As participants in the recent 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, we applaud the Biden administration’s leadership in setting out a National Strategy to drive generational improvements in these three critical, intersecting areas. Just as the 1969 Conference catapulted our nation’s approach to food forward, we know this year’s Conference and the accompanying broad-based National Strategy – in no small part driven by the ambitious Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) commitments – can significantly enhance the U.S. food and nutrition policy landscape.
CMS has a critical role within this Strategy for improving people’s access to nutritious foods and reducing diet-related chronic diseases by integrating nutrition interventions into the healthcare system. As longtime researchers and implementers of Medicaid and other healthcare food and nutrition policies that improve public health and health equity while also potentially reducing health care spending, we write to urge CMS to issue guidance and encouragement for states to submit section 1115 waivers to more widely and equitably test and evaluate the impacts of “Food is Medicine” interventions, including medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescriptions.
Learn More at PDF
