Program Overview

The Food is Medicine Accelerator works to refine, replicate, and broadly scale the medically tailored meal (MTM) model to ensure that people living with severe, complex and chronic illnesses have access to MTM, regardless of where they live or their ability to pay. Each year, up to five existing nonprofits apply to undergo a 12-month curriculum training program that teaches them how to prepare and deliver a high-quality MTM intervention to their communities.

Leadership: The Accelerator is an initiative led by Food Is Medicine Coalition (FIMC), Community Servings, God’s Love We Deliver, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School.

Reasons to Apply:

Expand Access. There are large areas across the country where individuals do not have access to the MTM intervention regardless of their ability to pay. By creating, sustaining, and scaling nonprofit MTM programs, the FIMC Accelerator helps expand equitable access to lifesaving nutrition interventions.

Gain reimbursement. For nonprofit MTM providers, healthcare reimbursement is a sustainable funding stream which, when braided with philanthropic support, provides more comprehensive access to this research-based, cost saving health intervention.

There are large areas across the country that do not have access to MTM services. The creation, sustainability, and scalability of MTM programs depend on the ability of existing and emerging MTM agencies to obtain meal reimbursement contracts with private and public health insurance systems.

To support the replication and scaling of the MTM model, the Accelerator will provide:

Web-based Curriculum Modules and Office Hours: Online and web-based trainings on: operational levers for scaling; policy levers to establish coverage of MTM, particularly within the Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance market; analysis of national and state-level opportunities for healthcare contracting; and education of MTM providers on federal and state law and policy developments.

Organizational Coaching: Trainings are supported by customized individual agency coaching as well as templates and materials for use in developing key pieces of the MTM intervention.

In-person Cohort Trainings: There are two multi-day, in-person site visits to different operational MTM agencies where participants learn experientially from instructors specializing in operations, nutrition, philanthropy, policy, healthcare partnerships, and more.

FIMC Membership: Accelerator agencies enjoy the benefits of FIMC Membership during training, linking developing MTM agencies with FIMC’s national advocacy and policy agenda, MTM standards, and statewide advocacy, in order to ensure the sustainable growth. Accelerator Graduate agencies then join the community of practice as they progress toward acheiving FIMC Accreditation.

Requirements

To apply to become a participating agency in the Accelerator’s annual cohort training, programs must:

• Be a nonprofit organization with the capacity to dedicate to an intensive 12-month training program requiring travel to Boston and New York

• Have experience with food safety and commercial food production

• Have access to a commercial kitchen (capable of volume meal production)

• Have an RDN on staff or be willing to hire one

• Demonstrate a commitment to providing medically tailored home-delivered meals to individuals coping with illness

• Contribute a participation fee of $25,000

  Year 5 (2024-2025) Application Is Now OPEN!

For more information please email jterranova@servings.org