Food is Medicine to Feed the Family

Our proposal addresses the key goals of Humana Foundation related to, “E ective and equitable interventions to increase access to healthy diets promoting physical & mental health bene?ts”. Our interdisciplinary team comprised of clinicians, researchers in public health, nutrition, mental health, and community partners will evaluate the e ectiveness of a whole family nutrition security intervention to provide evidence supporting key policies on reimbursement of health-related social needs (HRSN) as a medically covered bene?t. Our study team will use a user-centered approach to examine how to engage the whole family in the short-term, while creating a sustainable model for clinic and community partnerships to use in the long-term. Our proposal aims to answer the question “How can a food as medicine choice model with tailored dose improve health outcomes across the family?”. To answer this question, we are proposing a pragmatic randomized control trial (pRCT) using a 2X2 factorial design among Medicaid families, adults with children ages 5-18, with an adult diagnosed with either hypertension or Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM), child has a BMI categorized as obese or overweight, and report being food insecure. The pRCT will take place in Louisville, KY with UofL Health as the clinic provider, in an urban setting with a high percentage of adults reporting race/ethnicity as Black or African American. Our community partners are Dare to Care Food Bank as the medically tailored meal (MTM) provider, and Kroger Health/Soda Health as the grocery prescription provider (GP).