NOURISHING HEALTHY STARTS

Fresh Food and Support for Strong Moms and Healthy Babies

The Problem

Food insecurity during pregnancy can have long-term impacts on the health of mothers and infants.

Food insecurity during pregnancy can cause infants to be born at low birthweight.

Low-birthweight births costs about $44,000 more than healthy births.

Babies born underweight are at greater risk for serious health challenges.

Low-birthweight infants are more likely to visit the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which costs $76,000 on average per stay.

Without access to proper nutrition, anxiety and depression can occur during pregnancy.

Untreated anxiety and depression cost $17,000 for each impacted mother.

THE APPROACH

Operation Food Search is partnering with Missouri’s Medicaid health plans to identify pregnant women experiencing food insecurity in the St. Louis region and refer them to Fresh Rx.

FRESH RX
FAMILY MEALS

Meal kits are delivered each week featuring fresh, locally grown produce, protein, dairy, and grains.

CULINARY &
COOKING SUPPORT

Cooking classes, tutorials, and problem-solving help families build skills and comfort in the kitchen

SAFETY NET
ENROLLMENT ASSISTANCE

All participants receive assistance enrolling in public nutrition programs such as SNAP and WIC.

COMPREHENSIVE
CASE MANAGEMENT

Families receive help identifying and meeting their goals along with care coordination and connections to other community resources.

FINDINGS

Fresh Rx: Nourishing Healthy Starts is preventing negative health effects and high costs that are caused by food insecurity during pregnancy.

PILOT RESULTS

We partnered with SSM Health DePaul Hospital OB Care Center to conduct a 24-month pilot study in the St. Louis region. Approximately 100 women have been enrolled and 75 babies have been delivered. Our results show that providing access to nutrition during pregnancy can improve health outcomes and save health care costs.

Improved Food Security

Food security increased by 44 percentage points.

Better Health & Wellbeing for Moms

Depressive symptoms decreased by 14 percentage points.

Healthy Babies Delivered

Fresh Rx’s low-birthweight rate is 5.3 percentage points lower than Medicaid in St. Louis City.5

Cost Savings

Preventing low-birthweight deliveries has already saved $189,000 in healthcare costs during the Fresh Rx pilot.6

NEXT STEPS

We recently launched a randomized control trial of the Fresh Rx program with all Medicaid health plans and the Social Policy Institute to measure the return on investment. Results will be used to help determine how Medicaid can promote food security and better birth outcomes for all Missouri families.

PILOT PROGRAM

RESEARCH

EVALUATION

POLICY CHANGE

CONNECT WITH US

Food is Medicine Missouri is a statewide collaborative increasing awareness about the importance of food and nutrition for overall health.

Are you interested in working together to establish that Food is Medicine?