Key Points
- The primary goal and objective of the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program: Produce Prescription (GusNIP-PPR) is to demonstrate and evaluate the impact of projects on:
- The improvement of dietary health through increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.
- The reduction of individual and household food insecurity.
- The reduction in health care use and associated costs.
- Produce prescriptions are a second type of financial incentive that are available through GusNIP.
- Nonprofit organizations and government agencies are eligible to apply. The population eligible to enroll in PPR projects includes those who are experiencing low income and chronic disease(s), such as type 2 diabetes.
- PPR projects are implemented in collaboration with a health care partner.
- The GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center provides free one-on-one support, as well as templates, checklists, webinars, and other resources to all GusNIP applicants and grantees.
- Projects last up to three years.
FIM Opportunities
Applicants to GusNIP programs are encouraged to partner and collaborate broadly throughout the health care system and the food system.
The Produce Prescription grant applications must include documentation of a partnership agreement with a health care partner in one of the following four categories: hospital; federally qualified health center; hospital/clinic operated by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or health care provider group.
Health care partners “prescribe” fruits and vegetables to patients using vouchers (or a similar mechanism), which can be redeemed for fruits and vegetables at participating food retailers or clinic-based food “farmacies."
Evaluations of projects funded through GusNIP-PPR can inform future Food Is Medicine programs.
