Partners to Offer New Programs at Healthy Eatonville Place
In partnership with Feeding America, Americares and Second Harvest Food Bank, Grace Medical Home (GMH) secured national funding to provide weekly healthy food boxes to local individuals and family members enrolled in the Center for Disease Control (CDC)-recognized Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) taught by GMH staff. With additional grant support recently awarded by the Winter Park Health Foundation, GMH will be able to expand the offering of DPP and distribute healthy food boxes to patients at Healthy Eatonville Place.
An Eatonville resident participating in healthy eating education at Healthy Eatonville Place.
DPP is based on the CDC program, and is a one-year evidence-based, intensive lifestyle intervention for patients with prediabetes with a primary goal of supporting patients in a modest (5%) weight loss. In the first phase of the Americares Prediabetes Initiative (2014-2017), five free clinics participated in a pilot research study to test the feasibility of implementing the program in free clinic settings; however, patients in the Americares pilot study identified the cost of healthy food as a significant barrier to program adherence.
GMH is one of five free or charitable clinics nationally participating in this research over the past two years. The purpose is to examine the effectiveness of the DPP class and to determine how free healthy food boxes provided weekly can impact the overall success of participants in the DPP program. Second Harvest Food Bank received financial support through Americares to cover costs associated with sourcing and distributing the healthy food.
The program is expected to begin this summer at Healthy Eatonville Place.
