ORH Featured News Item
Honor Harvest: Connecting Iowa Veterans with Locally Grown Food
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (ORH) has partnered with the VA Iowa City Healthcare System, Iowa's Choose Iowa* program, and Field to Family Food Hub* to launch HONOR HARVEST — a new pilot program designed to improve access to fresh, healthy food for rural Iowa Veterans.
The HONOR HARVEST program focuses on Veterans managing diet-related health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, helping them get the nutritious food they need to support better health outcomes.
Through HONOR HARVEST, 40 eligible rural Veterans receiving care at the Iowa City VA Medical Center will receive a weekly box of locally grown Iowa food — including produce, meat, and dairy — over a seven-week period.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is providing the funding to purchase these products exclusively from Iowa farmers and food businesses. Field to Family Food Hub handles sourcing, packaging, and distribution, with boxes available for pickup at the Iowa City VA Medical Center.
"Honor Harvest creates a meaningful new connection between Iowa veterans and Iowa farmers,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “Good food is essential to wellness and healthy living, and this partnership will provide veterans with greater access to fresh, wholesome and nutritious food grown and raised right here in Iowa."
Honor Harvest builds on VHA's ongoing commitment to addressing the nutritional needs of rural Veterans while also strengthening the agricultural communities where they live. This “Food is Medicine” pilot demonstrates how partnerships between health care and local food systems can create meaningful benefits for Veterans — and serves as a model for expanding similar efforts in the future.
Read the press release from the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. »
Dr. Peter Kaboli greets Honor Harvest Veterans on pick-up day at the Iowa City VA Medical Center.
“The Iowa City VA Medical Center HONOR HARVEST program builds on prior work from the VHA Office of Rural Health to help address the nutritional needs of rural Veterans. Our goal is to further develop this collaborative model that supports both rural Veterans and the agricultural communities in which they live.”
~ Peter Kaboli, MD
ORH Executive Director and Physician
Iowa City VA Medical Center
Rural Health - Navigation
- Office of Rural Health Home page:
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/index.asp - Enterprise-Wide Initiatives (EWI) page:
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/Enterprise-Wide-Initiatives-EWI.asp - Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers (VRHRC) page:
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/Veterans-Rural-Health-Resource-Centers-VRHRC.asp
*Link will take you outside of the Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA) Website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites. The link will open in a new window for the content of the linked websites.
