NACHC Announces Center for Nutrition and Health to Advance Food for Health Initiatives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michael King,

[email protected]

BETHESDA, MD - August 17, 2026 - The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) today announced the launch of the Center for Nutrition and Health, a comprehensive innovation hub dedicated to improved health for all through sustainable Food for Health (F4H) practice integration at every Community Health Center (CHC) throughout the country. The Center will strengthen health centers' capacity to prevent and manage nutrition-related chronic diseases by advancing sustainable F4H initiatives that improve health outcomes and align with value-based care models.

"Food as medicine has been a pillar of Community Health Centers since Dr. Jack Geiger wrote food prescriptions at the very first health center in Mississippi back in 1965," said Dr. Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and CEO of NACHC. "I am thrilled to launch the Center for Nutrition and Health and expand how NACHC supports the CHCs that serve 52.3 million patients across the United States. Access to nutritious, affordable food and nutrition education is essential to advancing whole-person care."

Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease remain among the nation's leading health concerns. Because many of these conditions are closely linked to nutrition and food access, CHCs are increasingly integrating food-based interventions into care. One compelling example is Jessie Trice Community Health System in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Through partnerships with organizations like Target and Publix, the health center operates a successful food distribution program and mobile "Farmacy" truck. The program serves 450-500 families monthly and reaches roughly 40,000 people annually. Recipients reported that the food received from the distributions provides meals they would not have otherwise.

CHCs continue to face barriers such as limited infrastructure, reimbursement challenges, and fragmented partnerships that make efforts like the Jessie Trice Community Health System "Farmacy" difficult to sustain. NACHC's Center for Nutrition and Health is designed to support their efforts in identifying and surmounting these barriers.

To better understand the opportunities and obstacles facing the field, NACHC recently partnered with Elevance Health Foundation to develop a comprehensive Food for Health Assessment of CHC's F4H capabilities, challenges, and opportunities. It will be published in its entirety this fall. Assessment questions were intentionally aligned with the Tufts Food Is Medicine Institute (FIMI) Pyramid to organize food-based interventions along a continuum from prevention to treatment. Preliminary findings revealed that 65% of CHCs offer F4H services, and 99% of CHCs with F4H programs are connecting people with food insecurity to some form of support. These numbers are encouraging, but workforce and financing barriers limit the growth needed to meet ongoing demand for sustainable F4H programs.

"This assessment highlights both the meaningful progress Community Health Centers have made in integrating Food for Health into care and the opportunities to help strengthen these efforts," said Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, Chief Health Officer of Elevance Health. "Our partnership with NACHC reflects a shared commitment to advancing whole-person care. These insights can help Community Health Centers strengthen Food for Health initiatives and inform the future of nutrition-focused care."

In preparation for the launch of the Center, NACHC has also partnered with the global healthcare company Abbott to develop a collection of state snapshots to capture how health centers across 37 states are integrating nutrition into primary care and how they are identifying opportunities to expand their impact. The snapshots highlight several factors driving success, including culturally appropriate food programs that meet people where they are and strong community partnerships that help with program sustainability beyond grant reliance. These insights will help inform the infrastructure and partnerships needed to sustain F4H efforts nationwide.

"Bringing Food for Health to life nationally requires innovation at every level, from implementation to programming to ensuring the workforce and systems are equipped to carry out this important work," said Melissa Brotz, Senior Vice President, Abbott and President, Abbott Fund. "We're excited to partner with NACHC to help provide Community Health Centers with the resources and support they need to advance the integration of nutrition into healthcare, and to mobilize other partners to do the same."

Advancing F4H efforts depends on establishing strong partnerships with likeminded organizations, and NACHC is grateful to both Elevance Health Foundation and Abbott for their support, innovation, and leadership in the F4H landscape.

The Center for Nutrition and Health work is focused on four areas:

• Science: Advance and generate evidence that demonstrates the impact, value, and return on investment of F4H interventions, informing decision-making and accelerating adoption of standardized metrics aligned with value-based care. Through research, data analysis, and evaluation, this work will strengthen the evidence base linking food and nutrition interventions to improved health outcomes, reduced health care costs, and healthier communities.

• Education: Comprehensive training, certification, and workforce development opportunities that build CHC capacity to integrate nutrition into clinical practice, advancing food as a foundational element of whole-person health and chronic disease prevention.

• Practice: Best practice toolkits, operational guides, and peer learning networks that enable CHCs to launch, optimize, and sustain F4H programs. The Center will foster real-time knowledge exchange and disseminate best practices that support sustainable integration of nutrition into care delivery and value-based care transformation.

• Policy: Policy analysis to advance sustainable funding models, regulatory frameworks, and reimbursement policies that support F4H initiatives ​as an essential component of the primary care safety net for whole-person care.

###

About NACHC

NACHC's mission is to champion Community Health Centers delivering affordable, effective, comprehensive primary care that is community-driven and improves health for all. For more information, visit https://www.nachc.org.