When people talk about hunger relief, health equity, and food systems, the farmer’s perspective is often missing. Yet farmers are at the heart of these conversations. We are the ones planting, harvesting, and delivering the food that programs like the Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) have helped put on family tables across Western North Carolina. HOP helped address non-medical health needs of many rural North Carolina residents on Medicaid, like healthy food and safe housing. It proved that fresh, locally produced food could be a legitimate part of health care — an intervention that improves health outcomes while strengthening local economies.

Through HOP, farms like mine have been able to provide healthy food directly to people who need it most through a range of local businesses and no

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