Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The Más Verduras (More Vegetables) Program will take place in the South Bronx. Patients at our Healthcare Partner, Urban Health Plan, who have uncontrolled diabetes, receive Medicare, and screen positive for food insecurity will be referred into the program. Participants will get $100 per month for 12 months if their household is 1-2 people and $150 per month for 12 months if their household is 3 plus people. Once enrolled in the program, participants will receive a card, supplied and programmed by InComm Healthcare, to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at a network of over 1,000 grocery stores in NYC. Participants will also meet with an assigned community coordinator monthly to discuss any issues they are having with their benefits. Participants will also have the chance to participate in Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) classes. Effectiveness will be measured through pre/post participation surveys, clinical data, and medical claims data. For the first year of the grant period our target audience consisted of our healthcare partner, Urban Health Plan, and, InComm, the vendor who would serve as our incentive card distributor. We had ongoing meetings to negotiate terms of agreement on rendering services to support the implementation of the program as well as data use agreements to ensure confidentiality is maintained in relation to personal health information. Changes/Problems:We have experienced significant delays with finalizing contracts and data use agreements for this project. We plan to apply for a no-cost extension for an additional year to ensure we complete the intended program and evaluation. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our staff attended the annual USDA Project Director meeting in New Orleans, where we had the opportunity to connect with and learn from prescription produce programs around the country. The Mas Verduras project has also provided training opportunities through the GusNIP Mini-Convening in June of 2024. Two of our staff were able to meet with produce prescription programs from across the country and region to exchange best practices. This has helped us refine our program prior to launch.? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the past reporting period we overcame major contracting hurdles and plan to recruit the first cohort of the Mas Verduras program. We have finalized our recruitment flyer to be distributed to Urban Health Plan patients and have designed a training session to orient Urban Health Plan clinical staff to the program with instruction on how to refer patients to Mas Verduras. We are actively interviewing a facilitator for our Diabetes Self-Management and Support Classes. We have collected a list of interested community based organizations that will join our learning community to help exchange best practices and disseminate the findings of our project. During this time, we also finalized our evaluation materials and secured Institutional Review Board approval for this project. As we enter the next reporting period, we are ready to launch the program and enroll participants in our first cohort.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Nothing to report

Publications