Congratulations to C3EN Pilot Awardee Saria Lofton, assistant professor at UIC College of Nursing, on receiving an NIH R01 for FIM+DASH: A randomized Food Is Medicine trial to promote healthy eating and blood pressure control in hypertensive Black women with obesity! Lofton received a C3EN Pilot Award in 2022 for Food is Medicine: Healing Together, a project implementing food-is-medicine programs for obese, hypertensive Black women in two Chicago communities.
Lofton’s C3EN project piloted a 12-week program consisting 6 in-person cooking classes and 6 Zoom sessions focused on knowledge sharing and peer support among 20 Black women with hypertension and obesity. Participants received food through an on-site pickup program. The results of the pilot were notable: “Systolic blood pressure trended down by about nine points,” says Lofton. “We saw promising changes, including improved medication adherence–some participants told us directly that they were taking their medication more consistently.”
Building on her pilot project, Lofton’s R01 project focuses on bringing the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, which focuses on eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and limiting saturated fats, sodium, and sweets, to participants with hypertension and obesity in four FQHCs in south side Chicago neighborhoods. The intervention group will receive 12 weeks of DASH-aligned home food delivery, cooking classes, Zoom classes, self-monitoring texts for blood pressure and weight, and brief one-on-one support calls. The control group will receive 12 weeks of food after the intervention period. Lofton will track blood pressure, weight, waist circumference, and other metrics, as well as interview participants on their experience.
After the active phase of the intervention, participants will enter a 12-week maintenance phase with food vouchers to assess the sustainability of the intervention. “A key part of sustainability is using community-based partners: a chef from the community, produce vendors from the community, and a community liaison,” says Lofton. “Produce access is limited in many neighborhoods—South Shore has just one market—so delivery through partners like Forty Acres Fresh Market is essential. Their produce is affordable, high quality, and they participate in SNAP matching programs. It is important that our partners already operate in the community. Our goal is to strengthen relationships and ensure participants can continue accessing food after the program. For example, people from the pilot continued using Forty Acres Fresh Market afterwards.”
Previously a certified school nurse in Chicago Public Schools, as well as a school nurse delegate involved in organizing and advocacy, Lofton continues to use community-organizing principles in her research. “I want to meet people where they are, reduce power barriers, and ensure research benefits participants as much as it benefits researchers,” she says.
Though she began her career as a researcher working on HIV prevention in Malawi, a desire to work closer to home led her to then-Chicago-based researcher Angela Odoms-Young, whose research on nutrition and chronic disease has helped shape national food and nutrition policies. Inspired by Odoms-Young, as well as food systems coordinator and urban agriculture advocate Orrin Williams, Lofton began to pursue food-is-medicine research. “Food-is-medicine programs typically use food delivery, food vouchers, or medically tailored meals,” she says. “For example, people receive groceries delivered to their home, or medically tailored meals for conditions like renal disease, cancer, or diabetes. The model has existed for a long time, and states like Massachusetts and North Carolina have integrated it into policy.”
Food-is-medicine interventions have become more feasible since the COVID pandemic, which not only heightened awareness of the critical need for food access, but also made food delivery more commonplace. “Grocery delivery opened the door for food-is-medicine interventions,” she notes.
Support and visibility from the C3EN Pilot Award has also advanced FIM work. “C3EN funding was crucial for developing the food-is-medicine space in Chicago, especially with community partners,” says Lofton. “One partner with a journalism background helped get publicity and interviews for greater visibility in 2023” – including a television feature on NBC Chicago. She also co-authored an op-ed in the Sun-Times with another partner, public health consultant Barbara (Lucy) Peterson, about expanding FIM programs in Medicaid. As she continues to work with partners including Good Food is Good Medicine and Forty Acres Fresh Market, which she first met through mutual aid meetings on food organized by groups including Chicago Food Policy Action Council and Chicago Grows Food during the pandemic, Lofton stresses the importance of mutual aid networks to the process of building an effective community-based intervention. “Relationships really propel the project,” she says.