East Gainesville food pantry hopes to help eradicate health disparities in Black community

Closing the gap in cardiovascular disease disparities among Black adults living in Florida through a food pharmacy program is the goal of a local non-profit organization.

Food pantry in east Gainesville has "soft launching"

The organization is the newly created Pleasant Street Civil Rights and Cultural Arts Center Inc., which hosted the soft launching of its One Community Health and Wellness Resource Center food pantry on Thursday at 1817 E. University Ave., former site of the Alachua County School District’s student services E.D. Manning Jr. Administration Annex building.

The center’s hours of operation will be from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

"Food is medicine"

"Food is medicine," said Gerard Duncan, founder of the center. "Due to the overwhelming amount of disparities in east Gainesville of poor health conditions, we decided to launch this pilot program for a year. Our hope is to extend the program for multiple years for data where we can identify the changes of cardiovascular diseases in the area."

The pantry is a "pharmacy prescription food pantry" that will provide health equity to residents in east Gainesville, and its goal is to provide nutrition counseling and healthy foods to residents while reducing food insecurity and improving health outcomes for individuals who have been diagnosed with illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer and hypertension, Duncan said.

The food at the pantry will be provided by Bread of the Mighty Food Bank and Feeding Northeast Florida.

East Gainesville considered to be food desert

"This area is a food desert and has food insecurity and has the highest percentage of health disparities in this community because of this," Duncan said. "This area lacks healthy foods and due to a history of unhealthy eating patterns, cardiovascular diseases are prominent in our communities, especially in maternal health and the aging population."

Amgen's Health Equity Challenge

The soft launch is a part of Amgen's Health Equity Challenge, Duncan said.

Duncan titled the initiative "Closing the Circle with a Black-led Health Equity Intervention."

Amgen is a national biopharmaceutical company headquartered in California and has an office in Tampa.

Goal is to cut heart attacks and strokes in half by 2030

Jude Ngang, executive director of Amgen's representation in clinical research, said the goal of the company's health equity challenge is to cut heart attacks and strokes in half by 2030.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, 47% of Black adults have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, compared to 36% of non-Hispanic white adults.

"That kind of disparity is why Amgen held its first-ever Health Equity Challenge to identify and support community-based, non-profit organizations throughout the state of Florida that are advancing innovative solutions for reducing disparities in cardiovascular disease among Black communities," Ngang said.

He said each of the five organizations chosen to participate in the program received funds from a pool of $500,000 to implement a year-long cardiovascular disease health equity solution in their Florida communities.

Pantry to provide free vegetables, fruit, meat and bread

Duncan said registrants in the first cohort will be provided free vegetables, fruit, meat and bread for the next six months every week and the second cohort of registrants will receive food the following six months.

Duncan said each cohort can hold up to 40 people.

To register for upcoming food pantry visits, email info@pleasantstreetCRCA.com.

Health inequities: Health inequities in east Gainesville part of wider problem for African Americans

Pantry is part of partnerships and study

Amgen is in partnership with the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) and Morehouse College School of Medicine with conducting an on-going cardiovascular study that can be viewed at www.AAHeartStudy.com, Ngang said.

The study helps Black adults learn about their genetic risk for heart disease by knowing Lp(a) levels, Ngang said.

Lp(a) is a type of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). High levels of Lp(a) can create plaque in your blood vessels.

"It's a good feeling to give back"

Erinesha Hamilton, a Pleasant Street CRCA community health worker, said she began working alongside Duncan this month.

Hamilton is also the founder of Sliick Garden, a non-profit that provides safe spaces, garden spaces and gardening education for people in the community.

"It is a good feeling to give back to people who don't have access to healthy foods," Hamilton said. "Being a resource in the community and looking to build within the community is a great feeling. I want to encourage people to identify food as a health benefit to care for any ailments they may have."

Resident appreciative of services provided by pantry

Longtime east Gainesville resident Thelma Carter said she is appreciative of Duncan's efforts to provide healthier foods in the community.

"This is great, especially for elders like us and with inflation going up it's hard to buy food," Carter said. "I was happy and glad when I heard about this. This is great for the people in the community to help them with groceries, especially if they're diagnosed with high blood pressure."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Addressing health disparities goal of food pantry in east Gainesville