Food is Medicine Massachusetts
Goals
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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.
5) 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.
Over 200 Members Representing over 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.
State Plan Implementation Task Forces
Two Food is Medicine Task Forces will lead the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan Implementation:
Community-Based Organization Task Force
Provider Nutrition Education and Referral Task Force
See individual task force pages to learn more.
Coalition Member Organizations
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
April 2021
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 care and nutrition access and utilization.