Harlem-based Corbin Hill Food Project secured an additional $500k funding for its Food as Medicine project in partnership with Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Institute for Family Health's Bronx Health REACH Project, bringing the total funding to $1 million. The programmatic innovations, guided by values of food sovereignty, centers community needs through:
- Reaching underserved, marginalized populations including the formerly justice-involved and homeless individuals through targeted partnerships with Fortune Society and Harlem Wellness Center
- Removing transportation barriers for disabled, home-bound seniors by opening additional farm share sites directly in Harlem and Bronx housing complexes
- Minimizing registration barriers by having pre-assessment surveys administered on site rather than requiring participants to travel to clinics
- Enabling ongoing participant feedback through a Community Council made up of participants to guide and assess the program's implementation
- Expanding the program's reach in the community via integration of live, recorded, and broadcast culturally-centered nutrition education by Bronx-native, trained natural foods Chef and Food Network star Yadi Garcia ("Happy Healthy Latina")
- Funding a gifting program where participants can gift a produce box to anyone without limits as to whom they chose to gift
"Together, we are reframing Food as Medicine from a community perspective rather than solely from the perspectives of clinicians, hospitals, or insurance companies in deciding what healthy means for our community," says Dennis Derryck, co-founder and co-executive director of Corbin Hill Food Project.
"We cannot continue the status quo of treating people as only patients or consumers. Through our program, we're attempting a new model that centers equitable access and allows communities to have a voice and make decisions regarding food programs that support their health and wellbeing," says Derryck.
Food as Medicine is supported by a Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, Produce Prescription grant from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
"We congratulate Corbin Hill Food Project and its array of innovative approaches it has brought to this NIFA Food as Medicine grant. The innovations are linked to shift power relationships while directly addressing the structural inequalities around decision-making represents one way to balance the role of clinicians and the voices of a community towards healthy eating. These efforts support our own mission to advance research to understand structural inequalities and works to identify groundbreaking ways to promote equity," says Darrick Hamilton, Professor, The Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, Founding Director of the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy.
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Corbin Hill Food Project on their transformative Food as Medicine program because of its innovative empowerment design and because it will substantially strengthen our food and nutrition program. Throughout our history, The Fortune Society has supported individuals who have experienced incarceration and homelessness--many in our housing programs are seniors who are all too familiar with lack of agency and choice as well as poor food options. With Food as Medicine, our Bronx and Manhattan tenants will have an opportunity to enjoy culturally appropriate, nutritious, accessible, and affordable foods that can improve their health and wellness--and they can do so on their terms," said JoAnne Page, president and CEO, The Fortune Society.
"Harlem Wellness Center is excited to continue its partnership with Corbin Hill Food Project through the Food as Medicine Program (FAM). FAM aligns with Harlem Wellness Center's mission to close the racial health gap through access to innovative holistic wellness programs that empower individuals, strengthen communities, and create environments where all can connect, heal and thrive. A stable diet supports immune health, and is foundational for physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Throughout the pandemic, Harlem Wellness Center has partnered with Corbin Hill Food Project, in distributing thousands of farm shares via senior centers, family shelters, city housing and CBOs in Upper Manhattan. Through intersecting values and interest in food security and access, we understand the ongoing and increasing need to democratize access to high quality nutrient dense foods. The Food as Medicine Program is an ambitious endeavor that propels us towards this aim," says Vivian Williams- Kurutz, executive director, Harlem Wellness Center.
"The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is a proud partner to the Corbin Hill Food Project on its Food as Medicine project. This innovative grant from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture builds upon efforts to bridge the voices of clinicians with those of the community, and in doing so, transforms the patient-doctor relationship. Our partnership has been cultivated over the past five years in an effort to expand patient care beyond traditional medicine and include affordable access to fruits and vegetables. This program will provide fresh produce to families at our pediatric practice, to elderly residents of Harlem, and to residents living in both subsidized and supportive housing. We look forward to continuing our partnership as we address access to healthy and nutritious food that is culturally grounded," said Robert Fields, MD, MHA, executive vice president and chief population health officer for the Mount Sinai Health System.
"We are thrilled to partner with Corbin Hill Food Project to increase access to fresh vegetables and fruits through Food as Medicine at two of our Institute for Family Health health centers in the Bronx. Through this partnership, providers are able to offer produce prescriptions to food insecure patients that can then be filled onsite with high quality, fresh produce on a biweekly basis. This program recognizes the importance of community-clinical relationships when it comes to the health of our patients," said Charmaine Ruddock, project director at Bronx Health REACH.
"This grant enhancement and program present a unique and historic opportunity. Together we can reimagine and reframe the way in which we empower, educate and honor food equity as well as sovereignty while deeply impacting health outcomes for our community members through a lens of dignity, culturally relevant health and wellness, as well root in to the communal power already accessible when we weave a collaborative web between institutions, organizations, and community members as equal stakeholders. I look forward to partnering with each organization through Corbin Hill Food Project to provide innovative culinary and nutrition education programming that empowers participants to use food as medicine, through culturally diverse and conscious applications tailored to each site and community," says Chef Yadira Garcia, Happy Healthy Latina.
Categories: New York, General