WASHINGTON, DC - As part of its efforts to scale the United States’ use of produce prescriptions, the National Produce Prescription Collaborative hosted a fly-in that coincided with the first comprehensive Food is Medicine Summit put on by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Serving on the collaborative’s steering committee is the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), which continues to use its platform to drive produce consumption nationwide.

“With 250 produce prescription programs currently operating in the U.S., the reality is we need this to scale to change the course of our nation’s health,” said IFPA Vice President of Nutrition and Health Mollie Van Lieu. “Incorporating this program into the standards of clinical care for Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Health Administration, and Indian Health Services, which cover more than 150 million Americans, could be transformational.”

Scaling produce prescriptions and making them a covered benefit in the federal health system is part of IFPA’s strategic efforts to grow consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and improve community health across the U.S., a release stated.

Fly-in participants met with 19 influential policymakers from both sides of the aisle, including those with oversight on agricultural appropriations. The HHS Summit saw the announcement of three public-private partnerships between the agency and Feeding America, Instacart, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as the release of five principles that will guide the agency’s work:

• Recognizing that nourishment is essential for good health, wellbeing, and resilience
• Facilitating easy access to healthy food across the health continuum in the community
• Cultivating understanding of the relationship between nutrition and health
• Uniting partners with diverse assets to build sustained and integrated solutions
• Investing in the capacity of under-resourced communities

“Produce prescriptions are food as medicine interventions,” added Van Lieu. “There’s plenty of evidence in other federal programs, like the USDA Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program, that proves how fruits and vegetables can decrease health problems issues like obesity, but also influence positive health outcomes, such as the popular fruit and vegetable cash-value benefit in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. IFPA will continue to contribute our industry’s voice and expertise and fight for our involvement in important policy and regulatory discussions involving fresh produce.”

To read more, click here.

Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow to discover what other steps IFPA will take to up fresh produce consumption moving forward.