WASHINGTON, D.C. | June 12, 2026
On June 1, 2026, more than 800 Food is Medicine practitioners, lawmakers, medical professionals, academics, and patients met in Washington D.C. to attend FIMCON. FIMCON is a Food is Medicine conference led by Food is Medicine people. Over the course of two days, attendees, speakers, sponsors, and funders focused on how to advance the integration of healthy food into healthcare systems.
Attendees heard from agency leaders like CMS Administrator Oz and leaders at the FDA and NIH. A bipartisan panel included remarks from Senator Roger Marshall and Representatives Pingree and McGovern. The full agenda and list of speakers can be found here. Plenaries honed in on what FIM services are, who they are best suited for, and the positive externalities of interventions. In addition to time for connections and culinary demonstrations, participants attended breakout sessions exploring the emerging research in FIM, values-aligned purchasing, rural healthcare challenges, clinical and community integration, and the strategic employment of AI tools in FIM work.
The NPPC convened a member session with the aim of developing broad standards that carve a path to coverage for produce prescription (PRx) programs. In small groups, members examined eligibility criteria, delivery strategies, the intersection between FIM and food insecurity, and PRx scaling. A highlight was actuary Becky Sheppard presenting on the financial side of PRx programs, sparking a conversation about the relationship between ROI and improved healthcare and lifestyle outcomes, many of which are not easily measurable. Members of the FED (fidelity, equity, and dignity) collective respect.
Speakers across the two days emphasized the need to integrate healthy food as part of standard clinical care. Many panels highlighted the ways in which FIM programs can actually be a net financial gain—in addition to the indirect savings from avoiding inpatient stays and improving health outcomes.It is especially crucial to emphasize the financial advantages of food as healthcare at a time when healthcare expenditures continue to rise despite the fact that Americans are not getting healthier.
Those two full days of networking, learning, and sharing strategies on operationalization and implementation of FIM programs were just the beginning. On Wednesday, June 3, more than 250 advocates representing more than 100 organizations joined us for the Tuft Food is Medicine Institute’s 3rd Annual Food is Medicine Advocacy Day. The NPPC was a proud co-organizer of the event, and many NPPC members attended to encourage diverse, bipartisan support for FIM policies.
While FIMCON was the first large-scale meeting of its kind, we are hopeful that it is not the last. Organizing this event would not have been possible without the FIMCON steering committee: the American Heart Association, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School, the Food is Medicine Coalition, Tufts Food is Medicine Institute, and the NPPC. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our funders, who were deeply committed to the idea of this conference. Thank you to the Dohmen Company Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Builders Vision, the FIM Impact Fund, and The Rockefeller Foundation, and Walmart.org for their financial support. And, as always, thank you to everyone involved in raising the banner of food as medicine—together, our voices will continue to advance our progress toward produce prescriptions as a covered benefit.
