Grande Ronde Hospital | FY2018 | Community Benefit Report

Grande Ronde Hospital partners with La Grande Farmers Market to promote healthy eating for all In February of 2018, the Grande Ronde Hospital (GRH) Community Benefit Subcommittee was approached by the La Grande Farmers Market with an idea to help them promote their Double Up Food Bucks Program. The goal of this Program is to encourage using Supple- mental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for fresh, local foods; thereby making healthy food choices more affordable for local low-income consumers. Historically, the Program has offered a benefit of $10 in fresh fruits and vegetables for the first $10 spent on a SNAP card at each Market. In August 2018, the Market was able to double that incentive with a benefit of $20 for the first $20 spent because of the “generous support of GRH and several other local funders,” reported Liberty Avila, board chair for the Market. In her follow-up report to GRH, Avila noted that the 2018 Program grew by La Grande Farmers Market offers fresh, local foods. to the CHARM program with the goal of keeping him and bringing Hannah home. Eventually, Hannah was able to visit for weekends. After Alicia was able to move into a small two-bedroom apartment— the first place of her own—in the spring of 2018, she surprised Hannah on her 10th birthday with her very own room and told her she was home for good. “If it wasn’t for the CHARM program, I wouldn’t be here,” Alicia says, adding her Aunt Sandy, along with CHARM part- ners Grande Ronde Recovery, the Center for Human Development, the Kindred Support program, and the Healthy Fami- lies program, to the list. Alicia has a long way to go, needing the support system she has wisely kept in place, and has big goals. The biggest one is to get her GED (high school equivalency diploma), and even though her ADHD makes it hard, she perseveres. She is also determined to get her driver’s license, a job and move into a bigger apartment. But the best news of all came right before this interview. “I found out today: Child Welfare Services is satisfied and will be closing my case,” Alicia says, looking positively exuberant at what is her biggest accom- plishment yet. When asked about the No. 1 takeaway she wants people to know about her and others like her, without hesitation she says: “It’s important for health care profes- sionals to be able to understand and help women like me. Addiction may be a choice, but I would ask people to remember that they are also human beings with beautiful souls—they just got lost. They need help to find their way back—just like I did.” Program praise Here are a few of the statements by Program participants in a final survey conducted by the Market: “This program has allowed me to eat higher quality meat and produce while supporting locals. I hope to one day be able to support this program.” “I’ve lost 15 lbs., had the opportu- nity to do a Whole30 (a nutrition and weight-loss program), and my high blood pressure is gone. My kid went from the 3rd percent to the 17th percent in weight because I had more money for quality food/nutrition.” “It’s let me provide better foods for my children.” “Enables my family and I to get more healthy food than usual. Live, eat better.” Double Up Food Bucks Program approximately 40 percent over the 2017 Program. In addition to increasing the number of shoppers and the amount spent on healthy foods, the GRH Community Benefit grant funding allowed the Market to explore opportu- nities for new outreach to notify SNAP recipients about the Program. These efforts resulted in an increase of 145 new shoppers taking advantage of the Program in 2018, with $4,505 more being spent on fresh fruits and vegeta- bles at the Market than in 2017. Alicia’s story —Continued from cover 3