An east Tulsa nonprofit organization hopes that a new partnership will further its goals of helping Oklahoma adults living with Type 2 diabetes.
The UMA Center will launch an expanded version of FreshRx Oklahoma’s Food is Medicine program in February.
FreshRx is a U.S. Department of Agriculture- funded nonprofit food prescription program. It will work with UMA, which serves Spanish-speaking and underserved communities through health and economic mobility programs, to bring the program to east Tulsa.
This is the first of its kind, as the program will be available entirely in Spanish. Food is Medicine arrives as KOSU reports Latino Oklahomans with diabetes die faster and more often than other demographic groups in the state.
“The reason why we wanted to implement the project was because diabetes is extremely prevalent in the Latino community, and the other problem is that a lot of people that have diabetes don’t even know they have diabetes,” Martha Isabel Zapata, UMA Center’s founder and executive director, said in Spanish.
The Food is Medicine program aims to increase overall health through food access, education and community engagement.
The UMA Center, located inside Plaza Santa Cecilia in east Tulsa, will host courses, such as cooking classes, to help participants learn how to manage their health. Participants will receive a box of food every two weeks.
“We’ve always offered educational services, but what we haven’t offered until now is this component of food as medicine,” Zapata said.
The idea is for the program participants to use the skills and recipes they learn in the classroom when preparing food.
In a press release, Erin Martin, founder and CEO of FreshRX Oklahoma, stated the new partnership is a step forward in supporting more adults living with Type 2 diabetes in Tulsa.
“By combining our Food is Medicine model with UMA’s trusted community presence, we can deliver culturally tailored solutions that truly resonate with underserved communities,” Martin said.
The UMA Center will begin recruiting participants in February, with classes scheduled to begin in March.
The center has funding, with support from Ardmore Institute of Health and Humana Healthy Horizons, to help 100 individuals in the first year.
People can self-refer to the program or ask for a referral from a primary care provider, including from places like Community Health Connection, OU Health and Tulsa Dream Center. Interested parties can contact the UMA Center directly at 918-921-0898.
Amid the new partnership, the UMA Center is one of 18 finalists for the 2026 Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards, which highlights nonprofits in the state.
“We’ve created a safe space with UMA for people to come,” Zapata said. “So, for me, it’s really satisfying because it speaks about the team we have and the crucial services we provide. These services we provide weren’t here in the community before.”
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
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