Most food banks do a good job of tracking and talking about how many pounds of food they deliver. But they still have a ways to go in terms of knowing and sharing how much of that food is nutritious. Partnership for a Healthier America wants to change that by…
Posts published in “Food is Medicine”
Early insights from Massachusetts show promising pathways for using Medicaid dollars to treat food and nutrition insecurity, but underscore that technology will be a big challenge. Hunger relief entities in Massachusetts got extra incentive to continue exploring ways to work with the healthcare community in September, when the state’s MassHealth…
In an effort timed to coincide with the White House’s convening on hunger, nutrition and health, the Department of Health and Human Services recently unveiled “groundbreaking” approvals that pave the way for state health care plans to use Medicaid funding to pay for nutritious food that would improve peoples’ health.…
Food banks have long emphasized better nutrition in the food they distribute. Now, serious structural changes are making elevated nutritional quality a lasting characteristic of food banking. The most important of these may be the development of nutrition guidelines specifically for use in the charitable food system. Introduced two years…
The charitable food system may be a risky incubator for diabetes intervention, but hunger relief organizations are experimenting anyway. And they are seeing encouraging results. Despite challenges, hunger-relief organizations are continuing to find novel and creative ways to address diabetes, a diet-related disease that afflicts about 10% of the U.S.…
Not many food banks actively promote nutrition incentive programs that make fresh produce more accessible to low-income families. But the ones that do are seeing results that go well beyond increased produce consumption in their communities. These “Double Up Food Bucks” programs, which originated at farmers markets over 15 years…
After decades of relying on donated food, food banks are starting to place more emphasis on purchasing food. The trend appears to be an outgrowth of Covid, which forced food banks to purchase food by the truckload as constricted supply chains put the squeeze on donated food. The purchases, along…
Earlier this year, Food Outreach, a St. Louis-based provider of medically tailored food and meals, reached out to a local bakery with the idea of creating a special artisan bread loaf that would enhance the health of its immune-compromised clients. Weeks of building and perfecting a recipe resulted in a…
The healthcare system may be vast and complicated, but finding a way to work within it can supercharge a food bank’s ability to ease food insecurity. Second Harvest Heartland, the country’s seventh-largest food bank (by revenue) and the largest in Minnesota, has succeeded in integrating itself into the state’s healthcare…