Caitlin Whyte (Host): This is Community Connect, presented by Tampa General Hospital. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Joining me today is Jenise Carr, the Community Garden and Food Pharmacy manager at Tampa Well, activated by Tampa General Hospital. Welcome, Jenise.

Well, Jenise, I am so excited to talk about this program and everything you're doing over at Tampa General Hospital. My first question is, what is the most important thing people need to know about what they feed their body?

Jenise Carr: Wow, that you are extending your life by what you put into your body. Your body does a wonderful job at doing all of these different functions that we don't even see and don't even have to think about. But one thing that it, it cannot do all of those processes, every single function, without nutrients.

So what you feed your body, has everything to do with how you extend your life, your livelihood, how well your life is going, andthe amount of life that you get out of what you're doing.

Host: I love that. Now, what would you suggest as the top foods to consume for that healthier life? 

Jenise Carr: How can I be a former farmer who grows food and not say fresh fruits and vegetables? But really fresh fruits and vegetables are, they have everything that your body needs and it is the easiest for your body to process. So when you have a healthy body, even when your body isn't as strong, it doesn't take it that long to process it and get those nutrients into your body. Those nutrients are what keeps everything circulating. And the main thing that you're feeding, is your brain because your brain is managing all those processes. So, vitamins and minerals are just as dense invegetables and fruit, protein is even in there. So all the things that make up protein are in vegetables. So when you consume a lot of them, you're able to get those vitamins and minerals into your body and it processes in 30 minutes. So it gives you everything that you need.

And food is electric. Your body is electric.Vitamins and minerals are electric. When you're eating raw foods, you're getting the best like energy in your body to maintain your energy life force that you have, to help your livelihood for every day. So eat fresh fruits and vegetables. I cannot emphasize that enough.

Host: Absolutely. Well, what would you say is the biggest barrier then you have seen for people to have the food that they should be eating? 

Jenise Carr: Access and initiative. So access is a key element, particularlydepending on what your financial level is, where you live, and how accessible it is for you to get fresh fruits and vegetables.

And generally fresh fruits and vegetables expire. So they have a, they have a shorter shelf life and because of that, they're usually more expensive. So if you live in an area where you do not have access to those things andthey're a higher price point and you don't have enough income because you're justliving paycheck to paycheck barely. Then getting access to those higher priced, more nutritious vegetables is just not feasible for you.This is one of the reasons why we have the food pharmacy is because where we're at in 33610, theper capita income of this particular zip code is 50% lower than the per capita income of all of Hillsborough County and Hillsborough County is the largest county in Florida. So that disparity makes a huge difference. Coupled with that, without those vital vitamins and minerals, this also leads to other deficiencies that can lead to conditions in the body that are just verydebilitative. So, and those are the diagnoses that we focus on, on the food pharmacy because some of those are related to what you're eating. So we kind of bridge that gap particularly for those patients that have hypertension, diabetes, pre-diabetes, obesity, usually those diagnosis are in two or three.

And so we provide that bridge and being able to access it and giving them a bridge into health, particularly if they have those diet related diagnoses.The other thing I mentioned was initiative. And so sometimes just having the initiative to go outside of what you've already known,when it's more challenging to get to those things, that initiative to go beyond that challenge and find out other options; sometimes that's just not there.

So I'm not talking about the initiative of people just don't want to change. Sometimes it's, I just don't know how to change.It's not feasible for my life right now. I'm pretty stressed in a lot of areas and so I'm just trying to eat and put something in my belly and put something in my family's belly.

And so,this is why it's important for what we do at the food pharmacy because it just says, Hey, we've got it for you. Your doctor has given you a prescription for six months. You get fresh fruits and vegetables. You come by by appointment. It's someplace that you're familiar with. It's easy for you to access.

If you don't have access, we can help with transportation. Once you get into the food pharmacy, we become, I call them my food pharmacy family because we see them every week for six months or twice a month for six months. So we get to know each other and in that process it's like, Hey, we got a cooking class going on.

Would you like to, to enjoy, you know, come to the cooking class?Would you like some more information on things? They can ask questions. We have an RD on staff who is able to ask more in depth questions, is if needed, and just point them to other areas of care that helps layer on so that it's not just food, but it's also different ways to use it, ways to interesting ways to get it into your body. And those layer upon layer create different understandings and it creates connectivity so that once they're no longer in the food pharmacy, that those things will land. So it's much different than a food pantry and it's much different than just a prescription.

So that prescription to health and connecting what we do here with their doctors so their doctors can also see it. So when their doctors see that they're taking initiative to come to the food pharmacy, they're signing up for the classes. They've taken a nutrition class,then they see their levels changing, their A1C changing, they noticed some different things going on in their health that might change their level of care.

Maybe the medication changes. So we're hoping that these things lead to other things that impact the overall wellness journey of our patients.

Caitlin Whyte (Host): Well, Jenise, it's obvious that you are super passionate about what you do and how you help your community. Now, when it comes to these barriers and issues of access and nutrition in general, I mean, what keeps you up at night?

Jenise Carr: It is absolutely alarming to me how many people are dying of diet related conditions and diagnoses. It is, you know, at this point I think there'sthe level of like obesity in children is like one out of five. It's something like really high. So it's all the markers are already starting where their bodies are congested.

It's inflamed. The types of foods that they're eating, they're eating foods that are making them sick. And so it's not just, what's alarming is it's not just people who are their health is frail, or, social economic is not a, is not a barrier. It's people from all different walks of life and all different types of health conditions too.

So there can be people who are athletes, big and strong, heart attack, you know, high blood pressure.So that means that there's this one thing that is connecting all of us that we need to have life and life abundant and livelihood. And that's the thing that we do every single day to maintain life. And that's what we eat.

So what we eat has to change. And when I started changing what I ate, it's because when I went to college, I did journalism and I always, I wanted to be an investigative reporter, so I looked up everything and I started looking up the ingredients in food and these chemical markers were coming up for some of the ingredients. 

I just didn't realize that there were ingredients in the things that we ate that were, were considered to be chemicals, and I didn't understand why that was, and so I was very curious about that. But it's just, it's very alarming.When I was a young mother finding that out and I was the one who did all the groceries, I did, I made all the meals.

I determined what my entire family ate. It was alarming to me that I might be feeding death to my family. Just one bite at a time. You know, not purposely, but this, these things in food. Because we do it every day, start to when they're trying to find a place to go and our bodies can't figure out what it is because our bodies are natural.

It is. It's like putting, maybe let's put a little orange juice into a car and see how well it drives. It probably won't work as well.But it just changed my whole perception of things about, about how important food is and that what an impact could be made if we change the way food is grown and what goes into, to food.

And then we change people's accessibility to healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy food. How that would make our job with my team members at Tampa General Hospital. How would just take the weight off a little bit.Because that can change things, food can change things. Nutrients is important.

What we eat is important. It seems like it's just particularly more so in this country that it's a privilege. And so we eat the things that we like. We eat the things that we want to, what we have access to, what we desire to, based upon what we're feeling that time. But the number one purpose of food is to extend your life day by day, and that's a very important choice. And having access to those things that are better for you and having access to food that doesn't have lots of ingredients in it that is harder for your body to process is vitally important.

Host: Well, on the opposite side of that spectrum, Jenise, as we wrap up here today, what's some advice that you would give people in order to change their health legacy? And that's a pretty big term and subject here, but what's something that maybe we could do for dinner later or breakfast tomorrow? Some simple things to get us on the right track.

Jenise Carr: Oh my goodness. So the main thing to change your health legacy is to grow your own food. And if you do not know how to grow your own food, learn. So our community garden that we have, the Tampa Well Community Garden is located right in East Tampa. It's on 30th andHanna.But there's a community garden there and we have 26 beds that are growing fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers,medicinal herbs, culinary herbs. So come and partake. So on Wednesdays we have an open harvest. It's a community harvest. It's free, so whatever we harvest from the garden is available in our outdoor classroom. It's nice and covered in shade, so it makes it very accessible for people.

But we're also going to start offering classes to show you how to grow your own food. And also we have volunteer hours on Monday and Wednesday. From nine to 11 every Monday and Wednesday I'm there and I will show you everything that I know about how to take care of plants, how to,how to seed them, weed them, feed them, all those things so that you have the information you need to grow your own food. But connecting with your food as a nurturing aspect for nurturing and extending your life, is why growing your own food is important. Even if it just starts as herbs, because it is a nurturing process, but it's for a vital, very vital reason, and it's to nourish yourself and your family. And so there might be certain things within your, your family, certain conditions that run in your family, and so what you decide to eat, and the measures you take to get access to those things and taking, whatever initiative you have available to you to do that, is going to help change your family's health legacy. So that it doesn't, it can stop or it can be changed with you by just the way you are choosing your food and deciding mindfully how to do that and tapping into sources that know if you don't know.

We know what we do at the food pharmacy. I, I answer lots and lots of questions and they ask me the same thing and I say, eat it. You know, eat the food that comes closest to the ground, how it's grown in, in the ground, and then go up from there in those stages. So if it's a bean and it's dried, okay, great.

Those dried beans, soak them, make them from scratch. If you can't do that, okay, what's the next stage up? Okay, it's canned, but it's just beans and water. Simple ingredients in it, then start from there.But just feed yourself whole foods. Put fruits and vegetables in there as much as possible. Use and eat what you have access to.

So that's going to be different for someone. For someone it might be oatmeal in the morning with bananas. For someone else it might be just a banana. For someone else, it might be coffee and fasting until 12. So it just depends on what your accessibility is. But choosing whole foods, putting as much fruits and vegetables in as possible that are fresh, finding creative ways to get access to it.

And in one of our partners is feeding Tampa Bay and they have places everywhere for you to access food. So there's, and YMCA has a veggie van.We have those two come to our locations so that you can pick it up from here if you don't have a food prescription.Because a food prescription does have to be from your doctor, your health doctor to come to the food pharmacy.

But we still on Monday, we have feeding Tampa Bay come with their Groceries-On-the-Go. It's a van. You can go and shop in there. And the price point in there is a lot better than stores. They take all types of tenders.And we also have the veggie van that comes.

So the, excuse me, the feeding Tampa Bay is on Monday from 10 to 11, and then the veggie van is on the first and third Wednesday at 12:30. That is at no charge. And the feeding Tampa Bay is at just a better price point. And it, it takes all type of ways that you might need to pay for. So,so finding that that different way that you can access it to change what you can change, but realizing how important it is, and then let us get you started, come to the community garden. We'll get you started on growing your own food andget you involved in many different things. People change people. You can read a lot of things, but when you are engaged in a community and you're doing the same things to support each other, then that encourages you to make changes that maybe you wouldn't before.

Wonderful. Just some great advice and really an innovative and fascinating program we have going on here. Thank you, Jenise. That has been Jenise Carr. For more information, please visit tgh.org/tampawell. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, subscribe, and follow Community Connect, presented by TGH on your favorite podcast platform.

Host: I'm Caitlyn Whyte, and this is Community

Caitlin Whyte (Host): Connect,

Host: presented by TGH. Thanks for listening.