Florida Programs using Food as Medicine

"Medically Tailored Groceries" is defined by Tufts FiM researchers & PhD's, only chef-quality from Sysco, with community baked in with buddy program and motivating health coach,  start and endline biomarker and survey evaluations, fun nutrition education and cooking classes. Change lifestyles, health rebounds. Living Hungry, Tufts University, UF IFAS EFNEP, Sponsored program of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County. 

Frozen "Medically Tailored Meals" are provided through a Doctor referral and designed by RDN. Meals reflect the appropriate medical nutrition from evidence-based guidelines for the disease. Meals of Hope, Immokallee & Naples, FL delivers diabetic frozen meals, food security boxes, and fresh produce to those who have high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity, as well as living in poverty.  Monitoring blood pressure every visit, tracking weight, and doing blood glucose tests every 2 weeks; all while patients were receiving education on nutrition, coaching, and professional advice on how to cook their meals in a healthier way.  Meals of Hope

  "Produce Prescription" is prescribed by a physician to a recipient who has or is at risk of a diet-related disease or condition, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, obesity, renal disease, asthma, or dementia, to consume fresh or frozen produce by offering incentives for  purchases plus nutrition education and cooking classes. Living Hungry, UF IFAS  EFNEP,  Farmshare, East Coast Farms, C&B Farms, Farmbox RX

   Second Harvest Food Bank in Orlando for launching the first Medically Tailored Meals Pilot this June, 2023 funded by a grant from DaVita Giving Foundation for chronic kidney disease patients.  From patient referrals to the food bank for enrollment to the MTM meals made in Mercy Kitchen and delivered to the home, this pilot is working! FIMC Accelerator Graduate in 2022, The Medically Tailored Meals program aims to help people experiencing food insecurity and managing at least one severe illness improve their health outcomes through food. 

Food Pharmacy is Pastor Gerard Duncan's vision of health equity seen through the lens of food is medicine. At the Pleasant Street Civil Rights and Cultural Arts Center injustice stems from food insecurity and moves upstream to cause diet-related disease which disproportionately affects local people of color. The goal is to enable the community to improve their quality of life with "Food as Medicine".  Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity (HDO) diagnosed patients receive both medical nutrition and belonging from community health worker-led small groups,  individualised health plans, and referrals to cancer screening, dental care, and Medicaid all done in a caring environment and  supported by Amgen to reduce LDL levels.  See More of the Magnificent FiM work in Gainesville! 

Learning by doing! We invite one docter and a dozen of their patients into the THRIVE Kitchen with us. We tackle disease symptoms using by cooking and eating culinary medicine meals together over 5 classes.  Patients graduate with a certificate of kitchen competency with a binder full of  go-to meals and recipes from THRIVE kitchen. Extraordinary Charities, Chef Natalie McKenna (vegan), Foundcare, James Rota,  & Living Hungry 

Chef Patti from "Passprort to the World" partnered with Living Hungry and Foundcare Dr. Cadet to bring 30 obese, prediabetic and bullied children to a summer camp to remember. Chef Patti ,from Buffalo, NY,  brings this innovative model to youngsters who receive food boxes, put on apron and chefs hats, to cook meals for the family in their own kitchens. Living Hungry, Chef Patti Green Passport to the World  & Dr. Cadet  Foundcare

Doctors on the board of a local FQHC clinic indicated the Physicians are tired of not seeing patients get well. To jumpstart the enthusiasm for health benefits we bring the program to the Doctors, Clinicians, and Staff.  Include FiM food tastings, education, fun and classes.  Foundcare, Living Hungry, James Rota, Dr. David Dodson, UF IFAS, sponsored by American Heart Association and Natures Corner Cafe

 “FiM Nutrition Education” is an evidence-based, research informed nutrition curriculum, taught in a series of classes with behavior change outcomes: diet quality; physical activity; food resource management; food security, and food safety. Nutrition evaluation before and after measuring the foods a client is eating pre-/post- intervention to capture the effect of the FiM Nutrition Education on healthy eating habits.  University of Florida IFAS provided Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). 

 In the wake of the pandemic in March 2020, Pearl’s Pantry was created to provide food to low-income seniors. Since its inception, Pearl’s Pantry has developed into a robust food nutrition program for our seniors with its own case managers and an RDN registered nutritionist providing oversight. We provide deliveries that include two-weeks’ worth of fresh produce, eggs, meats, cheeses and specialized shelf-stable items. In other words, we provide an entire years’ worth of food to each of our seniors, while keeping them healthy and informed throughout the process. 

Pearl Mae Foundation.