National framework provides roadmap to integrate medically tailored meals into healthcare systems
NEW YORK, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Food Is Medicine Coalition (FIMC), in partnership with the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School, today released the Medically Tailored Meal (MTM) Sustainability Blueprint, a first-of-its-kind national framework designed to guide the integration of medically tailored meals into the U.S. healthcare system.
Developed with support from the Dohmen Company Foundation and input from a cross-sector advisory group, the Blueprint provides an unprecedented framework for integrating the medically tailored meal intervention into the broader healthcare ecosystem.
The Medically Tailored Meal (MTM) intervention is the comprehensive process of delivering meals to individuals living with severe, complex or chronic condition(s) using therapeutic, evidence-based dietary specifications for condition(s), based on an assessment of the individual's nutrition needs by a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) or other nutrition professional.
The MTM Sustainability Blueprint addresses barriers that have kept many Food Is Medicine programs from transitioning from grant-funded pilots to sustainable healthcare coverage. It outlines key legal, regulatory, and operational considerations to help policymakers, health systems, and nonprofit providers align medically tailored meal programs with existing healthcare standards and reimbursement pathways, establishing clear guardrails for quality and implementation while charting a path toward consistent services and potential long-term insurance coverage.
"For decades, FIMC agencies have demonstrated that medically tailored meals improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs," said Alissa Wassung, Executive Director, FIMC. "The MTM Sustainability Blueprint provides the roadmap we need to move from promising pilot programs to a sustainable, scalable part of our healthcare system. It offers a unified structure for policymakers, healthcare payers, clinicians, and community-based providers seeking to incorporate medically tailored meals into care delivery."
By outlining best practices for eligibility, program standards, provider qualifications, service delivery models, reimbursement, and program integrity, the Blueprint seeks to create greater consistency across Food Is Medicine programs nationwide.
"Integrating medically tailored meals into healthcare requires a clear and consistent legal foundation," said Erika Hanson, Clinical Instructor, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School. "By grounding medically tailored meal services in existing legal frameworks, we can promote a predictable and high-quality standard of care that ensures patients can rely on these services over the long term."
This standardization is critical as states and healthcare systems increasingly explore nutrition-based interventions to address chronic disease, food insecurity, and rising healthcare costs.
A Collaborative National Effort
The MTM Sustainability Blueprint was developed through collaboration with a multidisciplinary advisory group including healthcare payers, providers, policy experts, researchers, actuaries, and Food Is Medicine practitioners. In fall 2025, the draft Blueprint was released for public comment, allowing stakeholders across healthcare, policy, and service provision to provide input that helped shape the final framework. The Blueprint is intended to serve as a foundational model that other Food Is Medicine interventions can build upon as the field continues to expand.
"Food Is Medicine interventions, such as medically tailored meals, have the potential to transform how we manage and reverse diet-related disease," said Rachel Roller, President and CEO of Dohmen Company Foundation. "To reach their fullest potential, these programs must evolve beyond pilots into standardized, sustainable pillars of the healthcare system. The MTM Sustainability Blueprint provides the essential roadmap to achieve this integration, ensuring that high-quality, impactful food-based interventions are accessible to all who need them."
Advancing the Food Is Medicine Movement
For more than 40 years, Food Is Medicine Coalition member organizations have pioneered the medically tailored meal intervention, delivering medically tailored meals and nutrition services to people living with serious and chronic illness.
Today, as healthcare leaders increasingly recognize the role nutrition plays in disease management and health equity, the Blueprint represents a major milestone in building the infrastructure needed to scale these interventions nationwide.
The MTM Sustainability Blueprint is now available at:
https://fimcoalition.org/mtm-sustainability-blueprint/
About the Food is Medicine Coalition
The Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC) is a national coalition of nonprofit organizations that provide medically tailored meals (MTMs) and groceries (MTGs), medical nutrition therapy, and nutrition counseling and education to people in communities across the country living with severe and chronic illnesses. We advance access to these life-saving interventions through service, policy change, research and evaluation, and best practices. FIMC agencies created the medically tailored meal model and maintain the nutrition standards for the intervention. FIMC offers a community of learning for existing practitioners, equips new organizations to launch medically tailored meal programs, and accredits agencies against our fieldwide standard for MTM. Visit fimcoalition.org.
About the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI)
For more than 10 years, CHLPI has advocated for legal, regulatory, and policy reforms in health and food systems, with a focus on the needs of systemically marginalized individuals. CHLPI's broad range of initiatives aim to expand access to high-quality health care and nutritious, affordable food; to reduce health- and food-related disparities; to develop community advocacy capacity; and, to promote more equitable, sustainable, and effective health care and food systems. Please click here for more information.
About Dohmen Company Foundation
With more than 165 years of healthcare experience, Dohmen has found a way to combine the rigor of business with the heart of philanthropy. After exiting the life science industry in 2018, Dohmen shareholders transformed the multi-generational family-owned business to a private foundation. Today, Dohmen Company Foundation advances its vision of life without diet-related disease in three powerful ways via: its investment fund focused on accelerating the growth of for-profit social businesses with proven food solutions that improve human health, traditional grant making dedicated to increasing the impact of charitable organizations aligned with our vision, and through research and public awareness of the surging rates of diet-related disease that threaten our national wellbeing. For more information, please visit dohmencompanyfoundation.org.
SOURCE Food is Medicine Coalition
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