Instead of relying entirely on prescription medicine to solve medical problems, healthcare providers at a free clinic in Wheeling, W.Va., are prescribing healthy, fresh foods to a pilot group of patients. It’s a grant-funded initiative called Farmacy, offered through the clinic, Health Right Wheeling, and a food advocacy organization, Grow Ohio Valley.
The Farmacy is the brainchild of Carol Greco, D.O., and physician assistant Amanda Cummins. Last year they were running a diabetes support group when they realized that many of the group members didn’t eat fresh vegetables, period.
Credit Kara Lofton / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Doctor Carol Greco (left) and her daughter check in patients at the Health Right Farmacy in Wheeling.
“We would reference, you know, ‘Let’s food prep’ … [or] ‘You should do this – make batches of rice at the beginning of the week,’” said Cummins. “And it was like ‘We don’t even know how to boil rice.’”
Cummins and Greco shifted to teaching basic cooking skills for a couple of weeks. This helped.
But Greco and Cummins felt they needed to take the project one step further. In collaboration with Grow Ohio Valley, Health Right Wheeling procured a grant to start the Farmacy. The grant gave them enough money to give prescriptions of produce to 35 people for 15 weeks.
Credit Kara Lofton / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Vegetables at the Health Right Wheeling “farmacy.”
At the Farmacy, after Greco fills out a prescription card for “20 dollars of fresh vegetables,” she’ll gesture to the tent beside her where Kate Marshall of Grow Ohio Valley is helping a patient pick out onions, potatoes, micro greens, tomatoes and various fruits.
“They hand that [the prescription card] in to Kate over there who kind of directs them as to what they have as the doctor’s choice,” said Greco. “We have one or two choices a week of the fresh local produce, and then they get a personal choice of anywhere between six and 10 items that they get to pick.”
In the first two weeks, 98 percent of participants turned out to get their vegetables, said Greco. The third week about three quarters of participants showed up, a drop that Marshall attributes to the heavy rain through which most participants had to walk get to the clinic.
Over the next 12 weeks Greco and Cummins will be monitoring participants such as Brenda and Brooke Mazza to see if their health problems diminish with their access to healthy food. Appalachia Health News will also be following the Mazzas over the next 12 weeks to see what impact fresh food has on their lives.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on 8/2/2016
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.
A local-food nonprofit based in the Northern Panhandle is busy this week reclaiming abandoned property.
“Once upon a time this was the Lincoln Home site,” said a founder of Grow Ohio Valley, Danny Swan. “There were three apartment buildings here with a parking lot. We’ve taken the parking lot and the three apartment buildings – which were torn down decades ago – and we’ve reclaimed those two terraces. Each are about 40 feet wide and about 200 or 300 feet long. And we plan to build greenhouses on them.”
Grow Ohio Valley’s nonprofit mission is to make Ohio Valley communities healthier by growing and providing more fresh, local food, and teaching how to grow and prepare that food. The group also hopes to boost the local economy through economic development initiatives.
Swan and others have cleared and flattened enough space here in a field of mud that overlooks downtown Wheeling, and the Ohio Valley, for six high-tunnel greenhouses. Two will go up during the next month with funding provided by the Catholic congregation at Saint Joseph’s. Grow Ohio Valley hopes to begin production in the spring, as well as programs about growing and preparing food.
Credit Grow Ohio Valley Facebook page
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Old blueprints of the Lincoln Home site were found, but Grow Ohio Valley hasn’t located any photographs of the site.
On the other side of the hill excavation is also ongoing at the site of the organization’s future urban orchard. Planting was scheduled for this spring but has been delayed for a year, anticipating the impending invasion of 17-year cicadas.
And atop the hill, there’s a small building that houses Grow Ohio Valley’s offices. The nonprofit won a $2,280 award this week at a community funding contest called Show of Hands that will enable them to begin to turn the space into a small grocery, Grandview Grocer.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.
A group of students from the University of Notre Dame just came to West Virginia for fall break. Instead of relaxing with friends, as many college students do, these guys got a taste of life in a food desert.
They report, it was surprisingly delicious, or it could be if there were a little more “food justice” in the world.
One in seven people in West Virginia has trouble putting food on the table at some point in the year (~15 percent), according to data from the US Census Bureau. Sometimes the problem is lack of money. Sometimes it’s access to good food. And many communities exist that are disproportionately affected.
A nonprofit called Grow Ohio Valley is working to help more people get access to healthy meals by growing food in abandoned lots in Wheeling. The organization is also trying to teach people about existing food disparities. One way organizers are getting ideas out is by inviting college students in for a “Food Justice Immersion Program.”
What is Food Justice?
The definition of food justice is often debated but for many people it means the right for everyone to have access to plenty good and healthful foods. This idea was central to the immersion program the non-profit Grow Ohio Valley hosted in Wheeling.
FOOD JUSTICE is the right of communities everywhere to produce, process, distribute, access, and eat good food regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, ability, religion, or community. Includes: Freedom from exploitation Ensures the rights of workers to fair labor practices Values-based: respect, empathy, pluralism, valuing knowledge Racial Justice: dismantling of racism and white privilege Gender equity(See more at: http://www.iatp.org/documents/draft-principles-of-food-justice#sthash.iBMx87MH.dpuf)
Credit Gabrielle Marshall
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Students from the University of Notre Dame hang out on 14th street in Wheeling, waiting for the next immersive experience.
Students from Notre Dame
Caroline Skulski pulled her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail somewhere on the back of her head. She was relaxed and unassuming. She gave the sense that nothing in life could be that bad. But Caroline cares about food and she cares about people. She’s a junior at the University of Notre Dame, and she volunteered to be one of the two group leaders in an food justice immersion program in West Virginia.
“My dad’s a doctor so we had a lot of medical school loans, so for a while, not comfortable life,” she said. “But then after he was in practice, very comfortable. Definitely coming from a place of privilege. We were pretty lucky.”
The 16 students Skulski was leading had varying educational aspirations, and came from all across the United States. What tied them together, aside from being enrolled at Notre Dame, was that they each decided they would spend their fall break living out of a homeless shelter in Wheeling, West Virginia, with a goal of exploring the food issues there. Grow Ohio Valley, a young organization bent on improving the food culture in the area, partnered with Notre Dame to bring students to the area.
“We really want to give the students a hand-on learning experience looking at food economy, the food system, and the problems that there are and potential solutions,” said GrowOV’s director of educational programs, Kate Marshall.
Marshall lives in East Wheeling where the students stayed for the week. The nearest supermarket is two and a half miles away (a 40 minute walk along roads mostly designed for vehicles).
“This is a food desert meaning, there is no easily accessible health food and healthy produce within walking distance and there’s only convenient stores to shop at,” Marshall said.
Credit Gabrielle Marshall
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Students cross 16th street on their quest to buy lunch with $1.30.
Finding Food
Marshall started the immersion experience off by splitting students into two groups and sending them out onto the urban streets of East Wheeling. 100-year-old, faded Victorian row houses line the once-bustling roads. But today, entire neighborhoods have been torn down. The population has dwindled from 60,000 city residents in it’s heyday in the ‘30s and ‘40s, to about 27,000 according to the last census.
Credit Gabrielle Marshall
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Students quickly decided to pool their money. They bought a loaf of wheat bread, an off-brand jar of peanut butter, jelly, and with the remaining coins, they bought several green bell peppers and a cucumber. No one bought anything to drink.
Erin Callaghan, is a sophomore at Notre Dame. Her group headed south with a portion of money in their pockets that was determined by dividing a month’s worth of food stamps into a daily meal’s allowance. In West Virginia that amounts to $1.30.
“We have to be creative in what we can find and what we can eat for lunch,” said Callaghan.
In a different part of town, the other group hit another convenience store. They picked up minute rice, a can of chili, and a dozen eggs.
“I think probably what shocked us the most was that everything there was so expensive based on the nutritional value, the cost seemed so unreasonable,” said Sophomore Kathleen Rocks, the other student group leader.
***All photos by Gabrielle Marshall
Food for Thought
Lunch provided plenty of food for thought. Marshall pointed out to students that there could be legal barriers to pooling funds because federal dollars are meant for individual families, not groups of people. Marshall also pointed out how good-intending government-funded programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can clash with economic realities:
“Now we have federal dollars that are going to convenience stores that don’t actually support a community but support companies far away that are bringing food into our area that isn’t nutritionally sound and causes health risks to the people eating the food. Then our medical dollars are spent at a higher rate because people are sick.”
Credit Gabrielle Marshall
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Farm 18, Grow Ohio Valley’s urban farm. Students pulled weeds, groomed vegetable beds, and harvested snacks as they learned about things like community gardens, urban farms, mobile food markets, and other ongoing efforts to combat food disparities.
Solutions
Exploring systemic issues related to the food economy led students beyond the trappings of convenience stores into abandoned lots that have been reclaimed by Grow Ohio Valley. NAT Students pulled weeds, groomed vegetable beds, and harvested snacks as they learned about possible solutions to the food problems here. Things like community gardens, urban farms, mobile food markets, and other efforts GrowOV and community members are engaged in trying to combat food disparities–disparities that often lead the most vulnerable in society to chronic health problems.
To that end, the group visited with health care providers like Dr. William Mercer to learn more about the kinds of health issues that ultimately crop up in food deserts.
“I came away more excited than they did just because of their enthusiasm. Here are some young kids who are interested in carrying the torch and hopefully make our society better.”
Credit Gabrielle Marshall
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Late in the week students and community members and Grow OV staff prepared a feast in the community greenhouse in East Wheeling.
Growing Justice
Grow Ohio Valley’s education program director, Kate Marshall, says students left with new ideas of what “justice” means (and much more interest in growing gardens), but she observed that there was also room to continue to grow their understanding.
She says post evaluations revealed that some students felt perhaps they ate too well during their stay. Marshall disagrees.
“True justice would be making it so that everybody could partake in that same table of plenty and healthful foods, not us eating less and joining the ranks of the unhealthy diet.”
She says the trip was meant to demonstrate the value and potential abundance to be found in local food economies.
“Out of 15 meals,” Marshall said, “we only served meat three times and utilized other protein sources in all our meals. We used over 16 local food sources to provide the bulk of food throughout the week.”
She had to pay a bit more upfront for local homemade breads and jams, but the ability to harvest from the garden provided a drastic reduction in the immersion program food budget (but not, Marshall noted, in the quality of the food).
Marshall says GrowOV plans to continue their immersion programs in spring, summer, and fall breaks. She says she might spend more time in the future talking about economic as well as ethical implications of eating locally. She wants kids, and everyone to realize the impacts of what we choose to eat everyday on a community’s health and well-being.
Parting Thoughts
Students stayed during the week in Wheeling at what’s referred to as a Winter Freeze shelter housed in the Youth Services System building in East Wheeling. The shelter is open during the coldest months of the year. It’s the only shelter that will let anyone stay regardless of legal or addiction problems. Marshall asked students to write a letter to the person who will be staying in the bed when the shelter opens later this year.
This week half a dozen Catholic nuns arrived on a bus in Wheeling. The women are part of NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, which educates, organizes, and lobbies for economic and social transformation. The Catholic Sisters visited shelters, schools, food pantries, and citizens, in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and finally, West Virginia as they made their way to Washington DC. The tour is in response to Pope Francis’s call to transform politics and the economy.
This is the fourth national “Nuns on the Bus” tour themed, “Bridge the Divides: Transform Politics.” The 13-day, seven-state tour began in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 10 and made its way to Washington, D.C., this week where Pope Francis will be received by President Obama and Congress.
On the bus ride into West Virginia, Executive Director Simone Campbell explained that she and her sisters were coming to talk about the Pope, but also out of curiosity, to gossip about the state.
“I have three virtues for the 21st century that I promote: The first is Holy Curiosity – that we ask each other questions; that we raise issues; that I found out how you think and what are you aware of. The second is Sacred Gossip – once I’ve found what you’ve discovered, then I have a responsibility to tell others; we have to spread the message. The third is the virtue of Doing One Thing.”
Sr. Simone says it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all the issues that exist in the world today. And that feeling, she says, often leads to paralysis. Her thought is that individuals need only find and focus on one issue, or task.
“So if each of us does one thing, it all gets done because we’re in community. So that’s what I’m just trying to do, is my thing,” she said with a laugh, “and right now it seems to be riding the bus, stirring people up.”
The nuns’ charter bus was wrapped in the Nuns on the Bus logo and several thousand signatures. It pulled into East Wheeling, where a small crowd was waiting. The nuns toured East Wheeling to learn about Grow Ohio Valley, an organization that includes community gardens, greenhouses and an inner-city farm. Kate Marshall of Grow Ohio Valley helped to organize and lead the tour. It was one of the 33 events planned during the 2,000 mile trip.
After a dinner at the Catholic Worker House in East Wheeling, the visit from the Nuns on the Bus culminated with a town hall meeting at Wheeling Jesuit University. Director of WJU’s Appalachian Institute, Beth Collins, reported that about 150 people came out for the event – a mix of students, community members, and church leaders.
“We talked about what divides us as a community and solutions to bridge those divisions,” Collins said. “The sisters also shared stories from the road that were very inspirational.”
Back on the bus, Sr. Simone said she’s praying the pope’s visit will have an impact on legislators.
“I believe in the power of prayer,” Sr. Simone said, “but I also believe in the power of organizing. So the week after he’s here we’re having a big lobby day where over 30 sisters are coming in from all over the country to remind our legislators as they pass a budget to keep our government going, to remember what Pope Francis tells them.”
Momentum continues to mount behind local food and local economic development efforts in the Northern panhandle. Wheeling was one of the top picks in a national Local Foods, Local Places Competition. As a result, local organizations are receiving technical assistance from multiple state and federal agencies to help capitalize on the growing demand for local foods. Meetings with federal agency representatives began last week.
Local Places Protecting the Environment?
The Environmental Protection Agency initiated the national Local Food, Local Places program. The idea is to bring federal, regional, and state agencies together to help find and support existing local food and economic development efforts. Why would the EPA get in on the local movement?
EPA policy analyst Melissa Kramer explains that one reason is to promote lifestyles that rely less heavily on automobiles and all their emissions. She says the local life could go a long way toward that end.
“When you have a downtown that’s vibrant, that people want to live in, that has all the services that people need, ” Kramer said, “people have options for getting around that don’t involve driving. You find that there are a lot of people who want to walk, who want to bike.”
Kramer says that is healthier for community members, healthier for the environment, and healthier for the economy because dollar wind up staying with local businesses.
Federal, Regional, State, and Local Converge
Folks came in to Wheeling last week from Charleston, West Virginia, Durham, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. representing EPA, the US Department of Agriculture, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the State Department of Highways, and US Department of Transportation. These partners met with local Wheeling groups to talk about how to promote a local food system and grow the local economy in general.
It all started with a city tour from one of Wheeling’s trolley busses …
One of the tour guides was the director of the nonprofit Reinvent Wheeling, Jake Dougherty. He heads up one of three organizations that joined together to apply for the federal Local Foods, Local Places Grant. Others organizations include Grow Ohio Valley and the Wheeling National Heritage Area Foundation.
“Of the over 90 applications just in the Appalachian region, Wheeling stood out among all of them,” said Wilson Paine, a program analyst from the Appalachian Regional Commission who was involved in reviewing applications for the Local Foods Local Places Grant.
“Wheeling is emblematic of what a lot of Appalachian towns are going through right now which is searching for what their identity is going to be in the 21st century and how they can focus on the local aspects of building an identity,” Paine said.
“Wheeling is emblematic of what a lot of Appalachian towns are going through right now which is searching for what their identity is going to be in the 21st century and how they can focus on the local aspects of building an identity,” Paine said.
A Perfect Storm
Paine says there’s a perfect storm in Wheeling, combining youthful leadership, local food and area revitalization efforts, and ongoing region-wide partnerships. He says the existing infrastructure in Wheeling, combined with an engaged community, made Wheeling an ideal candidate for technical assistance.
Growing the Ohio Valley’s Local Food System
Executive director of Grow Ohio Valley, Ken Peralta, took a lot of questions during the tour of Wheeling. GrowOV is already deeply engaged in laying groundwork for a local food system in the region. In addition to the greenhouse, GrowOV has built multiple community gardens and a small organic farm inside the city. They’ve also got wheels in motion, so to speak, for a mobile vegetable market that will serve several counties in the region starting in June.
In addition to visiting some local food initiatives that are well on their way, federal and local partners visited a few areas of town that have been abandoned because they’re too steep to develop residentially or commercially. One hillside is slated to be planted with fruit trees and berries. Another, that overlooks all of downtown Wheeling and the Ohio Valley, will be a green, public space of some kind. Action plans that detail what, when and how are being developed.
Peralta is hoping for help testing water as well as engineering ideas or resources to help manage stormwater that flows off of these steep hillsides. He and his colleagues are enthusiastic about the raw resources that seem abundant in Wheeling.
And the Enthusiasm is Contagious
Jake Dougherty of Reinvent Wheeling says there’s now a critical mass of people in and around Wheeling who are dedicated to turning their “dying city” into a thriving Appalachian town. He also admits that new industrial development in the region could be playing a role in bolstering the economy over the last five years, perhaps adding to that growing sense of hopefulness.
“But what I think is great, and what I think we have learned most about our economy from the past,” Dougherty said, “the conversations we are having are not centered around a single industry; it’s centered around the diversification of our economy.”
Eight Appalachian Communities are Winners in a Local Foods, Local Places Grant Competition.
Twenty-six communities were chosen from over 300 applicants in the Local Foods, Local Places grant competition designed to encourage creative economic development. Six federal agencies have invested over $750,000 to help revitalize struggling downtowns and preserve farms and undeveloped land.
Those agencies include:
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC),
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT),
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
Delta Regional Authority (DRA)
Wheeling is among the chosen communities and will receive planning and financial support from the federal agencies. Grow Ohio Valley together with the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation and the group Reinvent Wheeling teamed together in their application which describes a project to install an urban apple orchard and several organic teaching gardens on the hills overlooking downtown Wheeling. Grow OV’s Ken Peralta says there’s a lot of excitement over the infusion of help implementing their plans.
Other Appalachian communities awarded:
• Wheeling, WV was selected for its plan to develop historic Vineyard Hill into a productive public asset, along with wider plans to transform Wheeling into a regional hub for local food.
• Youngstown, OH was selected for its interest in integrating its local food movement into the larger neighborhood revitalization efforts currently underway in the city.
• Williamson, WV was selected for its project to establish a Health Innovation Hub, a holistic strategy to build a culture of health from the bottom up.
• Hazard, KY was selected for a project to establish and sustain The Eastern Kentucky Food and Farm Hub, a local food aggregation and distribution center located in downtown Hazard that will serve the area within a 50-mile radius.
• Barbourville, KY was selected for its project to expand its current farmers’ market operation into a permanent facility for local farmers, gardeners, crafters, entrepreneurs, and consumers to interact and for local community organizations to use as a meeting area.
• Forest County, PA was selected for its interest in connecting its downtown revitalization efforts in Tionesta and Marienville with its rich agricultural heritage.
• Grundy County (Tracy City), TN was selected for its interest in developing a comprehensive, cohesive regional plan of economic stability that connects organizations and stakeholders involved in the region’s local food economy.
• Tuskegee, AL was selected for its project to pursue a synergistic plan of economic development and food security goals through downtown revitalization and regional marketing initiatives.
