Food prescriptions provide healthy food to help people with limited income or food insecurity manage chronic diseases.
Clinicians write food prescriptions that are funded by federal grants, private insurance, and state Medicaid programs.
In MO, retail partnerships and technology companies let patients redeem food prescriptions at local stores and markets.
Licensed healthcare professionals issue food prescriptions (Schwartz et al. 2025). Food prescriptions are orders for specific foods to manage diet-related chronic medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity (Wang et al. 2023, White 2020). Patients using food prescriptions to increase fruit and vegetable intake report improved health status (Bhat et al. 2021). Food prescription programs lead to lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels in participants/patients (Hager et al. 2023). Researchers estimate that national food prescription programs could prevent 292,000 heart attacks and strokes in adults with diabetes at a cost similar to standard medications for blood pressure or cholesterol (Wang et al. 2023).
Food prescriptions are a main component of the Food Is Medicine (FIM, also known as Food As Medicine) approach in health care delivery (Schwartz et al. 2025). FIM delivers healthy food alongside medical nutrition therapy (MNT) to help people with limited income (Clemm 2025). To be eligible for a food prescription, a person must have a clinical diagnosis of a diet-related condition and either financial need or food insecurity (Wang et al. 2023, Bhat et al. 2021).
Food prescription benefits include produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries, and medically tailored meals (Schwartz et al. 2025, Chen et al. 2022). Produce prescriptions provide fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables (Clemm 2025, Albin et al 2025, White 2020). Medically tailored groceries use Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) guidance to align food items with a patient’s specific health diagnosis (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) 2025).
RDNs are trained to provide Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT), which includes food prescriptions, to manage or prevent chronic health problems (Steiber et al. 2025). Physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners are not specifically trained to provide MNT, but can issue food prescriptions or refer candidates to an RDN identify people who require nutrition services (AND 2025). Any of these clinicians can screen people for chronic diseases and food insecurity to identify candidates for food prescriptions and match them to a prescription type (Steiber et al. 2025, CDC 2024, White 2020, Figure 1). Food prescriptions provide a voucher, discount, or digital funds to buy food (Hager et al. 2023, Chen et al. 2022).
Several programs provide funds for food prescriptions. The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) is a main federal source of funding for food prescription benefits (NIFA 2025). Private Medicare Advantage plans pay for healthy food for members with chronic illnesses (Garfield et al. 2020). MO uses MO HealthNet programs to pay for prescriptions that provide fresh produce (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2024, Garfield et al. 2020). MO healthcare systems use grants from philanthropic organizations to fund test programs that link food vouchers with local grocery stores (Wiemers 2024, Auvinen et al. 2022).
Figure 1. The Food Prescription Lifecycle. Food prescriptions provide healthy food to help people with limited income or food insecurity manage chronic diseases. Federal grants and health plans provide the money for these benefits, which are loaded onto digital cards or printed as vouchers. People redeem these prescriptions at participating grocery stores and farmers markets to receive fresh produce at no or reduced cost.
Patients fill food prescriptions at local grocery stores and farmers markets (Clemm 2025). In MO, participating grocery chains include Hy-Vee, Save A Lot, Schnucks, and Price Chopper (MidAmerica Regional Council (MARC) 2024, Wiemers 2024). Farmers markets in cities like Columbia, St. Louis, and Kansas City use physical tokens for patients to buy food protecting their privacy and simplifying payments for individual vendors (Columbia Farmers Market 2025). Funding from federal grants and health plans subsidizes these programs to ensure patients pay reduced or no costs for their food (Clemm 2025, NIFA 2025).
Specialized partnerships with technology companies make these transactions possible at the checkout counter (Milken Institute 2023, Figure 1). Standard retail systems usually cannot recognize insurance benefits as a form of payment for groceries, so companies called FIM facilitators provide the software needed to connect insurance funds to the retail store. This technology ensures that the benefit cards only pay for healthy foods that meet medical requirements. Healthcare organizations form formal agreements with retailers to ensure that these payment systems are accepted at the store (Wiemers 2024, Milken Institute 2023).
References
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