Incentives offered for healthy eating

Joseph Mccarthey left the Franklin Park Conservatory Farmers Market with three full plastic grocery bags of vegetables — all for only $1.

Buckeye Health Plan members can receive a $10 voucher to buy fruits and vegetables at the farmers market. Children can receive a “Buckeye Buck” to buy a healthy snack.

Buckeye Health Plan and Produce Perks, a healthyfood incentive program, launched a statewide program called Buckeye Fresh to raise awareness of the importance of healthy eating and helping people on a limited budget get access to healthy foods.

Ohio adults eat only 10% of the recommended daily amount of fruits and 6.9% of vegetables, said Sheila Speights, a community relations representative with Buckeye Health, one of five Medicaid managedcare plans in Ohio.

“When we bring events like this in communities that are low-income, we have Joseph Mccarthey and his 4-year-old daughter, Avery, use vouchers from the new Buckeye Fresh program to buy produce from Mark Barnhart of Barnhart’s Greenhouse at the Franklin Park Conservatory Farmers Market last Wednesday. the opportunity to educate them about living healthy and having healthy behaviors toward food,” Speights said.

Mccarthey, 34, of Columbus, said he and his wife make too much money to qualify for food stamps but still don’t have enough to get by on.

“We have a special-needs child, and it’s a struggle,” Mccarthey said. “It’s good

that Buckeye does this for the community.”

Buckeye Fresh held its first program in August 2018 at a farmers market in Toledo.

“That went so well, we decided to do it in other areas of the state,” Speights said.

Together, Buckeye Health Plan and Produce Perks are launching programs in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron and Dayton.

As a part of the kickoff event in Columbus, Buckeye Health partnered with Ohio State University Extension and Primaryone Health, which operates 10 community health centers in medically underserved areas of Franklin and Pickaway counties.

Primaryone offered free health screenings of glucose and blood pressure levels. OSU Extension was showing people how to make corn salsa with the produce they bought at the farmers market.

“Marketgoers can taste and see how easy it is to make a dish with fresh fruits and vegetables,” Speights said.

Buckeye Health Plan members in central Ohio can redeem their $10 voucher at the Franklin Park Conservatory Farmers Market, which runs from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sept. 4.