This year, Delaware Ag Week expanded to Delaware Ag Month from January 10 to January 27, 2022. As part of the Urban Ag Session with the Delaware Urban Farm and Food Coalition (DEUFFC), Michelle Axe, MS, CHES, presented the Delaware Food Farmacy as a panelist on “Urban Ag Connections to Health and Wellness.” Michelle is the lead for ChristianaCare on the Delaware Food Farmacy (DFF). We encourage you to view her presentation from January 13, 2022. She did an amazing job of explaining and detailing the DFF.

As Michelle explains, “Many low-income, food-insecure individuals diagnosed with chronic diseases like hypertension, congestive heart failure and diabetes experience worse health outcomes often as a result of the ‘treat or eat’ dilemma.” That is, patients find themselves choosing between spending money to address chronic health conditions (with medication, appointment co-pays, and other costs) or paying for food, housing, and utilities. The DFF helps patients manage their health by providing food as medicine.

There is much evidence for the use of medically tailored food packages and medically tailored meal intervention, and we are excited to be a vital part of the DFF. Thank you to Michelle and all of her team at ChristianaCare for collaborating with us to make this innovative program possible! Please view the video and share it with others. You also can watch the entire session on “Urban Ag Connections to Health and Wellness” on YouTube. We appreciate your support as we seek to expand the reach of the Delaware Food Farmacy in 2022!