Abbott and NACHC launch Food is Medicine initiative to elevate personalized nutrition

A multi-year “food is medicine” initiative has launched in the US under a partnership between Abbott and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). The program aims at making healthy, nutritious food central to primary healthcare at Community Health Centers (CHCs) across the country. 

The “NACHC and Abbott Food for Health Initiative” will include a national certification program designed to help CHCs develop the systems and capacity to advance food for health, along with structured learning, training, and knowledge-sharing for CHC staff.

The initiative is set to assist them in building capacity and expertise in addressing immediate nutrition needs, integrating nutrition into healthcare delivery, and preventing and managing nutrition-related chronic diseases.

To learn more about the scope of the program, Nutrition Insight speaks to Kathryn McKenzie, divisional VP of Global Citizenship and Sustainability at Abbott, and VP at Abbott Fund. 

“There is tremendous interest and innovation in Food is Medicine at CHCs and the broader healthcare space,” she says.

“Through our research with NACHC across 37 states, we’re seeing similar barriers pop up over and over in how to make this work sustainable and consistent, including fragmented funding, gaps in workforce training and data collection, and challenges integrating nutrition interventions into clinical workflows.”

The NACHC and Abbott Food for Health Initiative is designed to help close these gaps by building much-needed infrastructure alongside training and support for health center staff to integrate healthy, nutritious food as part of clinical care.

“By building workforce knowledge and implementation skills, expanding peer learning, alongside establishing systems, processes, and competencies needed to integrate and measure their efforts, we’re working to help health centers share and scale up approaches that work in real-world settings,” says McKenzie.

Elevating the standard of care

According to McKenzie, Food is Medicine initiatives across the US face challenges moving from individual pilots to sustainable services that are part of the existing healthcare system.

“Many programs rely on short-term funding, and there are gaps in practical clinical guidance and approaches that make it challenging to integrate efforts into routine care and sustain results,” she shares.

The initiative provides training and support to healthcare staff members in integrating nutrition into standard practice.There are also other social drivers of health outside of the clinic that need to be considered for Food is Medicine to succeed. “For example, in Abbott’s Healthy Food Rx community program in Stockton, California, we saw that patient education and support was a key gap, along with access to nutritious food,” says McKenzie.

“Fortunately, CHCs across the country are well-versed in helping to address complex, interconnected patient needs by connecting with existing partners and resources in the community, and they are already applying new Food for Health approaches.”

She adds that there is an opportunity now to build on that legacy by providing resources, tools, and support to make nutrition care sustainable and scalable as a core part of clinical services.

Three core program components

The initiative points to studies evidencing that good nutrition is essential for health and is critical in disease prevention and treatment, especially for chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“We often think about healthcare as what happens in a doctor’s office, but health is also shaped by access to nutritious food and knowledge of the role of food in your health,” says Melissa Brotz, SVP of Abbott and president of Abbott Fund, the company’s philanthropic foundation.

“Food for Health is about bringing those things together — and we’re excited to work with NACHC and Community Health Centers to help make nutrition a core part of how people prevent disease, manage chronic conditions, and live healthier.”

The NACHC and Abbott Food for Health Initiative was designed to strategically close these gaps, supporting CHCs in addressing real-life barriers to nutrition and health in their communities.

The framework is made up of three key components. The first is the Food for Health Learning Lab, a structured learning program designed to build nutrition literacy and expertise across the CHC workforce. It is designed to guide health centers in implementing and measuring food is medicine efforts.

Second is the Food for Health Community of Practice, a national peer-learning network connecting health centers to share promising practices, troubleshoot challenges, and learn from top experts.

Thirdly, the Food for Health Certification of Readiness and Excellence is a voluntary national certification program that will recognize and support CHCs in developing the systems, processes, and competencies needed to advance food for health efforts.

Identifying critical gaps

Since 2023, NACHC and Abbott have collaboratively advanced food for health with CHCs.

Building on this earlier work, NACHC and Abbott assessed CHCs across 37 states last year to determine efficiencies, significant gaps in implementation, and what is required to expand nutritious food programs in health centers.

Despite strong interest in integrating nutrition and care, the partners found that fragmented funding, training, data collection, and clinical implementation remain key barriers to expanding these efforts across CHCs.

“Since the first health center opened, CHCs — the nation’s largest network of primary care providers — have led the way in addressing food insecurity and integrating nutrition into care delivery,” says Kyu Rhee, president and CEO of NACHC.

“Our collaboration with Abbott builds on that legacy by strengthening Community Health Centers’ capacity to prevent and manage nutrition-related conditions through evidence-based, practical solutions that are designed to improve health outcomes.”

Earlier this year, the Rockefeller Foundation forecasted that Food is Medicine programs could significantly boost the economy, creating over US$45 billion in economic activity and generating jobs. However, it warned that successful implementation will depend on whether states prioritize local sourcing and investing in food system infrastructure to grow the local economy.

Research published last year found that Abbott’s Healthy Food Rx Food is Medicine program helped US participants living with diabetes eat more vegetables and fruit, with participants reporting “significantly improved” diet quality and health status.