Mary

Connolly
Univeristy of Michigan School of Public Health
Nutri:onal Sciences
Abstract

Area Demographics

This summer I had the privilege of working with Prescrip9on for Health, a program
based out of Washtenaw County Public Health. Prescrip9on for Health works with local
clinics out of Milan, Ypsilan9 and Chelsea to provide pa9ents who are at high risk for
chronic disease and food insecurity a prescrip9on for fresh food at the farmers
market. In partnership with the clinics, Washtenaw County Public Health, St. Joseph
Mercy Health System, and local farmers markets pa9ents receive access to not only
fresh food at the farmers market, but nutri9on and health resources provided by
community health workers.

My goals for this internship were to learn the most eec9ve ways to communicate
nutri9on to a diverse popula9on and discover if the resources provided created las9ng
eects on its par9cipants. Through the numerous enrollment sessions for par9cipants
of the program I furthered developed my leadership and educa9on skills by teaching
the basics of nutri9on and explaining to pa9ents how to eec9vely take advantage of
program resources. In addi9on I developed a series of educa9onal events at the
farmers market that challenged me to create lesson plans that were applicable a wide
variety of life stages and educa9on backgrounds. These events taught me how to
priori9ze certain nutri9on informa9on to an underserved community that lacks many
nutri9on resources.

In addi9on to the heavy community aspect to this program it also serves to evaluate
the health benets of people having access to fresh healthy foods and nutri9on
educa9on, further developing county public health ini9a9ves. This required me to
learn more about how to input and analyze per9nent data into SPSS. Through
Prescrip9on for Health I learned how to create successful and las9ng rela9onships in
the community that allowed us to provide needed health resources that lead to
posi9ve health outcomes.

Introduc.on

Prescrip9on for Health is a program that partners with local clinics to link pa9ents that
are at high risk for chronic disease and food insecurity with fresh food at the farmers
market. Each par9cipant receives ten tokens valuing at $1 each for every market visit,
the par9cipants are able to redeem tokens a total of ten 9mes, valuing the prescrip9on
at $100. When the par9cipants visit the market they are prompted to set a weekly
health goal and discuss their progress in the program with a community health worker.
This structure fosters rela9onships among the program partners and the par9cipants
to work together towards bePer health and invigorate the local food economy.

Learned how to priori9ze nutri9on educa9on to dierent popula9ons

Created learning modules that were understandable to a diverse audience
Experience with SPSS data entry and analysis
Gained leadership and organiza9on skills required to run a successful public health
program
Improved pa9ent rela9ons and communica9on
Cul9vated program partnerships in order to reach a wide variety of community
members
Established rela9onships with other community health coordinators and local food
distributors

Program Success

Figure 2 and Table 1 taken from: hCp://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/

departments/public_health/health-promo.on/hip/pdfs/ypsilan._report

Taken from: hCps://secure2.ewashtenaw.org/hos.ng/public_health/pK_pig/pK_pig_for_web.pdf

Learning Goals
1. Develop ecient and relatable ways to communicate nutri9on to a diverse
popula9on
2. Input and analyze data to survey public health programs
3. Establish meaningful rela9onships with pa9ents and program partners
4. BePer understand how the assess the needs of a community

Learning Outcomes

Example of par.cipant prescrip.on card:

Future Direc.ons
Con9nue to work with underserved pa9ent popula9ons and food insecure
communi9es
Further research and establish community resources that empower people to gain
vital nutri9on skills like cooking and food preserva9on
Seek to work closely with local food systems to provide safe, nutrient rich produce
to communi9es
Create relatable and easy to understand nutri9on educa9on resources
Further improve my knowledge and skills related to data collec9on and analysis

Acknowledgements
Ariane Riester RD, MPH
Charles Wilson MPH
Suzanne Cole PhD