Ohio Health and Mid-Ohio Food Collective team up to boost health with food as medicine

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — According to the Centers for Disease Control, five of the top 10 leading causes of death in America are associated with preventable and treatable chronic diseases.

More than 40% of Americans have two or more chronic conditions. Most of those conditions can be improved or corrected with an improved diet. Food is medicine, and that is the mission behind a new partnership between Ohio Health and the Mid-Ohio Food Collective.

When a patient visits this Ohio Health facility in Grove City, Dr. Ashley Cremona-Simmons has a unique tool, a little green card.

"Research has shown that using food to treat, prevent disease has good health outcomes,” said Cremona-Simmons. “So, what we do is we are eliminating barriers for our patients. You're given this card, this little green card here, and there is a number here which links it to the ‘farmacy’ program.”

For patients who qualify, the Mid-Ohio Farmacy allows clients to shop for fresh groceries once a week, free of charge.

“It's typically like going to the grocery store, we're just eliminating the barrier of access, and that allows our patients to have access to these whole nutritious foods,” said Cremona-Simmons.

That's where Nick Davis and his team take over. The Mid-Ohio Food Collective stocks the Market at Gantz Road with a focus on fresh.

“We have a lot of fresh, healthy food,” said Davis. "You'll see dairy and eggs to the back, but we try to get a lot of the staples here that are here all the time. Certain access to proteins, whether that be beef or chicken or whatever, whatever it is. Shop for groceries, check out at the end, only there's no money. In order for us to truly understand how someone's benefited with the nutrition, I have to know who took what and how much."

"What produce is being taken, what's being consumed so that when we meet with our patients we'll have that more wrap-around affecting that holistic health benefit," said Cremona-Simmons.

"Food, of course, plays a huge role in that and that ability for them to be healthy and thrive," said Davis. "So, we're really trying to solve for a lot of that equation.”