Food is Medicine: HHS Hosts First Summit, Issued Guidelines (02/02/2024)

Food is Medicine approaches that focus on integrating consistent access to diet- and nutrition- related resources are a critical component to achieve this goal. The approaches are increasingly present across many communities and systems. There’s also increasing federal investment and action to support Food is Medicine approaches in a variety of settings.

advtanmoy 04/02/2024 5 minutes read

HHS Hosts First-Ever ‘Food is Medicine’ Summit, Launches Three Public-Private Partnerships

February 2, 2024

Food is Medicine

On Tuesday, January 31, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hosted its first-ever Food is Medicine summit in Washington, D.C., an all-day summit for stakeholders at the intersection between food and health. Secretary Xavier Becerra opened the summit by announcing three new public-private partnerships with Instacart, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Feeding America. All three partnerships will support HHS’s nutrition goals.

Good nutrition is essential to keeping current and future generations healthy across the lifespan. A healthy diet helps children grow and develop properly and reduces their risk of chronic diseases. Adults who eat a healthy diet live longer and have a lower risk of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. Healthy eating can help people with chronic diseases manage these conditions and avoid complications.

In addition to the three new public-private partnerships, HHS released five Food is Medicine principles that will guide the Department’s work when it comes to educating the public, changing public policies, and integrating nutrition into the services it provides.

These principles include:

Recognizing that nourishment is essential for good health, well-being, and resilience.
Facilitating easy access to healthy food across the health continuum in the community.
Cultivating an understanding of the relationship between nutrition and health.
Uniting partners with diverse assets to build sustained and integrated solutions.
Investing in the capacity of under-resourced communities.

“Food is Medicine” is just one part of HHS’s work to make progress on commitments made in the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the United States. Similarly, today’s event reflects Secretary Becerra’s vision of moving our country from an illness-care system to a wellness-care system through HHS’s broader Food is Medicine initiative and other related government initiatives.

Understanding the Connection Between Food and Health

Access to nutritious food is critical to health and resilience. Food is Medicine is a concept that reaffirms this connection, recognizing that access to high-quality nourishment is essential for well-being. By supporting the production of and facilitating access to nutritious food across a health continuum and range of settings, approaches to Food is Medicine support immediate and long-term resources for people, communities, and systems.

Stimulating Research: In June 2022, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Stimulating Research to Understand and Address Hunger, Food and Nutrition Insecurity to encourage research on the efficacy of interventions that address nutrition security and the mechanisms of food insecurity on a variety of health outcomes. In April 2023, as part of a government-wide collaboration that includes 12 federal agencies and offices, NIH released a Request for Information on Food is Medicine Research Opportunities to gather input on the following topic areas:

1) Research, 2) Community Outreach and Engagement, 3) Education and Training, 4) Provision of Food is Medicine Services and Activities, and 5) Coverage for Services.

The all-day summit featured panels from: 

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra 
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack 
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) 
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Danielle Carnival, Deputy Director for Health Outcomes at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Chef Sean Sherman, named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair of the National Endowment

Background on the Biden-Harris Administration Investments in Nutrition and Food is Medicine 

Thanks to an appropriation in the fiscal year 2023, HHS, led by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), is in the process of developing the first federal tool kit and implementation guidance, as well as other federal resources, to help advance Food is Medicine. This congressional action, directed by the Secretary of HHS in consultation with other federal agencies, aims to develop and implement a federal strategy to reduce nutrition-related chronic diseases and food insecurity to improve health, well-being, and racial equity in the United States. This includes diet-related research and programmatic efforts that will increase access to Food is Medicine interventions.  

Background on HHS’ New Private-Public Partnerships with the Rockefeller Foundation, Instacart, and Feeding America 

HHS announced three new public-private partnerships today with the Rockefeller Foundation, Instacart, and Feeding America. These partnerships were formed in the lead-up to the Food is Medicine Summit as part of HHS’ commitment to advancing unified Food is Medicine policy and practice. These partnerships will create an exchange of research, communication, and implementation of programs and policy priorities to advance the collective understanding of Food is Medicine.  

Feeding America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It is part of a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and community-based organizations in the United States that works to address hunger.  

Instacart, through its Instacart Health initiative, is leveraging its technology, partnerships, research, and advocacy to expand access to nutritious food, inspire people to make healthy choices, and scale food as medicine programs. The company will work together with HHS to support, scale, and study food as a medical intervention. 

The Rockefeller Foundation is a New York not-for-profit organization that is a leader in the movement to integrate food and nutrition into health care to help fight the growing epidemic of diet-related diseases, and will work with HHS to identify how Food is Medicine programs can lead to better health outcomes for people, particularly historically marginalized communities, and save millions of dollars in health care costs.   