Mountains of scientific evidence and of . Research shows that a healthy diet can help those suffering from chronic health conditions like , heart disease and .
This is where “food is medicine” comes in. Food is medicine, also known as “food as medicine” and “food prescriptions,” is a movement dedicated to providing healthy food – fruits, vegetables and sometimes healthy proteins – based on a clinician’s prescription in order .
Prescribing food to patients is intended to convey that as medication for health and wellness.
As focuses on food access and health in rural communities, we have firsthand experience running food is medicine programs in our local area in northern Mississippi. This experience has shown us the benefits and limitations of these programs in our community.
Fighting food insecurity
Food is medicine programs can be delivered through curated food boxes, grocery vouchers and medically tailored meals. Most programs are collaborations between nonprofit organizations, health clinics and healthcare providers. The goal of food is medicine is to improve patient health, especially for those with chronic conditions, while reducing healthcare costs.
Increasingly, food is medicine programs have become lifelines for people with food insecurity. In 2024, more than 47 million Americans, including 7.3 million children, – meaning they were at some point uncertain of having, or did not have, enough food for everyone in the household.
Internationally, the number of people experiencing hunger rises to . Rural populations are more likely to be food insecure due to the loss of local grocery stores and distance from urban centers. Unlike a food bank, food is medicine programs provide only healthy foods, which are often curated by a dietitian, to optimize patient health.
Forward momentum
Though food is medicine isn’t formally connected to the , U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has to the concept. In January 2026, the second Trump administration launched a campaign encouraging Americans to “.”
But the food is medicine movement actually began more than 60 years ago. One of the early providers who prescribed food as medicine was civil rights activist and multiple Nobel Peace Prize winner . In the 1960s, he co-founded community health centers in South Boston and the Mississippi Delta.
When government officials to patients in the Delta, Geiger responded, “The last time I looked at my textbooks, the most specific therapy for malnutrition was food.”
Since then, thousands of community organizations like and have provided healthy food to vulnerable community members.
In 2023, the president of the American Heart Association convened an advisory group of researchers and physicians to and suggest next steps for work in this area. This advisory has suggested that these programs could help prevent or manage chronic conditions, .
Food is medicine has also started to gain international momentum. In 2025, the Rockefeller Foundation supported a meeting of international scholars, policy experts and practitioners that established the . This organization plans to help integrate, sustainably finance and routinely deliver food is medicine programs worldwide by 2030. So far, it has highlighting the current food is medicine environment and made resources available to providers looking to start their own programs.
Food is medicine in our local community
Food is medicine programs can use food from local farms or grocery stores, and the means of getting the food to patients varies. The four projects we have run to date have been relatively small and local.
One was a food box pickup program that supplemented fruits and vegetables for 55 households whose members demonstrated food insecurity. We followed the participants for two years and found , waist circumference and triglyceride levels in the primary adult participants.
For two of our other programs, including one that is ongoing, we partnered with . One was a pilot test of a food box delivery program for housebound people. Both the recipients of the food and the farmers with the program’s delivery and felt the program strengthened community connections while also supporting local agricultural livelihoods.
What other researchers have found
One recent large-scale literature review identified 14 trials of food is medicine interventions and found that these approaches often .
Another review of food is medicine programs for people with diabetes found significant increases in fruit and vegetable intake and . This data supports our own previous findings.
However, the effect of food is medicine programs on long-term health outcomes has been inconsistent, in part because many trials have been too small or not rigorous enough to determine causation. In some cases, the “dose” – that is, the amount of food provided – is limited by grant funding. Our food box pickup project , which may have been insufficient to significantly improve all health outcomes.
Moreover, it will be important for researchers to consider the logistics of making these programs work in various local food environments. Global factors like changing weather patterns and, more recently, delays in fuel and supplies from the Strait of Hormuz have like cereals and vegetable oil and led to in some countries.
Food is medicine can be appealing because it makes intuitive sense. But going forward, larger, high-quality studies are needed to from the various types of food is medicine programming. If studies show food is medicine is beneficial, it could lead to a shift in how healthcare practitioners approach diet for patients with chronic illness. Access to healthy food would be considered as essential as medications for patients with chronic illness.
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