family member to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at the Athens Farmers Market. That means if you have 5 members in your household, you would receive $35 each week to spend at our markets. Single individual households will receive a minimum of $14 a week.

The Why

Despite the various efforts to reduce food insecurity from national, state, and local levels, one in six Clarke County residents, or 20,320 residents, are food insecure. Of those, an estimated 35% are not likely to receive nutrition assistance through SNAP because they make more than the income eligibility threshold of 130% of the federal poverty line (Feeding America, 2019). Receiving SNAP benefits is often not enough for low-income or food insecure adults to consume federal recommendations for fruits and vegetables, which then puts them at a higher risk of certain chronic diseases (Stewart, H. et al., 2016; USDA, 2018). One solution to help reduce the incidence and burden of chronic diseases and food insecurity is to prescribe healthy food such as fruits and vegetables. FARM Rx, previously known as the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription (FVRx) Program, can help mitigate Athens’ dire food insecurity problem by providing access to fresh, local produce while improving diet quality to help guard against future diet-related diseases. This program also helps those in the Athens community by putting money right back into the community. Since the program began, $241,716 worth of local family farm produce has been given to the participants.

The How

The primary goal of the FARM Rx program is to improve the long-term health of the participants by increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables and providing supplemental health education. These efforts are made to facilitate long-term lifestyle changes. Participants are involved with the program for 6 months and are given produce at $1 a day per person in their household. Participants are able to learn how to utilize fresh produce, save money on their grocery bills, and make healthier choices when shopping. The FARM Rx program provides these families with the knowledge and tools to live healthier lives, lifestyle changes that persist long past the 6 months.

"Thank you all for your caring and hard work. My daughter and I have been so blessed with favorites we wouldn't otherwise have afforded. In addition to so many wonderful fresh veggies with meals, we've made roasted garlic paste, it's absolutely wonderful in fresh hummus. To have the herbs, garlic and ginger, fresh peppers. We have cooked more these last few months than during the whole pandemic. Ginger, pepper pickled daikon and carrots. Peppers on roasted sweet potatoes has become a fav.”
*This is a small piece of a thank you note from a recent recipient of our FarmRX program.*

To be eligible, each participant must be:

18 years or older
Food insecure
Have a diet-related illness such as
- obesity
- hypertension
- diabetes
- heart disease
Able to store and prepare produce
Able to attend one weekly class
Able to shop at one market a week

If eligible, participants will receive the full benefits of the program, including:

Free fruits and vegetables throughout the 6 month program
Fun and informative classes
Connection to community
Health checkups
Increased cooking knowledge and skill
SNAP Enrollment Assistance
Transportation financial assistance to markets, classes, and health checkups

If you are interested in this program, please fill out this form. In addition to basic information to screen for eligibility, this form will ask for your contact information. This information will remain private and will only be used by the FarmRx coordinator to contact you regarding the program.

If you have any questions, feel welcome to email Maya, the FarmRx Manager, at afmfarmrx@gmail.com.

Program Results

In 2021, there was an 85% completion rate of the FARM Rx program. Of the prescriptions prescribed to participants, 97.4% of them were redeemed. Additionally, by shopping with prescriptions at the Athens Farmers Market, over $17,000 went to support local, small-scale farmers. Some of the most common skills that participants emphasized they learned through the program included:

how to cook healthy foods
how to meal plan
how to eat healthily
how to read nutrition labels.

References:

Feeding America. (2019). Map The Meal Gap 2019 - A Report on County and Congressional District Food Insecurity and County Food Cost in the United States in 2017. Retrieved from https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2019-05/2017-map-the-meal-gap-full.pdf

Stewart, H., et al., The Cost of Satisfying Fruit and Vegetable Recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines. 2016.

We could not sustain the work of the FARMRx program without the support of:

The Ramon C. and Amanda H. Thompson Fund
The UGA Friends of the Farmers Market Program
Emmanuel Episcopal Church MEMC
UGA SNAP-Ed Department
P.L.A.C.E

Our Partners

The current partners for the FARM Rx program include Mercy Health Center, Athens Cooperative Extension Office/UGA SNAP-Ed (Food Talk and Better U), Collective Harvest, and Wholesome Wave Georgia.

Mercy Health Center provides quality, whole-person healthcare to underserved neighbors through a community of volunteers.

Athens Cooperative Extension Office provides the educational portion of the FARM Rx Program through their SNAP-Ed curriculum. The goal of this educational program is to encourage participants to make healthy food and lifestyle choices, extending the influence of our program past the original 6 months.

Wholesome Wave Georgia’s mission is to facilitate access and awareness to healthy food choices for all Georgians in need through local farmers and community partners.