Rural Recipe Rx: New Grant Creates a 'Food Pharmacy' and Nutritional Supports for Rural Residents

There’s a single stoplight in Nelson County, Virginia, tucked among the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, one grocery store with reliable fresh produce, and a few general stores. But like many other communities, there’s an abundance of people living with hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, conditions with symptoms that, with the right treatment, can be eased or even reversed.

A new $300,000 grant from the Humana Foundation for a comprehensive nutritional support program, including a “food pharmacy,” earned by associate professor and nurse scientist Kelley Anderson (BSN ’88) will help do just that.

“If you’re getting your food at a dollar store, here are some ways to make better choices. The overall idea is to be realistic, develop a supportive community, and provide access to an environment that promotes healthier choices.”

Family nurse practitioner, nurse scientist, and associate professor Kelley Anderson

Anderson’s early clinical experiences took her from burn and intensive care units to cardiology, where she grew passionate about working with patients with heart failure. She observed these patients’ life-limiting symptoms—breathlessness, edema, and pain—as well as their high re-hospitalization rates and consequent suffering.

“Even with new devices and medications, the trajectory for improvement among those with advanced heart diseases will eventually end,” explained Anderson, herself a Nelson County resident. “Even medications don’t work after a while. I’d been reflecting about what we did for these patients, and what we might do differently.”

Knowing that cardiovascular symptoms can be eased or even reversed with lifestyle changes made Anderson keen to work further upstream to prevent and manage the condition. Turning from the ICU’s gleam, she became a family nurse practitioner, grew deeply interested in nutrition, exercise, and self-care, and helping real people make realistic, meaningful changes that have the potential to turn their lives and health around.

“Many rural communities also experience health inequities, including food insecurity,” said Anderson. “We are often better about focusing on medications, but not as much on promoting more healthy practices.”

Enter Nelson’s new “Nourishing Neighbors” program, which, starting this fall, will provide group support, access to a food pharmacy through the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, and online nutrition counseling through FoodSmart. Working with patients 65 and older at the Blue Ridge Medical Center who have hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, the program will assess physiologic measures, social determinants of health, nutritional status, quality of life, and mental health. In the food bank’s “pharmacy,” everyday foods will earn color-coded labels: green for fresh produce, lean proteins, and healthier shelf-stable items, and yellow or red labels for items to eat less or none of.

“If you’re getting your food at a dollar store, here are some ways to make better choices,” Anderson said. “The overall idea is to be realistic, develop a supportive community, and provide access to an environment that promotes healthier choices.”

And while new dietary and lifestyle changes might be, for some, “uncomfortable, for others it’s empowering,” Anderson said. “If you can make people feel better, and empower them more, then their overall quality of life is improved.”

The Humana Foundation works to ensure seniors, veterans, and school-age children live connected, healthy lives by removing unnecessary barriers to healthcare by working across four commitments: connected healthy lives, health equity innovation, disaster philanthropy, and research.

###