With food insecurity on the rise, Connecticut Children’s developed and launched a new effort to provide fruit and vegetable prescriptions to families visiting the Emergency Department that screen positive for food insecurity. The goal is to meet families’ needs and increase healthy eating by providing a prescription for health.
The Start Childhood Off Right program at Connecticut Children’s received a Cigna Healthier Kids For Our Future grant to fund the prescription for health program. Families that visit Connecticut Children’s Emergency Department during select days and times are asked if they would like to participate in the screening. If the answer is yes, the families are asked two questions from the Hunger Vital Sign screener:
- Within the past 12 months, we worried about whether our food would run out, before we got money to buy more: often true, sometimes true, never true.
- Within the past 12 months, the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to buy more: often true, sometimes true, never true.
If a family answers “often” or “sometimes true” to either question, it is considered a positive screen and they are asked follow up questions. Those who screen positive are provided with a $20 voucher, which they are able to redeem right outside the Emergency Department entrance on Mondays and Thursdays at a Harford Food System fruit and vegetable stand or at other Hartford Food System mobile market locations around the city. Start Childhood Off Right is also reaching out to other community partners to expand voucher redemption opportunities.
