A Food is Medicine initiative called the Delta GREENS (Growing a Resilient, Enriching, Equitable, Nourishing food System) Project is connecting local agriculture with clinical healthcare to transform community wellness in the Mississippi Delta.

Administered by Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the initiative aims to tackle high rates of diet-related chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease in one of the nation’s most under-resourced regions. Through produce prescription programs and other community-led interventions, this goal is not only attainable, but necessary.

Approximately 17 percent of Mississippi households faced food insecurity between 2022 and 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“People can’t afford healthy food. A lot of people are impoverished… living check to check,” Charity Bruce Sweet, Director of the Economic Justice Campaign at the Mississippi Center for Justice, tells Food Tank. “A lot of people would rather make sure that they have lights or that they have water, and sometimes that means that they are sacrificing their health and wellness.”

The lack of public transportation infrastructure leaves rural residents geographically isolated, explains Sweet. Generations of systemic segregation and discrimination further restrict access to livable incomes, healthcare, and fresh food.

“Realistically, it’s so hard when it’s based in systems that are not built to help people,” Sweet says.

Rebuilding local food access requires reshaping a regional supply chain dominated by industrial commodity farming. “Most of the land is tied up in cotton and soy and other commodity products that are grown to a large degree in that area,” Christina Economos, Dean of the Friedman School, tells Food Tank.

To overcome this structural hurdle, the Delta GREENS Project targets both ends of the food system simultaneously. On the supply side, the project provides small-scale farmers with the capital needed to cultivate fruits and vegetables locally. It connects study participants to the produce through a year-long produce prescription program that delivers weekly produce boxes alongside nutrition education.

Read the full article about improving Mississippi food systems by Eric Christine at Food Tank.