Sunflower Foundation is proud to have supported the work that went into evaluating, writing and publishing a peer reviewed manuscript co-authored by members of our Food is Medicine Evaluation and Advisory Team (EAT) – Marianna Wetherill, PhD, MPH, RD/LD of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Kristina Bridges, PhD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Susan Harvey, PhD, of the University of Kansas – along with Sunflower program team members Brandon Skidmore, Elizabeth Burger and Gabrielle Talavera.
The article, “Planting Seeds for Food is Medicine: Pre-implementation Planning Methods and Formative Evaluation Findings from a Multi-clinic Initiative in the Midwest,” recently was published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.
While Food is Medicine programs are gaining momentum nationally to address nutrition-related health disparities, health care professionals are still in the early phases of implementation of such initiatives. The manuscript lays out the argument that for a new Food is Medicine initiative to be most successful, it is critical that funders, clinic stakeholders and evaluators work together to devise and financially support pre-implementation planning.
The article delves into the key pre-implementation planning methods that were used by Sunflower’s team to successfully engage the federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) across Kansas that are participating in Sunflower’s statewide Food is Medicine program, which targets patients in the primary care safety net system and provides them with medically-tailored groceries and wraparound education to help them better manage their chronic illness.
We are passionate about our Food is Medicine initiative and helping create a model of care that focuses on the critical role nutrition plays in preventing, treating and managing chronic disease. With that in mind, we are proud of our team and their contributions to the Food is Medicine knowledge base and hope their work and its conclusions can benefit future Food is Medicine initiatives.