Who We Are
Founded in 2020, Dion’s Chicago Dream is redefining health equity and food security through a logistics-first, dignity-centered model that brings fresh produce directly to families’ doorsteps. Our flagship program, Dream Deliveries, provides weekly boxes of high-quality fruits and vegetables at no cost to households experiencing food insecurity across Chicagoland. Our work is grounded in quality, consistency, and dignity—delivering a full week’s worth of produce that makes households, by definition, food secure. To date, we have distributed more than 5.5 million pounds of fresh produce, completing hundreds of thousands of deliveries to thousands of households across 80% of Cook County, America’s second-largest county. Food is Medicine has been part of our mission from day one. We were designed to meet the daily nutritional needs of communities facing disinvestment, diet-related disease, and limited access to fresh foods. As our model evolved, we became a trusted partner in clinical Food is Medicine work, produce prescriptions, and health-system collaboration—not by shifting our mission, but by fulfilling it.
How We Think of Food is Medicine
At Dion’s Chicago Dream, Food is Medicine is the daily delivery of high-quality nutrition with the same consistency, reliability, and accountability as any essential healthcare service. Food becomes medicine when it:
- Reaches patients and families every single week, not sporadically
- Aligns with dietary and clinical needs
- Reduces stress, stabilizes households, and supports chronic disease management
- Treats dignity, reliability, and trust as measurable and directly correlated to health outcomes
Our definition is rooted in both lived experience and data. When access to healthy food is predictable, people eat differently, feel differently, and live differently. Our evidence—from RCT-informed evaluations to multi-year clinical partnerships—continues to affirm that logistics is the missing infrastructure in Food is Medicine.
For us, Food is Medicine isn’t a program. It is a system of care.
How We Put Food is Medicine Into Action
We implement a comprehensive Food is Medicine ecosystem through two primary channels:
A. Dream Deliveries (Direct-to-Door Food is Medicine Model)
A weekly, year-round delivery of fresh, pre-packaged fruits and vegetables directly to households.
Program features:
- Duration: Continuous, not seasonal
- Eligibility: Residents experiencing food insecurity or referred through community and health partners
- Design: Home delivery, no barriers, no lines, no stigma
- Supports: Bi-weekly resident calls, health education touchpoints, a proprietary “Dream Score” measuring trust and satisfaction
This model has been studied extensively and shown to improve dietary patterns, cooking habits, wellness, and financial stability.
B. Produce Prescription Program (Health System Food is Medicine Model)
We partner with healthcare systems and telehealth providers—including Foodsmart and RUSH Medical Center—to operationalize produce prescriptions at scale.
Program features:
- Weekly tailored produce boxes aligned to medical and dietary needs
- Six clinical variations: general wellness, low sugar, low inflammation, low vitamin K, low phosphorus/potassium, and complete elimination
- Medicaid-funded, creating a scalable and sustainable model
- Integrated telehealth dietitian support (via Foodsmart)
- Currently serving 2,000+ patients per month, expected to more than double in 12 months
Health outcomes (Foodsmart evaluation):
- 33% sustained 5% weight loss over 24 months
- 39% achieved diabetes reversal
- 36% normalized lipid values
This program positions DCD as one of the leading Food is Medicine providers in the region.
How We’re Funded and How the Future Looks
Our Food is Medicine portfolio is funded through:
- Philanthropy and corporate partnerships
- Healthcare collaborations
- Medicaid reimbursement for produce prescriptions
- Investments in logistics efficiency and workforce development
As a nearly $7 million operation in five years, our sustainability is driven by scale, operational excellence, and cross-sector trust. The Medicaid framework gives produce prescriptions a durable financial foundation, while Dream Deliveries continues to attract multi-year investments because of its proven impact and accountability. Our outlook is strong. Our model is reliable enough for healthcare, scalable enough for payors, and dignified enough for community.
Which Metrics and Outcomes We Track
We built one of the most robust data systems in community-based food aid.
Operational Metrics:
- Pounds delivered (5.5M+ to date)
- Households served weekly (4,300+)
- Delivery completion rates
- Geographic distribution across 180+ zip codes
- Cost-per-pound and cost-per-delivery
Experience Metrics:
- Bi-weekly resident surveys
- “Dream Score” favorability rating that tracks recipient’s perception of too quality, effectiveness, efficiency, stress levels and ease of delivery—consistently 9.5+
Health & Financial Outcomes (from partners):
- Increased fruit/vegetable consumption
- Stabilized A1c and diabetes reversal
- Weight loss and improved cholesterol
- Energy and well-being improvements
- Up to $200/month in household savings
Challenges:
The greatest barrier is the lack of national standardization around Food is Medicine metrics, particularly for community-rooted logistics providers. A unified national framework for Food is Medicine outcomes, including dignity, reliability, and trust, would improve comparability, reduce administrative burden, and increase investment.
Lessons Learned
Logistics is health infrastructure: Food is Medicine programs succeed or fail based on their supply chain—freshness, quality, and reliability directly determine health outcomes.
Dignity is measurable: Clear communication, no-barrier access, and consistent delivery change how people eat, feel, and manage chronic conditions.
Scale requires simplicity: The most effective interventions remove friction—no long lines, no unnecessary paperwork, no complexity. Families engage more deeply when the system respects their time and reality.
Why We Want to Keep Providing Food is Medicine
Food is Medicine is not an add-on for us—it is a core expression of our mission.
It has strengthened our logistics platform, validated our community-first design, and demonstrated that health equity can be delivered with consistency, trust, and clinical impact.
It has enriched our work by proving what we’ve always believed:
When you pair dignity with logistics, you don’t just feed people—you improve health outcomes, shift spending, and create a pathway to long-term wellbeing.
We are committed to expanding this work as a national model for community-rooted, operationally excellent Food is Medicine delivery.