Congreso is on a Mission 2 Impact! Through M2I, Congreso will implement our theory of change, build on our strengths, and work relentlessly to maximize our impact. | |
Congreso Health Center’s Eat to Live Program in Action! The Congreso Health Center’s Eat to Live Program is a program that targets Congreso Health Center patients with uncontrolled diabetes and uncontrolled hypertension and aims to improve these chronic conditions through diet and exercise, in coordination with medications and mental health support. Patients are “prescribed” into the program by their medical provider, and receive a monthly vegetable basket. This monthly food delivery is also paired with nutrition education and cooking demonstrations with items from the basket. Eat to Live's Story Eat to Live is a great example of M2I in action. Medical providers at the Congreso Health Center had long recognized that nutrition and food access were barriers to controlling chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, but there was little they could do besides provide small doses of education in the medical visit, and prescribe medications to help control these chronic, but preventable, conditions. An opportunity arose through the American Heart Association’s EmPOWERED To Serve Urban Accelerator, which challenged organizations to apply innovative, community-based solutions to help bridge the health equity gap in their community. Congreso’s Director of Primary Care, Judith Emmons, participated in the 8-week course, which incorporated many elements of M2I, such as designing a program to meet community needs (and not funder requirements) and developing a compelling narrative to sell your project to potential funders. From this process, Eat to Live was born. So far, over 75 unduplicated patients have participated in the workshops, with the majority attending multiple consecutive workshops. 26% of patients “prescribed” to the program have decreased in weight, and 36% have experienced a decrease in blood pressure. | |
