Access to affordable, nutritious food is crucial for good health, yet many Americans, particularly in under-resourced communities, face barriers. The result? A $1.1 trillion healthcare bill for diet-related diseases — equal to all the money we currently spend on food itself.
Food is Medicine programs, including produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals, use food-based interventions to help prevent, manage, and treat diet-related diseases. Integrating nutrition into our healthcare system would enable doctors to prescribe healthy food, reducing the need for invasive health services while lowering healthcare costs.
Since 2019, The Rockefeller Foundation has supported these programs and invested in research to deepen our understanding of their potential. The Foundation committed $100 million to further advance Food is Medicine, including supporting vital research like the American Heart Association’s Health Care by Food Initiative. We also initiated partnerships with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to speed the integration of Food Is Medicine into health systems.
