Nutrition Garden Rx

Challenges Nutrition Garden Rx addresses

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• 97% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing our climate emergency (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2014). The good news - because it is human-caused, with human behavior change, we can solve it (Roser-Renouf, 2019).

• In 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change urged to decrease global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

• If the US healthcare system were a country, it would be the seventh-largest carbon-dioxide polluter in the world (Blumenthal, 2018).

• US healthcare is by far the most expensive in the world (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2020) for many reasons. A primary reason is due to costly, preventable, chronic conditions; improving nutrition helps to reduce the risk for chronic conditions (Center for Disease Control, 2019).

• US healthcare costs are projected to drastically increase due to climate change impacts (World Health Organization, 2018).

• Populations with low income are projected to experience more harmful climate impacts than groups with middle and high income (Conlon, 2019).

Strategy  

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• Community- and strengths-based design processes with substantial input from interested beneficiaries is critical. Beneficiaries’ needs and interests are at the center of Nutrition Garden Rx designs. Also using community- and strengths-based processes, Nutrition Garden Rx builds on local, nonprofits’ and small businesses’ already-established relationships with people with low income, nutrition and health professionals, and climate professionals. From this context, small space garden structures and plant selections are made to serve beneficiaries’ needs and interests.

• Extensive research concludes that community gardens improve physical and mental health and allow access to more nutrient-rich food (McCormack, Laska, Larson, & Story, 2010). However, more opportunities exist to diversify designs and implementation. Depending on the needs and interests of people with low income, garden structures/locations could be indoor, outdoor, curbside, on porches, on balconies, in yards, in vacant lots, for multifamily housing communities, for individuals, for families, for neighborhoods, etc.

• This project creates culturally appropriate solutions for nutrition, equity, and climate by using food, an inclusive, unifying tool and language that cuts across age, income, culture, and discipline (Warhurst, 2012). Exchanging food solutions encourages awareness and connections between cultures, fresh/healthy food, human wellbeing, and climate, and inspires environmentally friendly, human behavior change (Warhurst, 2012).

• Women are the most critical target group in which to improve nutrition because their health and nutrition status determines many health outcomes for themselves and family and they have proven to have the highest return on investment in international development (VanAmeringen, 2014).

• If the US healthcare system were a country, it would be the fifth-largest economy (Blumenthal, 2018). Therefore, it is a huge potential driver for climate solutions.

• Nutrition Garden Rx taps into recent trends/momentum of successful, medical, self-management programs that connect patients to nature and plant-based nutrition. Some of these successes include: 1) Park Rx—doctors give patients park prescriptions for mental/physical health issues (Root, 2017); 2) Food Rx—nutritionists provide resources linking nutritional wellbeing and social determinants of health via community health programs (CareOregon, 2018); and 3) Veggie Rx—healthcare providers prescribe fruit and vegetable vouchers to people experiencing food insecurity (Royal et al., 2016). Nutrition Garden Rx advocates to healthcare prescribers and administrators the health benefits of gardens to secure healthcare funding for Nutrition Garden Rx programming, designs, and implementation to benefit people with low income.