317 - Integrating trauma-informed nutrition education and produce prescriptions into pediatric healthcare to achieve food equity: Parent perspectives and best practices

Poster Number: 317
Publication Number: 317.2294

Background: Existing pediatric healthcare, food policies, and community programs have not resulted in healthy eating patterns for most US children. To address this gap, parents, early childhood educators, dietitians, and pediatricians in Philadelphia have partnered since 2012 to develop Home Plate, a food literacy and cooking skills program that employs a trauma-informed, experiential learning approach to support families with planning, procuring, and preparing fresh, healthy meals at home. Produce prescriptions (PRx) have augmented Home Plate since the pandemic.

Objective: Identify how families experiences with Home Plate and PRx influence eating habits.

Design/Methods: This longitudinal, qualitative evaluation employed a convenience sample of low-income or food insecure families with children ≤5 years recruited from 2 primary care clinics and 4 early childhood education centers in 2022-2023. All families received $50 of PRx biweekly for 8 to 12 weeks, redeemable for fresh produce and herbs at large and small grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers markets. Some received Home Plate for six weeks, through attending weekly, virtual, interactive sessions with other parents (Home Plate) or weekly texts or emails linking to pre-recorded videos and pictorial handouts (Home Plate Lite). We obtained feedback during programming and in structured phone interviews afterwards and employed directed content analysis to synthesize high-level themes from audio-recorded interviews and field notes.

Results: 134 families participated in PRx and 93 in Home Plate (Table 1). 3 themes inform best practices for integrating nutrition into pediatric healthcare (Table 2). (1) PRx provided “financial flexibility” to explore new produce, previously inaccessible due to actual cost and risk of wasting money on food that may not be eaten. Home Plate and PRx together create pathways to healthier food habits: (2) “Enjoying food” through connecting with other parents, cooking new recipes, and getting children involved in the kitchen. (3) “Experiential learning” led to changes in motivation and preparatory action for healthy eating (Fig. 1). Home Plate showed parents that preparing healthy meals is not challenging or time consuming as expected. Children’s excitement for shopping and cooking meant they ate more produce, motivating parents to continue these new routines as quality family time.

Conclusion(s): Parent experiences with PRx and a trauma-informed food literacy and cooking skills program demonstrate the importance of centering families and emphasizing autonomy and dignity when integrating nutrition programs into pediatric healthcare.