Online farmers market program promotes healthy eating

By TIM KING

The Land Correspondent

RED WING, Minn. — You can find Veggie Rx programs in places as far flung as Chicago’s Botanical Garden to rural Oregon to St. Paul, Minn.

The basic concept of the various Veggie Rx programs is that eating healthy food is strong medicine for most anything that ails you. That’s why the program — wherever it is located — involves a collaboration between health professionals and farmers. And that’s why Dr. Kristin Kajewski, an Integrative Health and Wellness Doctor from Red Wing, and Sara George got together.

“We wanted to increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables to help make the Red Wing Community more healthy by offering Veggie Rx,” said George, who works for Renewing the Countryside and is the manager of the Red Wing Farmer’s Market.

What George and Kajewski had in mind was a 10-week program, during the height of the 2022 growing season, which would provide participants with $20 per week to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers participating in the market.

“We wanted to remove any barriers to healthy foods, so we didn’t want to have income eligibility be a part of this project,” George said. “We allowed participants to self-select if they wanted to participate. We placed application forms in the library, WIC offices, Social Services offices, low income apartments and at the food shelf. We also placed them in the Care Clinic and at Hispanic Outreach.”

The two women pitched the program to potential funders by explaining that, by their estimate, chronic disease and obesity are overwhelming health concerns in their community, and the cost to health care and quality of life have never been more obvious than in the last couple of years, according to George.

The Mayo Clinic chose to provide funding for educational materials; the Red Wing Area Foundation donated funds for 50 families for 10 weeks; and Renewing the Countryside provided support for staff and an on-line ordering system. The State Health Improvement Program, known as SHIP, provided funding for a walk-in cooler for the Red Wing Veggie Rx.

Sixty-two Red Wing area families signed up to participate in the Veggie Rx program for 2022, according to the project’s year end report. Those fami- lies redeemed 401 $20 vouchers via the farmer’s market on-line ordering system. (The on-line system for Red Wing Veggie Rx customers to place orders is called the Open Food Network.)

“Customers were allowed to make purchases for $20 worth of fruits or vegetables each week online,” George said. “Any amount above that they had to pay for themselves. Many did order more than the $20. The online system allowed them to check out with a Veggie Rx option which meant they didn’t have to pay until they picked up their order.”

The result was that the Veggie Rx program brought a total of $9,522.96 to Red Wing Farmer’s market vendors in 2022.

“The network is an online platform where a number of farmers can list what they have available and buyers can go online and place orders,” George said. “I think of it as the Amazon of local foods. A customer has one shopping cart with multiple farmers offering a variety of products they can be order online. To actually get their order there is a single drivethrough at the Farmer’s Market. There is also a home delivery option, for a minimal cost, for customers’ convenience.”

“Each customer pays for their order using cash, check, credit cards, EBT or food stamps,” George continued. “They pay the market, which owns the online platform and the license.

The market then pays each individual farmer for the total of their orders for the week.”

Veggie Rx customers, who all received training on how to use Open Food Network, enjoyed using the on-line ordering system, according to a number of customer comments included in the final report.

“This program has been huge for our family,” one enthusiastic customer reported. “To be able to try new things and learn a lot will help my family in the long run. I hope this is available in the future because I still have so much to learn and try.”

Annelie Livingston Anderson, and her husband Kevin Anderson, sell pro-