Population: 382,226
Project focus: Access to foods that support healthy eating patterns
Goals:
- Number of health care systems who set up systems for food insecurity identification and referral
- Number of referrals made by hospitals/health centers
- Number of food pantry lists made available to hospitals
- Number of Rx for Produce programs established
- Number of Rx for Produce coupons issued, and redeemed
Approaches and Partners
Orange County Department of Health/Community Health Outreach, along with Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, Garnet Health (left the program midway through the Challenge), St. Anthony Community Hospital, The Cathedral at the House Church, Cornerstone Family Healthcare, Cornerstone Family Healthcare WIC Program, Orange County Office for the Aging, Orange County Department of Social Services, and Orange County Cornell Cooperative Extension, strove to reduce chronic disease and support partnerships that strengthened the county’s ability to identify and actively refer food insecure residents to food programs.
Successes (as of September 2022)
The Orange County project team engaged county hospitals and a health center to strengthen systems and connect residents to the resources they need. They signed contracts with a number of hospitals in the region to align food insecurity screening and referral, all while building their hospital and health center staff’s knowledge of food assistance programs. More specifically, the project team worked to set up food insecurity screenings in local hospitals to identify and refer residents who were food insecure and supplied vouchers to residents in an effort to increase purchasing power for produce at farmers markets.The project team made close to 3,000 referrals to food assistance programs and issued close to 5,000 Prescription for Produce Vouchers at health care and farmers market sites. In the second year of the program, the project team was able to extend outreach for food insecurity screenings/referrals and issuance of Prescription for Produce Vouchers to five additional sites, including farmers markets and food pantries.
Snapshot 1 (July - December 2020) | Snapshot 2 (January - June 2021) | Snapshot 3 (July - December 2021)
Resources:
Check out NACo's interviews with each of the the 10 county-based teams, including Orange County.