This piece is part of the weekly series “Growing Forward: Insights for Building Better Food and Agriculture Systems,” presented by the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the nonprofit organization Food Tank. Each installment highlights forward-thinking strategies to address today’s food and agriculture related challenges with innovative solutions. To view more pieces in the series, click here.
Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, serves as the first Food As Medicine Director at Elevance Health, where he leads food-related initiatives that work as part of healthcare to treat diet-related chronic conditions including diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. He works across the organization to drive a comprehensive view of health which includes access to nutritious and culturally relevant food. A community pediatrician by training, and clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Dr. Essel has dedicated his career to strengthening healthcare and public health workforce training, reducing health disparities, and improving health outcomes.
Dr. Essel recently shared his thoughts on Food as Medicine and the types of innovative programs that can address lifestyle-related chronic disease through novel food interventions.
What is food as medicine?
Food as Medicine refers to healthcare strategies that improve access to nutritious food to prevent, manage, or treat disease. There are interventions that include medically tailored meals and groceries for specific health conditions, along with produce prescription plans to boost fruit and vegetable intake. In addition, federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), can be effective strategies addressing better health and improving food security. And community efforts such as food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens, and nutrition education can further benefit eaters.
Within our organization, we worked to connect more than 14,000 individuals through Medicaid health plans with registered dieticians last year, providing direct connections to community resources and significantly reducing food insecurity in households.
Elevance Health has incorporated Food as Medicine as part of the organization-wide strategy and across all lines of business. We take a digital-first approach to food access and education, with a featured site dedicated to sharing Food as Medicine stories, research, and resources. The Sydney Health Platform (both web and a mobile app) has content aligned with the food as medicine strategy, to ensure members are equipped with tools such as Find Help to locate local community food banks, pantries, and other resources.
What is driving increased awareness of Food as Medicine?
There has been a renaissance occurring in healthcare. This has led to grassroots efforts and collaborations involving community organizations, local growers, food banks, and academic institutions, focusing on integrating food into healthcare. Research and publications on food’s role in health have also increased, emphasizing the importance of nutrition in medical education and provider training.
As a community pediatrician and Associate Professor at a medical school, I’ve noticed a shift in medical education and provider training, emphasizing diet and nutrition’s role in managing chronic conditions. There’s also growing interest and collaboration among healthcare professionals and organizations to promote food as medicine across the nation. I have been pleased to collaborate with like-minded colleagues across payor spaces through the National Network of Excellence encouraging even greater momentum for the betterment of health of our nation.
Why dedicate resources to the food as medicine concept?
Results from a survey of food as medicine strategies implemented by Elevance Health-affiliated health plans found 89 Food as Medicine programs operating in 18 states as well as Washington, D.C. supporting the food and nutritional needs of diverse populations.
It is clear the healthcare industry is catching on to the benefits of a whole-health model, something we have long prioritized at Elevance Health. So much more goes into a person’s health than what happens inside the clinic and doctor’s office. That’s why we’ve made the health-related social needs of members a priority. Access to nutritious food is essential to whole health.
What forward-thinking strategies has Elevance Health implemented to address today’s food-related challenges?
We have made food as medicine a comprehensive approach across our organization, integrating it into our whole health strategy through various initiatives. We tailor programs to reflect the personal experience of food for members and employees, providing nutrition education and resources. Our commitment includes advocacy through community partnerships, research, education, and public policy. We’ve joined leadership committees, like a federal Food Is Medicine Collaborative, to help develop a food is medicine toolkit and have presented our work to raise awareness about food’s impact on health.
Over the past three years, Elevance Health Foundation has awarded US$30 million to support 51 nonprofit organizations across the country that focus on reducing the number of individuals experiencing food insecurity, improving clinical outcomes for individuals experiencing food insecurity with chronic conditions, and creating more access to nutritious food by increasing affordable, healthy food options for populations experiencing food insecurity.
How can partnerships and collaborations make food as medicine more accessible for people and communities?
Current progress has been built on the work of community-based organizations (CBOs) and local and regional institutions that have dedicated their careers to these efforts. Food as medicine should never eliminate this local infrastructure—it is the anchor for the work we all do together. The most important approach in food as medicine is collaboration—we all play a role in this paradigm shift to improve the health of individuals and communities. Federal government must work alongside state governments and agencies, managed care organizations, healthcare payors, health systems, clinicians, academic institutions, CBOs and nonprofits, for-profits and foundations, community stakeholders, and patients and families. With these efforts in place, Food as Medicine has a chance to thrive in the present day and for many years to come.
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