Food is Medicine

Farm to Pharmacy Pilot

Integrating food access into a trusted healthcare touchpoint

About How It Works Results

A Prescription for Health

The Farm to Pharmacy pilot is an innovative, four-month program that integrates Food is Medicine into a trusted community pharmacy setting. Medicaid and Medicare patients with uncontrolled chronic conditions receive fresh produce prescriptions directly from Focus Pharmacy in Smyrna, Delaware, along with nutrition counseling and chronic disease monitoring.

How It Works

The Farm to Pharmacy Pilot is an innovative Food is Medicine intervention designed to improve health outcomes among food-insecure Medicaid and Medicare patients living with uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, or congestive heart failure.

Through a unique partnership between ChristianaCare, Focus Pharmacy, local farmers, and the Delaware Council on Farm and Food Policy, the pilot provides patients with weekly produce prescriptions—fresh, locally sourced fruits, vegetables, and eggs—available directly at Focus Pharmacy in Smyrna.

Unlike traditional produce prescription models that require patients to travel to separate locations, the Farm to Pharmacy program integrates food access seamlessly into a familiar, trusted healthcare touchpoint—a community pharmacy.

This one-stop model reduces barriers to accessing healthy food, enhances patient adherence, and supports local farmers by building sustainable food procurement relationships.

Patients enrolled in the four-month program receive:
Weekly fresh produce prescriptions tailored to support chronic disease management
Onsite nutrition education led by a community pharmacist
Customized kitchen equipment and healthy recipes
Social care support and goal setting facilitated by a ChristianaCare Community Health Worker

Participants also benefit from integrated health screenings, chronic disease monitoring, and hands-on nutrition guidance rooted in the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan.

Intended Results

By improving food access, enhancing dietary behaviors, and reducing social drivers of health, the Farm to Pharmacy model offers a scalable pathway to better clinical outcomes and greater health equity.

The Farm to Pharmacy Pilot exemplifies how healthcare systems can reimagine local food access and chronic disease prevention by embedding nutrition directly into everyday healthcare delivery.