ARH Earns National Recognition for Linking Local Food to Patient Care

Appalachian Regional Healthcare's pop-up farmers markets and patient produce vouchers were showcased as a national best-practice model last week at a Miami event tied to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Take Back Your Health campaign.

The recognition came during the launch of Florida's Food Is Health Institutional Procurement Initiative and placed ARH, a not-for-profit system operating 14 hospitals across Kentucky and West Virginia, alongside health systems demonstrating how hospital purchasing can be directly tied to local agriculture. Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center is among the campuses where the program has taken shape, with markets held on hospital grounds and vouchers distributed to employees and patients for use at those markets.

ARH leaders have participated in Food Is Medicine policy discussions alongside state agriculture and hospital associations, and the system has worked to incorporate locally grown produce into hospital foodservice operations. The broader framing, as ARH described it, is a shift away from "sick care" toward prevention and community resilience: using diet as both a clinical tool and an anchor for local economic development.

For Perry County, where chronic illness rates run high and access to fresh produce can be scarce, that framing is not abstract. The farmers market events bring food directly onto hospital grounds; the voucher programs give patients and low-income residents a direct mechanism to access it; and local purchasing from area growers creates a modest but real new market channel for farmers.

The Miami spotlight strengthens ARH's position for state and federal grant programs connected to nutrition, chronic-disease prevention, and rural health innovation. Prescription food box programs and expanded nutrition education are among the continued initiatives expected as ARH builds on the national profile.