Food4Moms: Supporting Maternal Health Through Produce Prescriptions

For too many pregnant and postpartum mothers, access to fresh, nutritious food is limited - putting both maternal and infant health at risk.

At Wholesome Wave, we work to close that gap by testing and scaling Food as Medicine solutions that connect healthcare with healthy food access. One of those solutions is Food4Moms, a produce prescription (PRx) program designed specifically to support low-income pregnant women experiencing food and nutrition insecurity.

What Is Food4Moms?

Food4Moms is an iterative, multi-phase produce prescription (PRx) program, providing low-income, pregnant women experiencing food and nutrition insecurity with fresh produce and nutrition education during pregnancy and postpartum. The program aims to positively impact maternal and infant health through increased nutrition and food security and improved maternal and birth outcomes. Since it was first introduced in 2022, Food4Moms has been implemented in Hartford and Bridgeport, CT, two urban cities where food insecurity and poverty rates are among the highest across the state. 

Building with Community-Driven Co-Design

With the goal of quantifiably identifying best practices in maternal PRx programs, Food4Moms stands out for its innovative design principles and community-driven co-design approach. Food4Moms has reimagined how a produce prescription can be designed and implemented. 

Honoring fidelity to the community meant designing a program that was reflective of and responsive to community needs, as expressed by community members themselves. Co-design methods were incorporated as program activities, including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and satisfaction surveys, to give participating mothers a voice in designing a program fit to their unique needs and circumstances.

Their feedback was invaluable in shaping future phases of the program, and each subsequent cohort has the chance to share their experiences and lend their voice to the program’s design.

Another key part of Food4Moms’ design was making sure the produce prescription program was accessible and equitable by addressing common barriers to participation and offering multiple ways to receive produce. All program materials and activities were offered in participants’ preferred language. Participants were also empowered to choose their preferred way of using their produce prescription through in-store grocery shopping or home delivery.

These design choices were informed by lessons learned from participants during co-design listening sessions and grounded in the team’s commitment to providing participants with the dignity of choice. To promote equity and recognize the value of participants’ time and voices, expectant mothers were also compensated for their participation in the program. 

Stronger Partnerships, Healthier Communities  

Food4Moms is made possible through partnerships with community-based organizations and federally qualified health centers that have decades-long histories of serving vulnerable communities in Connecticut, including the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford and Southwest Community Health Center in Bridgeport.

These trusted partnerships are essential to reaching the communities in greatest need of nutrition support, connecting them with the Food4Moms PRx program, and ensuring the program is accessible, relevant, and responsive to their needs. Having built deep relationships with their communities, these partners bring a unique understanding of what matters most to the populations they serve and act as champions for their health and well-being. 

“It’s so important that we’re partnering with organizations that are located in the communities and that represent the communities. They champion their communities so much, and they’re very protective of them.” – Katina Gionteris | Assistant Director of Research, Wholesome Wave

Learning Together: A Model for Program Improvement

Another unique aspect of Food4Moms’ program design is the use of the Program Impact Pathways (PIP) framework to guide implementation. The PIP breaks the program down into phases, from community outreach, eligibility screening, and enrollment, to produce prescription use and redemption. At each stage, the team routinely came together to discuss what was working well and what could be improved, learning from each other and actively refining the program to better serve participating mothers.

“It’s not about judgement, it’s about learning. And I think that was fundamental to developing a program that really worked well.” – Katina Gionteris | Assistant Director of Research, Wholesome Wave

The Impact: What Mothers are Saying

Food4Moms’ thoughtful, community-driven design approach has translated into meaningful, positive change for participating mothers and their families.

Preliminary data from Food4Moms Hartford highlight these impacts: participating mothers increased their fruit and vegetable intake and reported enhanced feelings of good health and improved food and nutrition security. These outcomes are supported by a high produce prescription redemption rate, demonstrating strong engagement and connection to the program. 

To complement these measurable outcomes, participants’ reflections were gathered through listening sessions and focus groups, and their feedback tells a powerful story about what the program meant for them and their families.

Participating mothers expressed deep appreciation for having a space to connect with like-minded women and learn about their own and their child’s health, a space they described as full of learning, laughter, and reflection. They also voiced gratitude for the program’s inclusivity, particularly its focus on serving Latinx communities, and for the culturally-tailored guidance provided.

Participants described feeling respected, heard, and supported by program staff, noting that their voices were valued and their engagement actively encouraged. Participating in the program also unified families together around healthy eating, inspiring them to create healthy recipes as a family. 

“It made me proud that we were all women looking to better our health and our babies’ health … to be in a space where I was able to learn, laugh, and reflect with like-minded women.” Food4Moms PRx Program Participant

Looking Ahead: Expanding the Table

As Food4Moms PRx Program continues to grow and expand, our focus remains clear. By implementing the program in diverse settings in Connecticut, we aim to demonstrate its meaningful, positive impact across different populations and contexts with replicable results.

We are currently working to fund the next phase of the program, in which we will implement Food4Moms in rural communities in the state and partner with local community-based organizations, health centers, and farmers to tailor and deliver the program.

While these programs create direct, positive change for their participants, they also have the potential to achieve broader, statewide impact by translating these research insights into policy and system-level change.

Wholesome Wave is committed to creating a robust evidence base in support of maternal produce prescription programs and disseminating our findings with key stakeholders to demonstrate the need for a statewide initiative. We are proud to partner with renowned researchers who assist us in evaluating our programs, including the Yale School of Public Health and Tufts University Food Is Medicine Institute, and look forward to continued collaboration on analyses and publications that illustrate the program’s impact.