Performing Department
Community Services
Non Technical Summary
One key determinant of health is socioeconomic status -- and low socioeconomic status is associated with an increased risk for many of the chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension that are being seen in growing numbers of children and adults nationwide.In the latest Community Health Assessment survey conducted by the Kane County Health Department (Aurora is the largest City in Kane County), it was reported that 63.9% of Kane adults and 36% of the County's children were obese or overweight. The State of Illinois Obesity Prevention Initiative, meanwhile, reports that one in five Illinois children is obese and Illinois ranks 10th in the country for obese or overweight children between 10 to 17 years of age. Nationally, 25 percent of Hispanic children are obese by age 3 and Hispanic children have the highest risk for diabetes.Aurora's Farmers Market (minorities make up 59% of Aurora's 200,000 residents) and VNA Health Care (Hispanics make up 65% of the 60,000 people who receive its free health services each year) are collaborating on an initiative to provide SNAP Grant funding to combat the rise of obesity and encourage a more healthy lifestyle among the City's low-income residents.This collaborative effort, called Fresh First, offers information, opportunities and incentives for healthy eating for the youngsters in the VNA's Childhood Obesity Clinic. The children, all from SNAP-eligible families, receive a voucher for $10 to $20 from their VNA dietician to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at the weekly Farmers Markets in Aurora. Fresh First was successfully launched in 2014, and SNAP Grant funds will allow us to expand the project in 2015 to include more young people and families in VNA nutrition programs - including programs for mothers still breast-feeding their children, and first-time parents with children up to age 3.A second element of our Farmers Market nutrition effort is the Bonus Value Tokens program for all SNAP recipients. All SNAP recipients shopping at the Farmers Market will receive tokens to double their original purchase - if spending $20, a family would receive an extra $20 in tokens -- so they can buy even more fresh fruits and vegetables, leading to more nutritious eating habits.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
The goals of the Aurora's Farmers Market Fresh First program and the Bonus Value Tokens are the same - make it easier for families in the SNAP program to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables by providing them with assistance at our Farmers Market.We will use USDA funding to provide Bonus Value Tokens for all SNAP shoppers at our weekly Markets, allowing them to double their purchasing power for fresh produce -- as an example, for every $10 a SNAP recipient spends on fruits and vegetables at the Market, they will receive a $10 voucher to purchase an additional $10 worth of produce.The Bonus Value Tokens also will be offered to the low-income clients of VNA Health Care, which will be the site of a new, small-scale Farmers Market on its grounds every week during the summer. Having a Market vendor at the VNA site will make it much more convenient for SNAP recipients to purchase fresh produce at the same time they are receiving VNA Health services.The Fresh First program is a collaboration of the Aurora's Farmers Market and VNA Health Care. VNA, founded in 1918, provided free primary care to nearly 65,000 individuals in 2014. About 98% of its clients are in families at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. About 80% of its clients are minorities.Our Fresh First program has a goal of encouraging children to eat fresh, locally grown produce; to provide nutrition education with clinical dietetic support to lose weight; to combat obesity; and to reduce the risk for chronic disease.In 2014, the Farmer's Market portion of the Fresh First program operated for 15 weeks, from the second week of July through the second week of October. Of the 34 children involved in the project, 15 of their families redeemed their Fresh First vouchers at the Farmers Market for 10 weeks or more. Twenty-one families visited the market at least seven weeks, and 30 of the families involved went to the Farmers Market and redeemed the Fresh First vouchers at least once.This year, the Fresh First program will begin with the opening of the Farmers Market in the first week of June, and continue through the close of the Market season in mid-October. This USDA grant thus will allow the Fresh First program to operate for six additional weeks this year.The Fresh First program also will:Introduce a new class of about 20 children in the Childhood Obesity Program to the fresh-eating opportunities at the Farmer's Market. The elements of the Fresh First program in 2014 will be repeated for the new children joining the program.Expand Fresh First to include about 20 children in the VNA's Healthy Families Program, in which VNA staff members go out into the community to assist parents of children up to age 3. This program is targeted at first-time parents. These young families have little interaction with dieticians, and the Healthy Families Program tries to get parents to feed their children healthier food at a younger age.The VNA will also select 20 post-natal women who are still breast-feeding to work with a dietician. This project would provide nutritious food to the breast-feeding mother, who will pass that nutritional benefit on to her baby. The goals of both these programs is to provide better nutrition for these young mothers, many of whom have toddlers that are first discovering food, in an effort to support a reduction in poor birth outcomes and chronic disease.Bringing some of the farm stands from the Farmers Market to the VNA clinic itself on Wednesday mornings. This would give the VNA dieticians the opportunity to visit the market with children and families, suggesting healthy food choices right on the scene. In addition, having the farm-stand on-site will be a resource for patients and WIC families who are visiting the clinic and also for the low-income neighborhood surrounding the clinic.Offer recipes and samples of hot and cold food within the newly established VNA demonstration kitchen. With the vast majority of the families receiving care for pediatric obesity being Hispanic, this would present a great opportunity to demonstrate substituting local produce in ethnic recipes and affords the chance for participants to try samples of familiar foods with a local twist.Increase opportunities for a low-income, predominantly minority population to connect with their food source and provide hands-on education about the health and community benefits of eating local and in-season.
Project Methods
The Aurora's Farmers Market grant request is a two-pronged effort to assist area SNAP recipients with purchasing fresher, healthier foods while at the same time battling the spread of childhood obesity.In the Bonus Value Tokens segment of our request, all shoppers at the Farmers Market who use the SNAP card will receive additional funds to buy even more fresh fruits and vegetables each week. For example, a SNAP recipient who makes a $10 purchase at the Farmers Market will immediately receive tokens to purchase an additional $10 worth of fresh produce. The number of SNAP purchases and the number of tokens passed out will be calculated each week. Aurora's Farmers Market had about 400 SNAP participants in Summer 2014.We will measure the increase in purchases of fresh fruits and vegetables by SNAP recipients through monitoring the increased sales at Farmers Market vendors' stands and by the number of Tokens used. We also will survey SNAP families/individuals to find out how satisfied they are with these programs and what changes they may suggest.The second segment of our grant proposal, the Fresh First program, was initiated in 2014, with a group of 27 low-income children who had been referred by their primary care provider for nutrition counseling and education at the VNA Health Care clinic. These children, needing assistance to combat childhood obesity and chronic diseases, were enrolled by the VNA Health Care dietician in the Fresh First program at Aurora's Farmers Market. These children received vouchers for fresh fruit and vegetables amounting to $10 per week per person for redemption at the Farmers Market each week. Throughout the course of the program, children and parent/caregivers were seen once per month for nutrition counseling. In addition, members of the VNA Outreach Team had a booth at the Saturday market each week and provided program participants and the general public with samples of produce in order to increase familiarity with a variety of fruits and vegetables, encouraging experimentation and increasing intake of fresh produce.Fresh First will be offered again at the 2015 Farmers Market, with the support of the FINI SNAP Grant program, and we will expand it to include 75 participants:Offer the program for the second year to same group of children who joined and completed Fresh First 2014 in order to encourage long-term behavior change and increased engagement in community and to collect a second year of data from them. Any shortfall in participant numbers created by patients moving out of the area will be filled by new children in need of this care.Add 25 postnatal mothers who are overweight and receiving nutritional counseling by a VNA Dietician and support from a Case Manager.Add 25 'Healthy Families America' children to the Fresh First Program. Family Support Workers provide this program within the client's home to first-time low-income mothers whose children are at increased risk of child abuse. This program is provided to these new families from birth to age 3.We have chosen these groups of children and expectant/new mothers because each group is at risk of health disparity and all are receiving additional services to support behavior change from VNA staff. By expanding this program to include very young children and expectant and new mothers, we are hoping to address the incidence of obesity in Kane County prior to onset, by promoting the importance of healthy eating and by connecting participants with healthy food in their community at the time when nutrition is so important and when life habits are formed.Each group represents a small group of patients within a larger program, and will give us additional data regarding the outcomes of Fresh First, and also give us the opportunity to iron out logistical challenges associated with these new groups of patients. This will provide us with an invaluable experience that will support future expansion of Fresh First within each program area and this information will be used to leverage philanthropic support from other funders in the future.