Gov. Cooper highlights major health improvement project during visit to nonprofit on Thanksgiving eve

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper made a stop in Asheville the day before Thanksgiving to highlight a major health improvement project focused on helping thousands of North Carolinians live longer.

Republicans' decision to vote to approve Medicaid expansion dovetails with a $650 million Medicaid-funded pilot program in North Carolina, called Healthy Opportunities, which will run for five years and focus on reimbursements to programs and nonprofits that target societal issues that could improve health outcomes.

“Our department of health and human services asked the federal government for this waiver, to be able to use Medicaid funds for some non-medical uses,” Cooper said Wednesday, Nov. 22, during his visit to Equal Plates nonprofit in Asheville to pack food for locals in need.

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"When people are healthier, they don’t use as much medical resources,” Cooper said.

According to the program’s website, the pilot programs focus on food, housing and transportation. The challenge will be to quantify or demonstrate improved health outcomes for individuals who qualify to access various societal assistance programs funded with federal Medicaid funds through a reimbursement program that allows millions of dollars to flow to programs that never before have been able to qualify for federal Medicaid funds.

Cooper spent about an hour Wednesday at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Asheville, where Equal Platesuses a large industrial-sized kitchen to cook locally sourced meals that are then distributed to nonprofits that support the homeless and feed those in need.

“We put out about 250 meals a day,” said Katy Estrada, operations manager for Equal Plates.

One of the nonprofit's partners is Homeward Bound, which operates Asheville’s AHope Day Center on Ann Street and is also managing a newly opened homeless crisis shelter on Tunnel Road at a former Days Inn motel. Homeward Bound is able to get Medicaid reimbursement funds for its program under the Healthy Opportunities umbrella.

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Equal Plates was started during the pandemic as a way to support local farms by using produce that was going to waste due to the crisis faced by restaurants that were forced to temporarily shut their doors. The nonprofit also helped with regional supply chain problems to get produce and locally-sourced foods to other areas.

Equal Plates states its mission is supporting local farmers in Western North Carolina and building community with scratch-made meals. The fact that the meals are purchased by homeless shelters and programs like Homeward Bound echoes a connection between the federal dollars accessed through the state’s Healthy Opportunities pilot and the local homeless crisis that’s also impacting cities and individuals nationwide.

Cooper said he fully supports federal dollars going to the crisis.

“When you’re dealing with an issue of homelessness, of hunger of people who are suffering, this has to be an all-hands-on-deck challenge," Cooper said, "and that means state, local and federal coming together to deal with the issue.”