Greene County has officially launched its 2025 Food as Medicine program, designed to address chronic health conditions and food insecurity. This free, 18-week program combines healthy eating with disease prevention, offering a holistic approach to health and wellness.
The program kicked off on February 15 and will run four cohorts a year with about 20 participants per round. The program is centered on educating participants on healthy eating habits and providing access to nutritious, local foods.
“This is a chronic disease prevention program that leverages nutrition to make a significant impact on health,” said Shari Lewis, Greene County Health Department administrator. “We are focusing on individuals with chronic diseases or those at risk for chronic diseases, and those dealing with obesity, tobacco use, and pregnancy.”
Each participant will attend a six-week series of live, in-person cooking demonstrations where they’ll learn to prepare simple, healthy meals. They’ll also receive a healthy cookbook, a daily food log, and weekly food boxes filled with locally sourced fruits, vegetables, and other food items.
“The food boxes help with our local economy because we're sourcing everything from our local farmers and producers,” said Lewis.
Biometric screenings will be conducted at the beginning of the program, after 120 days of diet support, and one year from the start of the program. The screenings will record data on blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, glucose, and BMI. The goal of these screenings is to both monitor the health of participants and contribute to the study of food as an effective disease prevention and intervention approach.
Cally Drake, program coordinator, said food-as-medicine programming can also be a powerful tool to combat food deserts in rural areas like Greene County.
“When you think of a food desert, a lot of times, people are thinking about urban areas where there are pockets of fast food and no supermarkets,” Drake said. “But I think that rural communities kind of get forgotten. I think that we're hopefully moving the needle a little bit and making improvements in our county around food access.”
The program is funded through Health First Indiana, a statewide initiative that provides counties with funding to assess and address specific health needs through evidence-based, preventive programs.
Lewis said that while the Greene County Health Department is the program’s sponsoring agency, it is “very much a team effort." The Greene County Food as Medicine Committee, which includes local health professionals, farmers, and food producers, has been meeting since the summer to plan and coordinate the program’s roll-out.
The roots of the 2025 Greene County Food as Medicine program can be traced back to its participation in the I-HOPE food-as-medicine initiative, a collaboration between the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, the Center for Rural Engagement, and Sustainable Food Systems Science. Spearheaded by Julia Valliant of the IU Food and Agrarian Systems and The Ostrom Workshop, the program harnesses a food-as-medicine approach to bolster local food systems and improve health outcomes across the Indiana Uplands region.
It’s lowering people’s medical costs over the long term. Even by starting to eat a little better, people’s health improves, they’re more well, and their medical burdens are lighter.
Julia Valliant, Assistant Research Scientist, Food and Agrarian Systems; The Ostrom Workshop; OVPR
“The main thing that research is demonstrating about the economic effects of food as medicine is the big picture,” Valliant said. “It’s lowering people’s medical costs over the long term. Even by starting to eat a little better, people’s health improves, they’re more well, and their medical burdens are lighter.”
Supporters of the Greene County Food as Medicine program include the IU Center for Rural Engagement, the IU School of Public Health, Purdue Extension, Greene County General Hospital, and Greene County Health.
Residents who are interested in participating in future cohorts can contact the Greene County Health Department at (812) 384-4496.