HOP Advocacy Day
One of the missions at Good Bowls is to ensure that people have access to healthy food regardless of income or where they live. Our participation in the Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) has been one of the best programs to help us work towards this mission in the last few years.
The Healthy Opportunities Pilot is an innovative program that provides non-medical services such as healthy food, transportation, housing assistance, and counseling to high risk Medicaid patients in hopes of achieving a better health outcome. North Carolina was chosen as a pilot state and is leading the way on this revolutionary approach to providing people the resources they need to stay healthy and the program has seen incredible results of lowering healthcare costs, building strong local economies, and creating healthier communities.
Good Bowls has provided healthy and medically tailored meals to the Cape Fear Region of North Carolina as part of the HOP program for the last three years. We have two kitchens working to produce the thousands of weekly meals necessary to support the program and serve our clients meals that range from standard healthy meals to those that meet kidney friendly, heart healthy, or high-calorie-high-protein medically tailored dietary guidelines. During the course of the program, Good Bowls has delivered over 125,000 meals to families in need of healthy food.
This is where we need everyone’s help! Unfortunately, the funding to continue the HOP program is not currently in the North Carolina State Budget. If the legislature goes into recess before passing a budget then HOP would pause its services on July 1, 2025 and if it’s not included in the fall, the program would end altogether. The federal government matches the amount of money allocated to the program - for every $35 dollars that the state contributes the federal government contributes $65. This money goes directly into the health of North Carolinians and into strengthening community economies across the state. It is an incredible opportunity that could be lost!
Last Wednesday June 4th, the Good Bowls team joined over 150 community partners from across the state for HOP Advocacy Day at the Capital. We spent the day speaking to legislators one-on-one explaining what the HOP program is, why it’s so beneficial to North Carolina, and asking them to continue to fund the program. It was surprising how few of the legislators that we spoke with had even heard of the HOP program. You can help to educate them about this amazing program!
You can sign the Change.org Petition Here to tell the NC Legislature to keep the HOP program.
Next, find your legislators here. Then send them this letter or customize it a bit for yourself.
