Food-As-Medicine Model Empowering Pregnant Latina Women

by Christine Stuart

Either you’re nauseous or your starving when you’re pregnant. There’s no in between, but what you decide to put in your mouth matters and that’s why the Hispanic Health Council is teaming up with Wholesome Wave to give pregnant mothers a fighting chance with a new food-as-medicine model study.
Yeny Miguel Vasquez was one of the participants in the first wave.
Vasquez said she would crave sweets in her second trimester, but she really wanted to improve her diet and that’s when she discovered watermelon.

Vasquez like the other 19 women in the first study group recieved $100 a month for 10 months to spend on fresh fruit and vegetables. Vasquez chose the option of going to the store to shop for her own fruits and vegetables, which she admits was intimidating at first.
But she knew nutrition was important to the health of her baby.
Food4Moms selected two redemption partners: Fresh Connect, which provides a debit card to be used at local participating stores, and Umoja Food for Health, which delivers a box of produce twice a month.

Twenty women who are Latina and low-income in Hartford were chosen for the first wave of the study. The second wave includes 40 women and the most recent includes 80.
“We know that food insecurity and diet-related diseases disproportionately impact communities of color. Our goal is for produce prescription programs like Food4Moms to be fully integrated in Husky Health, Connecticut’s Medicaid program,” Michel Nischan, co-founder of Wholesome Wave, said.
Vasquez said she will continue to work fruits and vegetables into her diet and the diet of her new baby.

“Research shows that Latina women are not consuming enough fresh fruits and vegetables during pregnancy and that there are systemic structural barriers preventing them from doing so,“ Yale School of Public Health Professor Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, the lead researcher from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in New Haven, said. “Our community-centered approach includes co-designing the produce prescription (PRx) model together with Latina mothers themselves, the Hispanic Health Council staff, and other key partners to maximize the intervention’s impact.”
Vasquez said she intends to spread the word about the program to other pregnant women.
The program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Point32Health Foundation, in collaboration with three leading public health organizations, Wholesome Wave, the Hispanic Health Council, and Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC).

“At Wholesome Wave, we believe people should not only be able to get enough food when times get tough, but to also get the healthy foods they need to thrive and prevent diet debilitating diseases like diabetes and heart disease,” Nischan said.