Health Through Food

Perspective

Consumption of healthy food is one of the most important building blocks of health. Unfortunately, in North Carolina food insecurity and lack of access to nutritious food in particular are significant and growing concerns.

Our state has the 10th highest rate of food insecurity in the country, a problem that affects children, older adults, communities of color, and those living in rural areas more than others. Higher levels of food insecurity are linked to decreased life expectancy as well as economic impacts that strain households, schools, and the health care system.

Nutrition security – or access to healthy food – is taking just as big a toll, impacting 1.2 million residents. Not being able to access or afford healthy food is having significant bearing on health outcomes, particularly diet-related chronic illnesses with heart disease and diabetes, two of the leading causes of mortality in the state.  These chronic conditions are also the highest cost drivers for our state’s health care system.

Yet there’s hope. Opening avenues to healthy food, and therefore improved health is achievable. North Carolina’s flourishing local food system, long growing season, and high agricultural production, along with collaboration involving farmers, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and health care leaders, presents a unique opportunity to address the various roadblocks to getting healthier food in the hands of more people throughout the state.

Approach

Our approach centers on helping bring together, participating in, and supporting a network of organizations working together to address food and nutrition security while benefiting those who produce, process, and make available healthy food. Specifically, this includes: ​

• Increasing the adoption and expansion of Food is Medicine interventions into health care practice, with a particular focus on partnerships that integrate community-based organizations.
• Boosting sustained access to healthy, affordable food for all and helping transform the way food reaches families.
• Creating conditions that promote lifelong healthy eating for individuals.

 Examples of our Work in this Area

• We are supporting, and learning from, nine community-based Food is Medicine programs throughout North Carolina. They range from small operations serving rural or other under-resourced neighborhoods to the largest produce prescription program in the country, whose footprint spans the entire state.
• We are supporting a network of grassroots organizations across the state to expand their ability to advocate for systems and policy change, in order to increase access to healthy food for those most food insecure.
• Our investment in the NC Food Hub Collaborative, which supports local food hubs in counties across the state working to increase access to healthy food and build a stronger food system for all.