Almost 40 years ago, the agencies of the Food Is Medicine Coalition – the national coalition representing nonprofit medically tailored meal (MTMs) and grocery (MTG) providers – responded with compassion and nourishment to neighbors undergoing the dual crisis of being sick and hungry. This simple act of humanity has transformed into a national phenomenon and was a foundational spark for the present day “food is medicine” movement.
In acknowledgement of the one-year anniversary of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the Food is Medicine Coalition celebrates the unprecedented nationwide recognition of the value of medically tailored meals and food is medicine. In tandem with the Conference’s convening in 2022, the White House released an ambitious National Strategy with the goal to end hunger, promote health and increase access to nutrition across the country by 2030. FIMC was most encouraged to see the strategy’s second Pillar which focused on the power and promise of incorporating medically tailored meals and other food is medicine interventions into healthcare.
In the year since the White House Conference, FIMC has completed strategic initiatives advancing equitable access to MTMs and MTGs through policy change, research and evaluation, and best practices. You can understand the transformative work of our partner agencies by following FIMC on social media below. Some highlights from our collective work include:
Best Practices:
The quality of the FIMC MTM model is key to achieving proven health outcomes for the clients we serve. This year, we convened FIMC partner agencies to formalize FIMC Accreditation, relying on the expertise of decades of service delivery to collaboratively develop quality standards for the medically tailored meal intervention. FIMC’s accreditation standards span topic areas across nutrition, client services, operations, and other aspects of high-quality service delivery. The accreditation program will ensure fidelity to the MTM intervention, which is proven to reduce healthcare cost and improve health outcomes.
Policy Developments:
Since the White House Conference, FIMC has submitted several key policy comments through our FIMC Policy Committee structure allowing us to clarify standards, definitions, and implementation of the MTM intervention with key decisionmakers. This year saw the introduction of a Senate-side version of the Medically Tailored Home-delivered Meal Demonstration Pilot Act in June. Introduced by Sens. Stabenow (MI), Marshall (KS), Booker (NJ), Cassidy (LA), it makes support for the bill truly bipartisan; and we expect the House bill to be introduced by Reps. McGovern (MA) and Malliotakis (NY) later in the fall, making our efforts bi-cameral as well.
Health Equity:
Advancing health equity is grounded in FIMC’s history via the creation of the MTM intervention to ensure marginalized neighbors received equitable access to nutrition care. This year, FIMC has focused on sourcing a community-created definition of health equity and meaningfully incorporating this lens into governance, policy/advocacy, service, and measurement. In partnership with subject matter experts, Health Leads, and with the guidance of our Health Equity Workgroup – made up of clients, staff and volunteers from our diverse agencies – we are engaging the broader FIMC community to help us authentically understand and articulate our place in creating health equity for our clients, with an emphasis on the perspectives of people with lived experience. In the year ahead, we will transform this community-sourced definition into a framework for equitable expansion of services and measurement of our progress toward those goals.
Through education, briefings, national Symposia, technical assistance, policy change and more, we are building nationwide awareness of the need for access to and funding for medically tailored meals and groceries. We are so proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the last year, but are deeply mindful of how much work we have left to do. FIMC remains committed to the vital ongoing efforts to realize a future state where anyone who needs the MTM or MTG interventions has access to the highest quality service regardless of their ability to pay or where they live.
