Source: WHOLESOME WAVE GEORGIA INCORPORATED submitted to NRP
GEORGIA FOOD FOR HEALTH
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1028889
Grant No.
2022-70422-37756
Cumulative Award Amt.
$478,783.00
Proposal No.
2022-06169
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2022
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2026
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[PPR]- Produce Prescription
Recipient Organization
WHOLESOME WAVE GEORGIA INCORPORATED
2033 HOSEA L WILLIAMS DR SE STE 2
ATLANTA,GA 30317
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Georgia Food for Health (GF4H) program is the Southeast's first fruit and vegetable prescription program. Wholesome Wave Georgia (WWG) is seeking funding to grow the GF4H program and improve health outcomes for participants. The funding will help WWG implement its plans to increase the number of locations that offer the GF4H program and increase the level of participation in the program. Utilizing input provided by community members and partner experts will provide effective core strategies, WWG will expand the program to locations across the state with high rates of low income and low healthy food access. WWG is seeking to work with smaller health clinics located near farmers markets and farm stands that participate in WWG's Georgia Fresh for Less (GF4L), GF4L is a nutrition incentive program that matches SNAP dollars for local fruits and vegetables.. WWG has also identified strategic partners to provide communications assistance, not only in terms of being able to procure the foods, but also how to prepare and consume them properly for their nutritional content.The stated goals of GF4H are in alignment with the goals of GusNIP PP. Goal 1: Increase awareness of and participation in GF4H program. In an effort to increase the use of GF4H prescriptions in the local food economy; WWG seeks to increase the number of participating sites to 5 by the end of year 3 and increase the number of participants in the program to 250, up from 120 today. Goal 2: Improve health outcomes for GF4H families; documentation goal is to have 60% of participants self-report improve BMI status at the end of Year 1. This is expected to increase to 65% and 70% at the ends of Years 2 and 3 respectively. Goal 3: Educate GF4H families in how to utilize the program to access the produce as well as how to cook the fruits and vegetables in a safe and healthy manner. WWG aims to have 70% of participants self-report increased competency at preparing fresh healthy foods on a budget at the end of Year 1.This is expected to increase to 75% and 80% at the ends of Years 2 and 3 respectively.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
70460993030100%
Knowledge Area
704 - Nutrition and Hunger in the Population;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3030 - Information and communication;
Goals / Objectives
Utilizing input provided by community members and partner experts and its effective core strategies, WWG will expand the program to locations across the state with high rates of low income and low access. WWG is seeking to work with smaller health clinics located near farmers markets and farm stands that participate in WWG's Georgia Fresh for Less program. The intended goals: 1) awareness of and participation in GF4H; 2) the purchase of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables by SNAP recipients; 3) the ability of WWG to reach to underserved Georgians and provide locally and regionally grown fruits and vegetables that are culturally appropriate and (4) improved health outcomes for our participants.These outcomes directly contribute to the GusNIP grant program's primary goal of "increasing the purchase of fruits and vegetables by low-income consumers participating in SNAP by providing incentives at the point of purchase, using effective and efficient benefit redemption technologies." Proposed outcomes will measure the increase in the purchase of FINI-qualifying fruits and vegetables among participating SNAP recipients and the impact of the new strategies on program utilization.Specifically, we will use the requested grant funding to achieve the following goals:Goal 1: Increase awareness of and participation in GF4H programIn an effort to increase the use of GF4H prescriptions in the local food economy, WWG seeks to increase the number of participating sites to 5 by the end of year 3 and increase the number of participants in the program to 250, up from 120 todayGoal 2: Improve health outcomes for GF4H familiesWWG aims to have 60% of participants self report improve BMI status at the end of Year 1. This is expected to increase to 65% and 70% at the ends of Years 2 and 3 respectively.Goal 3: Educate GF4H familiesWWG aims to have 70% of participants self report increased competency at preparing fresh healthy foods on a budget at the end of Year 1. This is expected to increase to 75% and 80% at?cthe ends of Years 2 and 3 respectively.
Project Methods
Working with a highly qualified external evaluator, WWG will conduct both a process and an outcome evaluation to document the impact of and the successes, challenges and lessons learned in developing and implementing the project and expanding GF4H to additional locations. WWG will work with the FINI independent evaluator to provide required site, project and incentive program information and collect core participant-level and firm-level metrics for submission to NTAE and for inclusion in the annual report. The evaluator and program staff will meet with staff from NIFA, FNS, the NTAE centers and other grantees periodically to review project plans, evaluation objectives and activities and to facilitate access to data and participants as needed.WWG will institute Data Use Agreements with each participating location and retailer that requires the submission of core program data and completion of the NTAE's firm survey and the WWG's retail partner survey. WWG does not anticipate any challenges meeting these requirements as GF4L has strong working relationships with existing retailers and already collects much of this data for existing evaluation efforts. Previously, obtaining customer surveys proved challenging but WWG created a successful competition among farmers market managers designed to increase survey participation.WWG has considerable experience evaluating both the process and the outcomes of the GF4H program. Currently, staff track program implementation, participation and utilization and evaluate the effectiveness of partner trainings via evaluation surveys. To conduct the process evaluation, WWG's external evaluator will track and assess program implementation and conduct interviews and focus groups with market managers of selected markets and retail sites, WWG staff and with program participants to gather information on the process of implementing the project, the successes and challenges faced and opportunities for improvement. Focus groups with market managers and program participants will be held in Year 1 of the project to gather information that can be used for programmatic development and improvement. In Years 2 and 3, focus groups and interviews with selected healthcare staff, WWG staff and program participants will be conducted to assess perceptions of program impact and successes and challenges faced.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The Georgia Food for Health program successfully enrolled and engaged 214 participants at two sites during the 2023program year. Theenrolled participants were recruited from our target audience of adults 18 and older, those reportinghousehold food insecurity, and thosediagnosed with or at risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or other diet-related chronic disease. Changes/Problems:During the 2023 reporting year, we have decided to deactivate one of our sites, Good Samaritan, due to their low redemptions and graduation rate, lack of communication, and general lack of staff capacity to support the program in the manner needed to facilitate success. This decision was made by the site itself after holding multiple open discussions with the site leadership. We hopethis site can become active again during this grant cycle, but that will rely on the site's staff capacity and priorities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Attending the Health and Human Services Food in Medicine Summit in January 2024 Attending the "New to GusNIP" Mini Convening in May 2024 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Evaluation results of our programming have been communicated directly to the partners at each site, through our Healthy Georgia Advisory Committee, and through infographics that we have shared with our audiences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We havedeveloped relationships with two healthcare systems that will supportimprovements to the educationand biometriccollections. Additionally, we are engaging with interdisciplinary evaluators from the University of Georgia to improve our survey tools and evaluation. Last, we have plans to launch three additional sites in the 2024 program year.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Increase awareness of and participation in GF4H program:The 2024program enrolled 214participants at 2sites, 55 individuals more than in 2023. We have established effective recruitment methods in partnership with healthcare providers andare on track to surpass our goal of 250 participants for the 2025 programmatic year. Goal 2: Improve health outcomes for GF4H families:Participants enrolled in the program for 3 months or less saw an average weight decrease of 1.98 pounds, and participantsenrolled in the program for 4+ months saw an average weight decrease of 4.63 pounds. Goal 3: Educate GF4H families:On a five-point scale, we only sawa 0.01 increase to the statement "I am confident I can cook healthy foods" between the pre and post-program surveys. However, using the same scale, we saw a0.46 increase to the statement "I can control my own health" between the pre and post-program surveys.

Publications


    Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The Georgia Food for Health program successfully enrolled and engaged 159 participants at three sites during the 2023 program year. The enrolled participants were recruited from our target audience of adults 18 and older, those reporting household food insecurity, and those diagnosed with or at risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or other diet-related chronic disease. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported 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 next reporting period, we will be able to evaluate the metrics collected throughout the 2023 program, including biometrics, attitudes, behaviors, competency, and qualitative feedback from focus groups. This evaluation will be used to improve and expand the program for the 2024 program year.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? This program year, the Georgia Food for Health program has made strides towards achieving each of the project'sthree goals: Goal 1: Increase awareness of and participation in GF4H program- The 2023 program enrolled 159 participants at 3 sites, surpassing the goal of 150 and up from 144 participants in 2022. Goal 2: Improve health outcomes for GF4H families- The 2023 program collected participant biometrics including height/weight(BMI) and blood pressure. The Food for Health program is still in progess as of July 31, 2023, so the change in health outcomes from pre- to post-program has not yet been evaluated. Goal 3: Educate GF4H families-The 2023 program collected information on participant attitudes,behaviors, and competencyaround cooking and eating healthy foods on a budget via a pre- and post-program survey.The Food for Health program is still in progess as of July 31, 2023, so the change in attitudes,behaviors, and competency from pre- to post-program has not yet been evaluated.

    Publications