200+ Members
100+ Organizations
Food is Medicine Massachusetts [FIMMA] is a multi-stakeholder coalition that materialized from the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan initiative which harnessed diverse expertise across the food and health care systems in the Commonwealth in a collective effort to enhance the role of nutrition in health care to effectively address rising rates of chronic illnesses while controlling health care costs.
Our Goals
- All health care providers on a patient’s care team are knowledgeable about the role that food and nutrition play in prevention, management, and treatment of diet-related acute and chronic diseases; screen patients for food insecurity or, as appropriate, malnutrition; and feel empowered to respond quickly and effectively to a patient’s nutrition needs.
- There are a number of high-quality, sustainably funded medically tailored food and nutrition services, ranging from a medically tailored meal to a produce prescription, available to patients who reside in any community across the Commonwealth.
- All health care providers and community-based food and nutrition organizations have access to and use bidirectional platforms that allow providers to know whether patients have connected to referrals in the community, what services they receive, and whether the receipt of services has an impact on patient health and/or well-being.
- The term “health care reform” encompasses and explicitly supports nutrition-sensitive health care systems for the benefit of patients, providers, payers, and the broader community.
- The leaders of our health care and food systems come together to pursue a coordinated, transformative change at these systems’ nexus that will resonate more broadly in each arena.
State Plan Implementation Task Forces
Two Food is Medicine Task Forces will lead the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan Implementation:
See individual task force pages to learn more.
Coalition Member Organizations
April 2021
- About Fresh
- Activate Care
- American Heart Association
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- Boston Living Center
- Boston Mayor’s Office of Food Access
- Boston Medical Center
- Boston Public Health Commission
- Bowdoin Street Health Center
- Boys & Girls Club of Metro South
- Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital
- Brockton Neighborhood Health Center
- Cambridge Health Alliance
- Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Harvard Law School
- Children’s HealthWatch
- ChopChop Family
- City of Salem, Board of Health
- Coastline Elderly Services
- Commonwealth Care Alliance
- Community Health Center of Franklin County
- Community Servings
- Daniel’s Table
- Delicious Living Nutrition
- Delta Dental of Massachusetts
- DentaQuest Partnership
- Eating From Within Nutrition
- EatWell Meal Kits
- Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley
- Ethos
- Fallon Health
- Farm Direct Coop
- Food Link
- Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
- Grow Food Northampton
- Harvard Medical School
- Health Care Without Harm
- Helping Our Women
- Higher Ground Farm at BMC
- Island Grown Initiative
- Island Health Care
- Just Roots
- Laboure College
- Life Connection Center
- Lighter
- Lovin’ Spoonfuls
- Martha’s Vineyard Hospital
- Massachusetts Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
- Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations
- Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance
- Massachusetts Food System Collaborative
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Massachusetts Health Council
- Massachusetts Home Care
- Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Massachusetts Medical Society Alliance
- Meals on Wheels America
- Melrose Wakefield Healthcare
- Metrowest Medical Center
- Mill City Grows
- Minuteman Senior Services
- Northeastern University
- Partners HealthCare
- Project Bread
- Quincy Asian Resources
- Revision Urban Farm
- Roots NS
- Salem Food for All
- Share Our Strength- Cooking Matters
- Shields Family Foundation
- Simmons University
- Sustainable CAPE
- The Greater Boston Food Bank
- The Open Door
- The Salem Food Pantry
- The South End Community Health Center
- Tufts University Friedman School
- Tufts University School of Medicine
- UMass Lowell
- UMass Medical School
- UMass Memorial Medical Center
- Unidine
- Victory Programs, Inc.
- Whole Lifecycle Nutrition
- Women’s Lunch Place
Black Lives Matter.
As co-conveners of FIMMA and organizations advocating for a more robust public health system in Massachusetts, Community Servings and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation are invested in dismantling the systems of oppression that intersect and interact to produce major differences in health are and nutrition access and utilization.