Headline
A guide for health care organizations on evidence-based strategies to implement food and nutrition security programs.
Background
Targeted interventions to address food and nutrition security are increasingly being adopted by health care providers and health plans as part of broader strategies to address health-related social needs. This report provides recommendations for how health care organizations can support food and nutrition security, with an emphasis on using cross-sector partnerships and addressing disparities in diet-related health conditions.
Findings
The report covers key program models, implementation challenges, community needs assessment strategies, evaluation methods, and sustainable funding mechanisms to provide a comprehensive roadmap for health care organizations seeking to address nutrition security. Several interventions that fall within the “Food is Medicine” spectrum are highlighted, including medically tailored meals and produce prescription programs, with summaries of the relevant evidence base and guidance provided on implementation setting and details, eligibility criteria, and sustainable funding. The report also includes practical tools for community-level food and nutrition needs assessments, including examples of public data sources and measurement tools.
Policy/Program Takeaways
Health care providers, plans, policymakers, and other stakeholders can look to this report for a series of options to address food and nutrition security, which offers potential to reduce health disparities and overall costs. The recommendations included in this report can help to ensure programs are responsive to the needs of communities and that reliable reporting and evaluation metrics are in place.