HERSHEY, Pa. — Lisa Brown was on a mission to find fresh basil. The only problem was that she didn’t really know what it looked, smelled, or tasted like. And Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market had so many leafy green vegetables that she didn’t know where to start.
As a participant in Penn State Hershey’s Prevention Produce program serving women in transitional housing, she was excited to try a new recipe, even though it called for an herb she wasn’t familiar with.
“I never bought that before,” she said.
When she finally found a bunch, Brown wrinkled up her nose, but conceded the basil might taste better than it smelled — especially in a recipe.
Prevention Produce is part of a larger Food as Medicine program led by medical students and was launched by students at the Penn State College of Medicine last year. Food as Medicine — or FAM, as it is known — also oversees a plot in the community garden on the Penn State Hershey campus that is used for donations to charitable initiatives, and is developing efforts to change the hospital inpatient food menu, among other projects.
Read more about Prevention Produce in this Penn State Medicine article.