Dakota Food Rx: Connecting Local Foods and Healthcare Using Produce Prescriptions
Connections Across the Generations
Saturday, November 9th, 10:30am MT – The Joe Rovere Minnilusa Pioneer Room
Geb Bastian is an assistant professor and extension nutrition & health specialist at South Dakota State University. His research and extension outreach aim to bolster local food systems and improve access to healthy foods for all South Dakotans. Geb is the principal investigator of Dakota Food Rx, an expansion of the Veggie Rx program originally started at Budding Moon Farm.
Imagine going to your doctor and instead of getting a prescription for a medication, you get a prescription for fresh fruits and vegetables! For more and more South Dakotans with low income and dealing with diet-related chronic conditions, this dream is becoming a reality through produce prescription programs. Join Geb and Jared as they discuss how the Budding Moon Farm Veggie Rx program has expanded into the larger Dakota Food Rx program, and how local producers and healthcare providers have come together to improve healthcare outcomes through the power of local foods.
Jared has been operating Budding Moon Farm – a mixed vegetable farm distributing through a sliding-scale CSA and Prescription Produce Program – since 2018 in Spearfish, SD. Before learning vegetable production from a number of farms in the Pacific Northwest, Jared was a middle school teacher in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN. The goal of Budding Moon Farm is to implement innovative programs that increase nutrition security in the community, while also supporting a healthy ecosystem and maintaining financial viability. Jared continues this work beyond the borders of South Dakota by collaborating with the Fair Share CSA Coalition and CSA Innovation Network on improving equitable access to healthy food.
