Patients at Strawberry Health Center routinely worry that they will run out of food before they have enough money to buy more. We know this because clinical teams here began screening for food insecurity in 2017. Frustrated by their limited ability to do more to help these patients in need, staff members at the center and across the system, along with physicians and executive leadership, including Strawberry’s leadership team of Craig Johnson, senior operations manager, and Thomas W. Porter III, MD, medical director, joined forces to find a feasible solution.

quietly setting the stage for action

Hope Galvan, director of care integration for Harris Health’s population health initiative, led the mission, working behind the scenes for a year or so, studying the best practices of innovative food pharmacy programs across the country before moving ahead with more serious efforts.

It all began when she met Harry Hadland IV, who manages Houston Food Bank’s Food for Change Program. The stars aligned for the two organizations, and with the wheels set in motion, there was no stopping Hope or the growing team she mobilized to make the new Food Farmacy at Strawberry Health Center a reality.

a thriving partnership begins

With their pledge of $30,000, Houston Food Bank installed refrigerators and transformed an area of the health center into a welcoming food pharmacy, providing 30 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables every two weeks to eligible patients who receive a prescription for the food from their doctors. Patients must participate in culinary medicine classes and ongoing educational sessions to stay in the program.

Critical to the program’s long-term success is the implementation of a cutting-edge scorecard to monitor patient engagement and improved health outcomes to ensure that we not only help our patients gain access to fresh food, but that our intervention truly improves their health.

The Food Farmacy officially opened on May 28, 2019, and is creating a buzz throughout the community. Harris Health plans to expand the program to other facilities in the near future.

The inspiration for the community farm began with Alan Vierling, former hospital executive vice president and administrator. From his seat at a Red Sox game at Boston’s Fenway Park, he noticed a thriving urban farm on the roof of their front office. Back in Houston, he mentioned the idea to Chris Okezie, now the system vice president of operations. Alan explained how a farm at LBJ Hospital could help combat food insecurity, teach patients and community members about healthy produce and give them the skills to grow their own food. Chris thought he was joking.

Undeterred, Alan put together a team to examine the possibility. Along the way, a patient interaction confirmed his dedication: the man, stashing hospital food, told Alan he otherwise wouldn’t have any when he was able to go home.

Alan found a kindred spirit in Hilary Y. Ma, MD. Dr. Ma treated cancer patients through the MD Anderson Oncology Program at LBJ. He had observed firsthand the daily challenges people in this isolated, medically underserved community faced. Dr. Ma saw the farm as a perfect way to address socioeconomic and psychosocial issues and food insecurity.

answering the perennial question: who’s going to pay for all this?

The project needed funding. Jerry Gresham, a grateful patient and cancer survivor from MD Anderson Cancer Center, donated $100,000. Dr. Ma and LBJ’s leadership team won another $150,000 grant from the TMC Health Policy Institute.

The project also needed partners. Dr. Ma had already visited urban farms around Houston, including Finca Tres Robles in Houston’s Second Ward, a farm operated by Small Places LLC. The LBJ team recruited brothers Tommy and Daniel Garcia-Prats, of Small Places, to serve as consultants along with Joe Novak, a prominent expert in sociohorticulture, the study of the role plants and gardening play in creating healthier, happier people.

breaking new ground, in more ways than one

Following Novak’s blueprint, the Community Farm at LBJ Hospital took shape. More than a space to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for hospital patients and community residents, it provides a working classroom—even an ecosystem—for the community.

Rebecca Verm, another passionate and experienced urban farmer, joined the team in early 2019. It’s been a dream come true for her, as she sees this as a unique opportunity to collaborate with the larger community. Her vision is to create a viable, sustainable organic farm using the most environmentally friendly practices and serving as a powerful model for other institutions to do the same.

Thanks to volunteers from the community, hospital staff, family and friends, the community farm should soon be producing 500 pounds of fresh produce every week.