Advocacy Pathway
Community Pediatrics
Environmental Health
General Pediatrics
Health Equity/Social Determinants of Health
Health Services Research
Obesity
Pediatric Nutrition
Public Health
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Senbagam Virudachalam, MD, MSHP (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Hilary Seligman, MD, MAS
Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States
Lydia Kim, MD MPH
Pediatrician
Northern Navajo Medical Center
Shiprock, New Mexico, United States
Fewer than twenty percent of American children and adults eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables daily, despite the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption for promoting health and preventing chronic disease. Low-income, minority Americans fare even worse, consuming diets lower in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and higher in salt, fat, and sugar than their high-income, white counterparts. Reasons for this disparity include an inability to afford healthy foods, ready access to processed, shelf-stable foods, and unhealthy generational changes in family-level food habits in response to food system policies that disproportionately affected low-income, minority communities. Produce prescriptions are one way to provide low-income families with resources and support to regularly purchase fruits and vegetables. These programs are being broadly implemented in pediatric clinical settings across the US. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of key federal nutrition policies, food is medicine interventions, and evidence regarding produce prescription programs. We will then review three examples of produce prescription programs in varied pediatric contexts: EatSF in San Francisco, Navajo FVRx Program on Navajo Nation, and Food Bucks Rx in Philadelphia. These programs were chosen to offer illustrations of heterogenous implementation in rural and urban settings, tribal communities, and partnerships with the food sector. We will highlight key program elements that have allowed for successful adoption and implementation. Finally, attendees will work in small groups to plan for developing, evaluating, and sustaining produce prescription programs in their communities, one step on the path to food equity.