Anti-Hunger Programs that Improve Health and Reduce Healthcare Costs

Poverty and food insecurity, which are closely related, correlate with some of the most serious and costly health problems in the United States. These issues, rarely exist in isolation, as low-income individuals and families are often impacted by many overlapping issues including lack of affordable housing, low wages, unemployment, high medical costs, social isolation, and chronic or acute health problems. Numerous studies have demonstrated that reducing food insecurity can lead to improved health outcomes, a decreased reliance on hospital utilization, and lowered healthcare costs (see HERE, HERE, and HERE).

Below are links to research about a number of anti-hunger programs that have proven to be successful in improving health and reducing healthcare costs.

Produce Prescription Programs

• Implementing a Food is Medicine Program to Address Food Insecurity in an Academic Medical Center (Nursing Care Quality)
• Lessons Learned from Implementation of the Food Insecurity Screening and Referral Program at Kaiser Permanente Colorado (The Permanente Journal)
• Veggie Rx: An Outcome Evaluation of a Healthy Food Incentive Programme (Public Health Nutrition)
• Dietary Impact of Produce Prescriptions for Patients With Hypertension (CDC)

Impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Healthcare Costs and Food Insecurity

• Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Affect Hospital Utilization Among Older Adults? The Case of Maryland (Population Health Management)
• Association Between Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence Among Older Adults With Diabetes (JAMA Internal Medicine)
• Interventions to Address Household Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries (Proceedings of the Nutrition Society)
• Food Insecurity And Health Outcomes (Health Affairs)

Medically-Tailored Meals

• “I Was Able to Eat What I am Supposed to Eat”– Patient Reflections on a Medically-Tailored Meal Intervention: A Qualitative Analysis (BMC Endocrine Disorders)
• Association Between Receipt of a Medically Tailored Meal Program and Health Care Use (JAMA Internal Medicine)
• Medically Tailored Meals as a Prescription for Treatment of Food-Insecure Type 2 Diabetics (J Patient Cent Res Rev.)
• Medically Tailored Meal Delivery for Diabetes Patients with Food Insecurity: A Randomized Cross-over Trial (J Gen Intern Med) 
• Meal Delivery Programs Reduce The Use of Costly Health Care in Dually Eligible Medicare And Medicaid Beneficiaries (Health Affairs)
• Developing Symptom Management Quality Improvement Reports With Data From A Registry-based Patient Reported Outcomes (Pro) Collection Method. (American Society of Clinical Oncology)

Health Bucks/EBT Spending at Farmers’ Markets

• Peer Reviewed: Implementing a Farmers’ Market Incentive Program: Perspectives on the New York City Health Bucks Program (Preventing Chronic Disease)
• Peer Reviewed: The Impact of New York City’s Health Bucks Program on Electronic Benefit Transfer Spending at Farmers Markets, 2006–2009 (Preventing Chronic Disease)
• Assessing the Impact of the “Health Bucks” Program on Cardiovascular Disease in New York City: A Modeling Study (Circulation)
• Impacts of a Farmers’ Market Incentive Programme on Fruit and Vegetable Access, Purchase and Consumption (Public Health Nutrition)
• Increasing Access to Fruits and Vegetables: Perspectives From the New York City Experience (American Journal of Public Health)
• Formative Activities in Support of an Evaluation of the New York City Health Bucks Program (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics)
• CNY Health Bucks: Connecting Low-Income Households to Local Fruits and Vegetables (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics)
• A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a SNAP-Ed Farmers’ Market-Based Nutrition Education Program (Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior)
• Impact of a Focused Nutrition Educational Intervention Coupled With Improved Access To Fresh Produce on Purchasing Behavior and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables in Overweight Patients With Diabetes Mellitus (Diabetes Education)
• Double Up Food Bucks: A Qualitative Evaluation of Usage, Impact, Barriers, and Facilitators (Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior)

Urban Gardens and Their Relationship with Food Insecurity

• Growing ‘Good Food’: Urban Gardens, Culturally Acceptable Produce and Food Security (Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems)
• Urban Gardens, Agriculture, and Water Management: Sources of Resilience for Long-term Food Security in Cities (Ecological Economics)
• Urban Vegetable for Food Security in Cities. A Review (Agron. Sustain. Dev)
• Urban Agriculture as a Solution to Food Insecurity: West Oakland and People’s Grocery (Urban Action)
• Functional Foods and Urban Agriculture: Two Responses to Climate Change-Related Food Insecurity (NSW Public Health Bulletin)
• Environmental Reviews & Case Studies: D-Town Farm: African American Resistance to Food Insecurity and the Transformation of Detroit (Environmental Practice)
• Agropolis: The Role of Urban Agriculture in Addressing Food Insecurity in Developing Countries (Journal of International Affairs)
• Community Gardens and Wellbeing Amongst Vulnerable Populations: A Thematic Review (Health Promotion International)

School Wellness Policies

• Effect of School Wellness Policies and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act on Food-Consumption Behaviors of Students, 2006–2016: A Systematic Review (Nutr Rev)
• A Systematic Review of the Evaluation of Interventions to Tackle Children’s Food Insecurity (Curr Nutr Rep)