FRESH FOOD RX

ur Fresh Food Rx Pilots and Studies

Phase 1 (2019-2020)

Through a provincial pilot of social prescribing by the Alliance for Healthier Communities and Ontario Trillium Foundation, we launched our own Fresh Food Prescription pilot in 2019. Our first pilot had 60 households using their prescriptions weekly for 12 weeks at the Community Food Markets. We partnered with the University of Guelph to evaluate the pilot closely.

Here is the study, published in the Archives of Public Health in July 2021: https://archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13690-021-00657-6

Phase 2 (2020-2022)

Fresh Food Rx received multi-year funding in partnership with the Sprott Foundation. With their support we were able to offer prescriptions to families for longer periods of time than we did in Phase 1, which led to greater health outcomes for participating households. We also received funding from The Schad Foundation that has helped increase the number of households we are able to offer prescriptions to. Prescriptions are now redeemed on our online store, Groceries from The SEED. We are partnering with the University of Guelph and the University of Victoria for evaluation and are excited to see results.

Phase 3 (2024-2027)

With generous continued support from the Schad Foundation and The Sprott Foundation and additional contributions from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Fresh Food Rx has the opportunity to continue and is growing into Phase 3. We will be doubling our capacity and will be providing accessible and nutrient dense food weekly to over 240 community members! In this phase, we will be partnering with the University of Guelph and East Wellington Outreach Services to provide services to three locations in Guelph and Wellington County.

We will continue to work alongside doctors and healthcare practitioners (dieticians, social workers) to prescribe fresh food to community members who need it for their health. In this phase we are also working alongside the University of Victoria to evaluate and better understand the impact of this program and how it could be replicated in the future.