The Farmacy program has so far given 200 patients “prescriptions” that they can exchange for wooden tokens to buy produce at the market.
“A doctor tells someone, ‘You need to start eating more greens,’ but they say, ‘Well, I only get $122 a month in SNAP, I just can’t afford that stuff,’” Horn says. With the doctor’s prescription, now they can.
Barry Linville, a Letcher resident who is diabetic, wrote a letter to Horn thanking her for changing his life for the better. His blood sugar reading was 14 millimoles per liter in February 2016, but had fallen to 6 by that October. “I credit the market for bringing it down,” he wrote. “That’s the difference between living and dying.”
From 2013 to 2016, the program has helped raise farmers market revenues from $6,000 to $120,000, and it’s lent assistance to other area markets to set up their own Farmacy programs.
Read the rest at YES! Magazine
Go to the GEO front page
Add new comment