Perspectives from the Field

A series of one-on-one interviews was conducted with representatives from five community-based organizations and six health care payer organizations, with the overarching purpose of identifying challenges and opportunities for Food is Medicine collaborations between community-based organizations and health care. Semi-structured interview guides-one for each group-were co-developed by Food & Society at the Aspen Institute and the Center for Nutrition and Health Impact. For the purposes of these interviews, we defined community-based organizations as regional or local organizations that provide medically-tailored meals, provide medically-tailored groceries (which includes some food banks and charitable food system organizations), or administer a produce prescription program.

The Community Action Plan facilitates community involvement, underscores the need for local voices and implementers, and highlights those in the field who are working effectively and innovatively to operate strong programs and access diversified funding.

Key topics explored with community-based organization included characteristics of successful health care partnerships; types of involvement from payers that are most and least helpful in Food is Medicine work; challenges to working with payers; ideas for bridging gaps in community-based organization and health care partnerships; what community-based organizations would like to better understand about payers; what community-based organizations think health care organizations may misunderstand about them; and what makes community-based organizations appealing to payers. Key topics explored with health care payers included the most important roles of community-based organizations in Food is Medicine work; how community-based organizations can best coordinate with payers and systems to engage in Food is Medicine initiatives; challenges to working with community-based organizations; what payers think community-based organizations may misunderstand about them; and how community-based organizations can make their case to work with payers.