Texas Health Community Hope promotes usage of the Double Up Food Bucks initiative, which allows people eligible for Supplemental Needs Assistance Benefits (SNAP) to double their buying power on fresh produce at participating grocery stores and farmers markets. With support from a variety of community funders, they continue to roll out new locations and currently support Double Up Food Bucks at four North Texas grocery stores and nine farmers markets. Since the program’s introduction to North Texas in 2020, there have been nearly 100,000 Double Up transactions and more than $675,000 in Double Up Food Bucks used by individuals and families to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

At the Dallas Farmers Market, teachers are looking for resources to share with their families. At Coppell Farmer Market, shoppers can come with their family and get more produce than ever using SNAP. At Foodland Market, some shoppers are just finding out about the program and are excited to use it. At the Cowtown Farmers Market, farmers have been able to build relationships with the shoppers that use Double Up Food Bucks. Many have become regulars.

Another initiative is the Good For You Healthy Hub program, which provides no-cost fruits vegetables and healthy staples in high-need communities through schools, community centers and college campuses such as Texas Wesleyan University. The Good For You program also offers nutrition education and other resources aimed at helping students and families make the most use of those resources.

Texas Health Resources has been supporting well-being in the community it serves for many years, with a broad range of innovative programs, investments and collaborations designed to improve community health outside hospital walls. Texas Health Community Hope brings that work under one umbrella to make it easier to communicate the depth and breadth of those efforts and share them with the community.

Texas Health Resources focuses on mind, body and soul to support community well-being with innovative programs and collaborations. Research shows that when it comes to well-being, our mind, body and soul are all connected. More than 30 community health initiatives, many focused on high-need ZIP codes, are designed to address the social determinants of health or factors that are known to help people live longer, better lives.

David Tesmer, chief community and public policy officer for Texas Health, says, “To create a healthier community, we need to address important issues like nutrition security, literacy and mental health, and we are doing that with help from a myriad of like-minded organizations and individuals who support our programs throughout North Texas.”

Texas Health Community Hope comprises six focus areas: community health and well-being; healthy food access; emotional, social and spiritual support; community collaboration; public policy and advocacy; and employee community engagement. Some of the most recognizable programs include the Community Health Ministry, school learning gardens, faith community nursing, Mental Health First-Aid training and mobile health clinics. Texas Health also leads healthy food initiatives across North Texas such as the successful Tarrant County programs begun under the Blue Zones Project.

Tesmer explains, “Improving community health is an integrated and multifaceted effort. It’s the grants we award to organizations to fund innovative programs that help the underserved. It’s Mental Health First-Aid training that helps us build a more compassionate response for individuals in crisis. It’s distributing thousands of free books to improve literacy among young people. And it’s the resources and support we offer faith leaders and their congregations. Texas Health is focused on supporting mind, body and soul because the long-term health of North Texans is directly linked to the individual well-being of the people who live here.”

He shares, “This community is truly committed to improving well-being, and we all have a critical role to play to ensure that every individual has the resources, knowledge and support they need to lead a healthy life.”

For more information, visit TexasHealth.org/CommunityHope.