1/07/25 –
Ideally, Food is Medicine initiatives run by food banks would be funded by the government through Medicaid. But with states moving slowly to adopt the waivers that would make that possible, hospitals have become a major source of support for Food is Medicine efforts.
“It’s been all about partnerships and collaboration, where we’ve seen different hospital networks that have different sets of funding,” said Greg Silverman, CEO at West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH), a hunger relief organization in New York City.
WSCAH, which has been working on Food is Medicine for a few years, is now getting about 25% of its $10 million in annual revenue from hospitals that pay WSCAH to provide healthy food to their patients. At the same time, WSCAH is building up technology and operations that will help it take advantage of Medicaid-funded insurance reimbursements once they become available through an 1115 waiver in New York state.
