Nemours Children’s Health

In just three years, Dion’s Chicago Dream is coming true. This organization, which was created in 2020 to bring fresh produce to those experiencing food insecurity in the Chicago area, started out providing 80 to 90 lbs a week to a single community refrigerator on Chicago’s south side. Today, this staff is delivering more than 55,000 lbs of fresh, healthy produce to 42 out of 77 neighborhoods in Chicago every month.

As part of the White House commitment to Hunger, Nutrition and Health, UTHealth Houston and Brighter Bites non-profit organization, are partnering together to implement and evaluate the impact of a comprehensive produce prescription strategy consisting of access to fresh produce plus nutrition education for implementation among food-insecure children and their families through school-based health centers. There are more than 3,200 school-based health centers across 48 U.S. states with over 7 million children receiving primary care at these clinics. The initiative will start in Texas with partners such as Legacy Community Health, the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in Texas. With the national footprint of Brighter Bites, the produce prescription approach will be scaled so that it is available for implementation across school-based health centers nationwide.