Like many nonprofits, Reinvestment Partners of Durham, N.C., relied on grant funding when it started Eat Well, a produce prescription program that began by getting money into the hands of veterans so they could purchase fresh produce. Before long, the produce prescription program was supported through a multi-million dollar contract…
Posts published in “Food is Medicine”
A new survey from Food Research and Action Center points to the need for much greater communication between healthcare centers and hunger relief organizations when it comes to food insecurity screening and intervening. Only 25% of healthcare providers refer their food-insecure patients to a food bank or pantry for food…
In 2020, when Healthy Eating Research introduced nutrition guidelines designed to be easy for food banks to adopt and use, it hoped that Feeding America members would move toward the new framework over the next five years. That wish appears to be coming true. So far, 101 food banks across…
Three years ago, Ashley Tyrner (pictured above) persuaded a single health plan provider to allow her company, FarmboxRx, to provide the plan’s members with boxes of produce as a way to proactively improve their overall health. Today, FarmboxRx is a $35 million company partnering with 87 health plans to deliver…
There’s no doubt that the new ability in some states to tap Medicaid money as reimbursement for nutrition services is attracting attention from the hunger-relief community. But there’s another legislative mandate that is having a more immediate impact on food-bank partnerships with healthcare organizations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid…
When it comes to nutritional quality, a recent study has given the green light to the majority of foods in three USDA food programs at the heart of the charitable food system. The study assessed food items offered by the TEFAP commodity food program for food banks, the FDPIR program…
It’s fair to say that every food bank in the country would like to prioritize health and nutrition in its policies and procedures. Today, Partnership for a Healthier America is releasing the results of an index it developed to help food banks do just that. More than two years in…
In theory, healthcare and hunger-relief entities are excellent partners in serving food-insecure people in their communities. In reality, there are often barriers to making those partnerships click. The Federation of Virginia Food Banks and the state’s seven member food banks are working to break down those barriers with a three-year…
As more people recognize that food is integral to health, more hospital-based food pantries are turning up. In Chicago, one hospital has pioneered an “open-access” pantry model that it contends can be more beneficial to public health than other approaches. The Feed1st pantry at the University of Chicago Medical Center…