November 28, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Community Health Center of Franklin County and Just Roots announce award of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) Grant: (Im)Proving the CSA Model - A Scientific Study to Demonstrate the Health Impacts of CSA Participation to Insurers
Greenfield, MA — The intersection of health and food gets a little bit closer. The Community Health Center of Franklin County (CHCFC), together with Just Roots and a distinguished Harvard primary care doctor and researcher, will carry out a research program during 2017 – 2018 to evaluate the health impacts of CSA share participation on individuals and households. The study is supported by the US Department of Agriculture’s competitive Farmer’s Market and Local Food Production Program.
The Hypothesis
The study has two related hypotheses: 1) participation in a subsidized CSA leads to improved dietary quality and health status, and 2) subsidized CSA participation represents a reasonable ‘return on investment’ as a way to help improve health for vulnerable patients.
The Study
The CHCFC will implement a simple program of education in healthy eating for its patients and, over the course of several months, randomly select households for participation in the study. 50 individuals will agree to first-time CSA-participation and 50 to participation in a control group that is not offered CSA-participation. Just Roots will track whether CSA-participants make weekly food pick-ups and ensure comparable and consistent ease of access to those pick-ups. At pick-ups, Just Roots will also gather basic quantitative data regarding consumption patterns of CSA-participants (e.g. whether they consume the CSA food) and qualitative data regarding their experience – how they prepared the food, how they feel, etc. Three times over the course of the year, CHCFC staff will weigh CSA-participants, collect blood samples and gather other basic health indicators, Dr. Seth A. Berkowitz of Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital will analyze the data and perform statistical analysis necessary to assess the significance of changes in participant health. Dr. Berkowitz will also quantify the impact of changes in health indicators on the cost effectiveness of the program for health promotion.
The Objectives
Should a rigorously implemented analysis indicate that CSAs improve health outcomes, CHCFC and Just Roots will ensure the results reach the insurance community, advocate for a health benefit for CSAs comparable to the one provided for gymnasium membership, and expand the curriculum of health-center focused education nationwide.
About CHCFC The Community Health Center of Franklin County (CHCFC) opened the doors of its medical clinic in Turners Falls in 1997 with the mission to provide excellent medical care to all residents of Franklin County, regardless of insurance status or income. Now in 2016 we have three clinics, one in Orange offering medical and dental services, one in Turners Falls offering dental services, and our newest facility located in Greenfield offering medical services. We are a private nonprofit agency overseen by a community Board of Directors. We have continued to grow over the years to better serve our patients. We offer the following services - medical, dental, nutrition, community outreach, and Spanish translation. The Community Health Center of Franklin County serves everyone. Our practitioners can provide care for everyone in your family, from babies to elders. Most of our patients live in Franklin County or the North Quabbin and we try to meet the needs of each patient by participating in numerous commercial insurance plans including Medicare, Commonwealth Care and MassHealth. We also offer a sliding fee scale program for people without insurance.
About Just Roots The mission of Just Roots is to increase access to healthy, local food by connecting people, land, resources and know-how. Just Roots began in 2008 and incorporated in 2011, started by a grass-roots citizen group seeking municipal land for community gardening which resulted in the preservation of the old Town Poor Farm site (a 61 acre parcel) via an Agricultural Preservation Restriction designation. In 2011, a 15 year lease was awarded by the town of Greenfield to Just Roots which has since developed the Greenfield Community Farm, featuring a 58 plot community garden, 8 acres of produce-production fields, several greenhouses and 6 acres of pastureland for heritage-breed hogs. Just Roots produces vegetables that are made available to all members of our community through the CSA structure which features Donor Supported Shares for low-income individuals and families. Educational programming on the farm, in our schools and in the community is also available. For more information, please visit http://www.justroots.org.
Contact - To learn more, please contact:
Ed Sayer, CEOCommunity Health Center of Franklin County
489 Bernardston Road, Suite 108
Greenfield, MA 01301
Office: (413) 325-8500
/ Jessica Van Steensburg, Executive Director
Just Roots
34 Glenbrook Drive, Apt. 1B
Greenfield, MA 01301
Office: (413) 325-8969
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