Two New York City Hospitals Announce Fruit & Veggie Prescription Program

NEW YORK — Two New York City hospitals have a new way to combat the epidemic of obesity.

Pediatricians at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx and at Harlem Hospital are writing prescriptions for fruits and vegetables to at-risk youths.

Patients who receive the prescriptions get coupons for produce at local farmers markets and city green carts.

It’s part of a four-month pilot program to get kids to slim down.

“This is probably going to prevent an awful lot more disease over the long-term than a lot of the medicines we tend to write for,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said Tuesday in the green market outside Lincoln Medical Center.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: CBS New York