Executive Summary
The Food is Medicine Community Action Plan is a living, collaborative online portal designed to share community-centered Food is Medicine strategies across the United States. Through a series of convenings and long-term partnerships, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute gathered leaders and implementers from healthcare, food systems, public policy, community organizations, technology, and philanthropy to share real-world solutions, case studies, and actionable insights that advance the implementation of Food is Medicine interventions.
Purpose:
- To bridge the gap between nutrition science and community-grounded practice by promoting interventions that help people access nutritious food as part of health care and disease prevention
- To center communities in the design, leadership, and evaluation of Food is Medicine efforts, recognizing that local knowledge is critical for sustainable impact
- To serve as a resource hub where organizations contribute and learn from emerging models, lessons learned, and best practices.
Food & Society and Food is Medicine
Food & Society at the Aspen Institute has been at the forefront of Food is Medicine interventions, research, and outcomes - starting with the original Food is Medicine Research Action Plan, first released in 2022. The 2024 revision, made possible through continued support from the Walmart Foundation, fully updates Food is Medicine’s rapidly evolving body of evidence and provides an authoritative assessment of both the opportunities and challenges in scaling, evaluating, and delivering health-promoting food where it's needed most.
The new Food is Medicine Community Action Plan is a natural next step. Building on Food & Society's Research Action Plan, the Community Action Plan is the culmination of two years' worth of insights, perspectives, and learnings that underscore the need to center community in all Food is Medicine work. Distilling a series of Food & Society's interviews with health care payers and with clinicians, researchers, and practitioners at community-based organizations, workshops across the country focused on topics from metrics to definitions to funding, and deeply informative case studies, the Food is Medicine Community Action Plan concisely presents what community-based organizations, foundations, the private sector, and others need in order to successfully implement a sustainable Food is Medicine program.
Key Components of the Food is Medicine Community Action Plan
Community Action Framework:
- Highlights community-based implementation strategies and lessons learned from organizations that have been delivering Food is Medicine interventions over time
- Emphasizes the importance of local leadership, partnership networks, and diversified funding to sustain community efforts.
Case Studies:
A growing library of practical Food is Medicine interventions developed and executed by community partners, such as:
- Medically tailored meal providers
- Food pantries embedded within health care settings
- Community-based organizations participating in Food & Society's Food is Medicine convenings and offering practical and effective insights on a multitude of Food is Medicine interventions
- National networks offering medically appropriate groceries
- Innovative coding solutions for capturing Food is Medicine services in health care billing
Collaborative Knowledge Sharing:
- Encourages new contributions from practitioners and organizations to expand the portal's content over time, which Food & Society will edit and present to strengthen the collective understanding of what works best in implementing Food is Medicine interventions
- Positioned as a living document rather than a static report, reinforcing the evolving nature of best practices and evidence in the field.
Partner Resources & Toolkits:
- A curated set of resources from leading organizations that support research, policy, clinical engagement, and community practice related to food as a health intervention
- Contributors include major health and nutrition organizations, academic institutions, and national coalitions supporting medically tailored nutrition programs.
Why this matters
Food is Medicine has moved from concept to practice—but implementation is uneven, underfunded, and often disconnected from community realities. The Food is Medicine Community Action Plan closes the gap by elevating community-led, evidence-informed solutions that integrate food access into health and social care systems.
Insight #1: Community Is the Engine of Food is Medicine
Effective Food is Medicine programs are not built top-down. The most durable and scalable models:
- Are rooted in community organizations with deep trust and local knowledge
- Reflect lived experience and cultural relevance
- Operate at the intersection of health care, food systems, and social services
The Food is Medicine Community emphasizes that community-based organizations (CBOs) are not ancillary partners—they are foundational infrastructure.
Insight #2: Implementation Gaps Are the Bottleneck
While evidence supporting Food is Medicine interventions continues to grow, communities face persistent barriers:
- Fragmented funding streams and short-term pilots
- Limited pathways for reimbursement and sustainability
- Insufficient data infrastructure to document outcomes and ROI
- Misalignment between clinical goals and community capacity
The Action Plan surfaces real-world lessons from organizations navigating these challenges now.
Insight #3: Practice-Based Evidence is Essential
The portal prioritizes practice-based evidence alongside academic research, recognizing that:
- Many successful Food is Medicine models predate formal evaluation
- Implementation insights (staffing, partnerships, logistics) are as valuable as clinical outcomes
- Shared learning accelerates field-wide progress
Case studies highlight what it takes to deliver medically tailored meals, groceries, and produce prescriptions at scale.
Insight #4: Food is Medicine Requires Cross-Sector Alignment
No single sector can deliver Food is Medicine alone. Successful approaches align:
- Health care systems and payers
- Food providers and distributors
- Public programs (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid, etc)
- Technology, data, and policy support