Overview
The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health — held in September 2022 — renewed national attention and issued a call to action to end hunger and reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the United States by 2030.
Food is Medicine approaches that focus on integrating consistent access to diet- and nutrition- related resources are a critical component to achieve this goal. The approaches are increasingly present across many communities and systems. There’s also increasing federal investment and action to support Food is Medicine approaches in a variety of settings.
Building on this collective energy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed a Food is Medicine initiative in response to a congressionally funded initiative in fiscal year 2023. This congressional action directed the Secretary of HHS, in consultation with other federal agencies, to develop and implement a federal strategy to reduce nutrition-related chronic diseases and food insecurity to improve health and racial equity in the United States. This includes diet-related research and programmatic efforts that will increase access to Food is Medicine initiatives.
