{"id":148435,"date":"2025-08-19T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/okfr.hilliarymulti.wpengine.com\/?p=148435"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T14:37:49","slug":"lauran-larson-how-the-food-is-medicine-program-is-transforming-health-in-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/2025\/08\/19\/lauran-larson-how-the-food-is-medicine-program-is-transforming-health-in-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauran Larson: How The Food is Medicine Program is Transforming Health in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-1024x819.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-1024x819.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-768x614.png 768w, https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-1536x1229.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-2048x1638.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/image-167-750x600.png 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pic Credit Of Hunger Free Oklahoma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/Lauran-Larson-1-Mixdown-1.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Listen To Carli Davenport And Lauran Larson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Associate farm reporter Carli Davenport spoke with Senior Manager of Food and Health for Hunger Free Oklahoma, Lauran Larson.  Larson began by highlighting what she considers the earliest \u201cfood is medicine\u201d initiative: the WIC program, or Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. She explained that WIC began \u201ca little over 50 years ago\u201d when researchers noticed mothers were \u201cnot meeting their nutritional needs\u201d and babies were experiencing poor health outcomes. The pilot program prescribed healthy foods to mothers, resulting in \u201c improved birth outcomes, higher birth weights, and better outcomes for the babies in general.\u201d The success led to WIC becoming a federal program, proving over decades that \u201cif we do prescribe healthy foods to individuals, we\u2019re going to save money in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larson went on to explain that the modern food is medicine movement \u201creally has started up in the last 15 or so years\u201d and now reaches beyond mothers and babies. Larson said research has shown improved outcomes for conditions like \u201cdiabetes and hypertension\u201d and emphasized, \u201cwe\u2019re seeing great success with these programs.\u201d In Oklahoma, there are \u201cabout 13 programs reaching specific patients in specific areas,\u201d though eligibility depends on location and physician partnerships. \u201cEvery program is different,\u201d she noted, with some enrolling new patients and others not, adding, \u201cWe hope to see more and more access statewide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larson also described the Double Up Oklahoma program, which she called \u201cincredible.\u201d Through participating grocery stores or farmers markets, individuals can spend SNAP or food stamp dollars and \u201cdouble your purchase up to $20 a day\u2026 on produce, fruits, vegetables.\u201d The program benefits both shoppers and stores: \u201cThey\u2019re able to offer more produce across the board, expand their varieties,\u201d while participants \u201cstretch their grocery budgets\u201d and enjoy more fresh food, which \u201csometimes is seen as a luxury item.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discussing the Food is Medicine Coalition, Larson said it has existed \u201csince 2023\u201d and brings together \u201cpartners from different sectors, like healthcare providers, agriculture, healthcare systems, and state agencies.\u201d The coalition\u2019s goal is to \u201chave a greater understanding of food as medicine and support existing programs\u201d while fostering the creation of new ones. She stressed the importance of advocacy, noting, \u201cSometimes what that means is advocating for more funding for the programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larson concluded by emphasizing collaboration and breaking down barriers. \u201cWe just want to break down those silos, get more programs out there,\u201d she said. By connecting partners and sharing knowledge, \u201cwe are seeing incredible impact from food as medicine programs,\u201d and \u201cbringing everyone together to know what\u2019s going on and learn from each other and collaborate has just been beautiful to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associate farm reporter Carli Davenport spoke with Senior Manager of Food and Health for Hunger Free Oklahoma, Lauran Larson. Larson began by highlighting what she considers the earliest \u201cfood is medicine\u201d initiative: the WIC program, or Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. She explained that WIC began \u201ca little over 50 years ago\u201d &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/2025\/08\/19\/lauran-larson-how-the-food-is-medicine-program-is-transforming-health-in-oklahoma\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agnews","category-top-ag-news","item-wrap"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oklahomafarmreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}