The Rockefeller Foundation recently announced that it will put an additional US$80 million toward Food is Medicine (FIM) programs in the United States over the next five years. The new commitment will bring the Foundation’s total funding of FIM interventions to over US$100 million.
“There is no time to waste for unlocking Food is Medicine’s great potential to advance health equity by improving nutrition security,” says Devon Klatell, Vice President for Food at The Rockefeller Foundation.
More than half of the new funding will go toward the Health Care by Food Initiative, a multi-year collaboration with the American Heart Association. Through the partnership they are working to identify effective Food is Medicine approaches that incorporate nutritious food into healthcare settings.
Additionally, The Rockefeller Foundation plans to invest in public, private, and nonprofit organizations to build better infrastructure to support the growth of FIM, educate for better policies to expand to accelerate action, and improve access to accurate information about FIM.
During its inaugural Food is Medicine Summit, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also signed a memorandum of understanding with The Rockefeller Foundation to accelerate the adoption of FIM interventions.
FIM solutions are designed for integration into the healthcare system to treat, manage, and prevent chronic disease, which affect roughly 6 in 10 Americans, according to the U.C. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Programs include medically tailored meals and produce prescription programs.
Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Programs at The Rockefeller Foundation said during the Summit that their latest announcements mark the next step in their investment in community wellbeing. “We’re in the next frontier of what we’re trying to do.”
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Photo courtesy of Edgar Castrejo, Unsplash
