3 Ways to Strengthen Food Is Medicine Initiatives

Even if you’ve only scanned the headlines, you’ve no doubt noticed a recent surge in the news about Food Is Medicine (FIM) programs.

These programs — often spearheaded or funded by hospitals and health systems, government agencies, insurers and philanthropic entities — provide food resources to prevent, manage or treat specific clinical conditions in coordination with health care providers.

FIM programs, which include medically tailored meals, groceries, produce prescriptions, nutrition counseling and more, have gained momentum since the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health — and with good reason. Poor nutrition costs the U.S. economy $1.1 trillion and is a leading cause of mortality, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum in August.

Yet, as popular as FIM programs are becoming, some experts are urging providers, researchers and other allied professionals to add more rigor to their programs, to emphasize evidence-based practices and carefully evaluate how they measure FIM program results or outcomes.

The Push for Evidence-Based FIM Initiatives

In March, the Food Is Medicine Coalition, an association of community-based nonprofit food providers, released a 32-page accreditation standard, believed to be the first of its kind.

The standard specifically addresses medically tailored meals, which are prepared for patients with conditions like heart failure or HIV. The stringent requirements call for organizations to have at least one full-time dietician on staff for every 1,000 clients served.

Accredited organizations also can’t use artificial sweeteners, preservatives or “ultra-processed” ingredients and must cook foods in ways that preserve a food’s nutrient value such as baking, braising or sauteing rather than frying. The coalition says the accreditation process will take six months and will include an on-site visit.

Meanwhile, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute recently released its 2024 Food is Medicine Research Action Plan. Building on the 2022 version, the latest action plan presents recent peer-reviewed FIM research in a digestible and action-oriented format.

The new report provides a path forward to better health care and food systems guided by strong scientific evidence and community engagement, said Kurt Hager, an instructor at the UMass Chan Medical School, in a statement.

Building Greater Rigor into FIM Programs

Health care providers like Kaiser Permanente are working to strengthen their FIM programs. Kaiser Permanente recently launched its Food Is Medicine Center of Excellence.

The center will help the integrated health system expand nutrition and food insecurity screening of its members and connect them with resources like federal programs and food banks. The center’s framework was inspired by the National Institutes of Health and will combine clinical services, research, education and community engagement. It will allow Kaiser Permanente to:

• Increase member screening for food insecurity and nutrition status.
• Expand clinical nutrition training for health professionals by developing medical curricula and supporting nutrition fellowships.
• Create novel and scalable approaches for providing evidence-based FIM programs to members.
• Serve as a research hub to share research results with experts in the field to establish the evidence base for FIM and increase its adoption by provider organizations.

3 Strategies to Support Your Food Is Medicine Program

1 | Embed FIM into your culture.

Organizations can appoint a leader for FIM efforts, but the work must be embedded into overall health equity strategy, operations, measurement and financial priorities throughout the enterprise, Jay Bhatt, D.O., a primary care physician and managing director of the Deloitte Services’ Center for Health Solutions and Health Equity Institute, said in a recent interview.

2 | Develop clear interventions.

FIM programs cover a gamut of services. But for food to be integrated into health care in the same systematic way that pharmaceuticals or medical devices are today, health care leaders must develop clear interventions, notes Alissa Wassung, executive director of the Food is Medicine Coalition in a recent Stat report. “My biggest fear . . . is that we don’t have the rigor of defining these interventions, so we implement interventions that actually are not the thing we’re talking about. Then we see subpar outcomes . . . and we abandon the whole project. That’s a very real risk at this moment,” she said.

3 | Explore your options.

Bhatt recommends supporting other FIM strategies such as creating a food security task force, integrating food insecurity in existing roles, collaborating with external organizations, educating the clinician network and collaborating with employers.