‘Tomayto, tomahto’: Shepherdstown residents benefit from WVU Medicine healthy eating program | News, Sports, Jobs

Farm to You Project Coordinator Amanda Tomlin talks with Shepherd University Assistant Director of Admissions Yocencia Deal at the Shepherdstown WVU Medicine clinic last Wednesday morning. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Since its launch in 2018, WVU School of Medicine’s Eastern Campus Farm to You program has brought fresh produce to local residents at WVU Medicine clinics throughout the Eastern Panhandle.

Operating a Farm to You booth at an increasing number of WVU Medicine clinics twice a month has encouraged patients to strengthen their healthy eating habits, without any extra expense. At WVU Medicine Primary Care & Pediatrics – Shepherdstown, located at 60 Maclaine Way, a line of patients could be found last Wednesday morning, ready to take home a variety of free produce from local farms and tested recipes, featuring ways to cook some of the booth’s less familiar produce.

“This is my first time!” said Yocencia Deal, who is a WVU Medicine patient and Shepherd University Assistant Director of Admissions. “It’s a great way to get some vegetables in my diet that, you know, I don’t always get. It’s really convenient!”

For Deal, having tasty, affordable recipes to take home with her from the booth or look up on Farm to You’s website is a serious plus.

“If you’re not used to these types of vegetables, having a recipe gives you confidence over how to use it,” Deal said.

Shepherd University nutrition major Zahra Alegaili picks out a bag of baby carrots, as she helps out at the Farm to You booth last Wednesday morning. Tabitha Johnston

One of the individuals helping to test out recipes is Shepherd University nutrition major Zahra Alegaili, whose internship with the program this summer will complete her degree’s graduation requirements.

“Right now, I’m volunteering here at the Farm to You booth and taking home vegetables to create recipes or even follow the recipes we already have. I make videos of these recipes for the website,” Alegaili said, noting she focuses on creating recipes that meet various dietary needs, such as for those diabetes. “I’ve always thought about creating online content of some sort, but hadn’t found my niche until this moment. I figured out how to make these videos with a visual demonstration and written instructions to accompany each step.”

According to Farm to You Project Coordinator Amanda Tomlin, these videos are part of the improvements being made to complete the development of Farm to You’s new website.

“The website is up, but is still under construction. We’re hoping by the end of this season that the website will be complete. It will house our recipes and cooking videos, as well as videos and articles related to specific conditions. There will be information about diabetes, especially, because that’s where our program started,” Tomlin said. “Dr. Emma Eggleston is our fearless leader. She started the program and is an endocrinologist, so she has an obvious interest in finding ways to combat [Type 2 Diabetes].”

In addition to the website’s launch, Tomlin said Farm to You is having a mobile unit built, which will hopefully be completed by September.

Fresh vegetables from local farms sit on display in front of Shepherdstown’s WVU Medicine clinic last Wednesday morning. Tabitha Johnston

“We are building the mobile unit, which will have cooking demonstrations and samples out of it, and will have refrigeration, so our vegetables won’t look so sad in 90 degree weather,” Tomlin said. “Right now, we have no way to store the vegetables after each day we open up the Farm to You booth, so we usually donate those vegetables to charities. In Shepherdstown, our leftover vegetables are given to Shepherdstown Shares.”

While not all Eastern Panhandle clinics under WVU Medicine currently are included in the Farm to You program, more are gradually being added, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A full list of the locations WVU Medicine patients can participate in the Farm to You program, along with their scheduled booth dates, can be found at https://farmtoyouwv.org/.