Sponsors (9)
The bill funds targeted, evidence-based medically tailored nutrition and emergency feeding programs that can improve health and reduce food access barriers for vulnerable Americans, but funding is modest and time-limited, which may limit reach, favor larger organizations, and create sustainability and administrative challenges.
People with diet-related chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, hypertension) gain access to medically tailored foods, meals, or prescriptions through grant-funded programs, which can improve health outcomes.
Low-income individuals can receive funded transportation and on-site emergency feeding services, reducing immediate food access barriers for vulnerable households.
Community organizations and healthcare providers receive targeted funding ($20 million total for FY2027–FY2031) to run evidence-based nutrition programs, strengthening local service capacity and program delivery.
Low-income individuals and patients may see limited benefit because the $20 million total over five years is modest and will constrain the number and scale of programs that can be funded.
Smaller community-based organizations may be disadvantaged because the competitive grant structure tends to favor larger groups with greater grant-writing capacity, reducing equitable distribution of services.
Patients in regions or communities whose proposals are not selected will receive no federal support through this program, leaving gaps in access despite demonstrated local need.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a USDA–HHS competitive pilot grant program to fund Food is Medicine interventions and authorizes $20M for FY2027–FY2031, with evaluation and reporting to Congress.
Creates a competitive USDA program, coordinated with HHS, to fund pilot "Food is Medicine" interventions that connect medically tailored foods, groceries, produce prescriptions, cooking education, on-site emergency feeding, and participant transportation to improve diet-related health outcomes. The agency must start the pilot within two years, prioritize projects that use local foods or include registered dietitians and ensure geographic and urban/rural/tribal/territorial balance, report results to Congress, and is authorized $20 million total for FY2027–FY2031.
Introduced March 12, 2026 by Robin L. Kelly · Last progress March 12, 2026