Farmacy WV

The FARMacy WV pilot program was initiated in 2016 as a collaboration between a free and charitable community clinic in Wheeling, West Virginia and Grow Ohio Valley, an urban farming group also located in Wheeling. The collaboration came out of a joint concern for the health of the population of West Virginia which continues to lead the country to this day in chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.

We have seen since the initiation of this program, through standardized HIPAA protected biometric data collection, that "healthy food is medicine," and that the first method of both treatment and prevention of chronic disease should be a healthy diet. Providing access to healthy food as well as education in nutrition and cooking skills in the nutrition deserts and food insecure regions of West Virginia has allowed us to do so.