2/12/2024 – Followers of the Food is Medicine movement will know that a growing number of private food box companies are working with insurers to provide their clients with healthy food as a covered benefit (Food Bank News wrote about that here). Steve Brazeel, Founder and CEO of SunTerra Produce, is showing that there is a role for farmers to play in the Food is Medicine movement as well.
The Project Food Box program of SunTerra is an outgrowth of the USDA’s pandemic-era Farmers to Families Food Box program. Reluctant to drop Farmers to Families when Covid funding dried up, SunTerra eased into a new version of it in which it takes advantage of market inefficiencies to direct low-cost produce to food banks. In the most recent iteration of the program, SunTerra also provides medically tailored food boxes to clients of California’s MediCal insurance program.
