Stories

Salad days

Healthcare providers at Compass Community Health have been writing a different kind of prescription since 2022. A recent grant from HCF is helping the popular program expand to serve people on a growing waiting list.

FVRx — which stands for fruit and vegetable prescription — provides fresh, locally sourced produce, plus recipes and preparation tips, every other week for a year to low-income patients who have diabetes and other chronic diseases. Patients can pick up their produce or arrange for delivery. The program — the first of its kind in Hamilton — is run in partnership with Hamilton’s MRKTBOX, an online grocery store which sources the produce.

As food prices go up in Hamilton and across Canada, the program gives Compass Community Health a tool to mitigate food insecurity. HCF support will help fund 30 clients to receive a produce bag biweekly for a total of 780 bags.

In 2023, participant Vanessa Iker told CBC that she has “more energy and less pain” since filling her food prescription every other week. “When I open my fridge, it’s full,” she says.

From Legacy Spring 2025 newsletter