RWJBarnabas Health cut the ribbon Thursday on a new “Food Farmacy” at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, a program leaders say is designed to connect patients facing food insecurity with nutritious groceries and one-on-one nutrition counseling aimed at preventing and managing chronic disease.
Located inside the RWJ Fitness & Wellness Center at 3100 Quakerbridge Road in Hamilton, the Food Farmacy will provide fresh produce, refrigerated items and shelf-stable foods, along with access to registered dietitians who can tailor guidance to a patient’s health needs and cultural food preferences. Participation requires a referral from a health care provider.
“Food is medicine… but it’s a medicine that doesn’t need a prescription,” RWJBarnabas Health President and CEO Mark Manigan said during the opening event.
Manigan highlighted the program’s local agriculture connection, saying patients will have access to produce grown nearby through Fairgrown Farm — noting that participants can also meet with dietitians for practical support in making use of what they receive. “Folks will also have access to fresh produce grown twenty minutes away at Fairgrown,” he said, adding that patients will be able “to sit with registered dietitians to make educated choices… and learn how to turn the food we distribute here into healthy meals for themselves and their families.”
Fairgrown’s involvement is more than a single-farm pipeline, said James Klett, the owner of Fairgrown Farm, describing the operation as a hub that aggregates food from multiple New Jersey growers.
“Fairgrown is a collaborative model with produce currently aggregated from nine different New Jersey farmers,” Klett said. “Each of those farmers is a part of this and Fairgrown is thrilled to help facilitate that direct relationship.”
Klett framed the partnership as an effort to make healthy food access more sustainable by helping patients build routines around cooking and eating — not just receiving groceries.
“This isn’t just about getting fresh produce to people,” he said. “It’s about facilitating behavioral change… when you create a connection with their food… it starts to change their relationship with the food.”
RWJBarnabas Health launched the Food Farmacy in partnership with Mercer Street Friends, the Food Bank of Mercer County, and Fairgrown Farm, with the health system citing state support as part of the investment. The Hamilton site joins a growing network of Food Farmacy programs across New Jersey, including locations in Jersey City, Newark and New Brunswick.
Speakers also underscored the broader pressures many families face when trying to eat well — even when they know what “healthy” looks like.
“Food prices and lack of time were the top reasons given… as barriers to maintaining a healthy diet,” said Diane Grillo, director of Community Health and Outreach at RWJUH Hamilton. Grillo said the program is intended to support patients beyond the hospital setting: “The Farmacy will continue to extend our reach far beyond the walls of the hospital.”
RWJBarnabas leaders said the Food Farmacy model is part of a “food as medicine” approach that integrates nutrition into clinical care, particularly for patients managing diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. The health system also announced additional food-access initiatives planned for later this year, including a new farm-to-community center in Newark and another Food Farmacy partnership with The Salvation Army in Newark.
