Medically Tailored Meals
Medically tailored meals help to meet the needs of program participants with health conditions that require specific diets such as heart disease, diabetes, and HIV. Programs that plan and prepare these meals can expand their reach and help those in need stay healthy. Learn more about medically tailored meals and best practices for adding them to your program’s menu.
- Nourishing Seniors Through Medically Tailored Meals — Opportunities and examples for delivering medically tailored meals (Nutrition and Aging Resource Center, 2019)
- Food as Medicine Research Guides: Master List— Compilation of guides, studies, news articles, and more (Center For Food As Medicine)
- Association of Insurance Coverage of Medically Tailored Meals With Hospitalizations and Health Care Expenditures— Findings that medically tailored meals link to lower health care utilization among patients with complex diet-related diseases (National Library of Medicine, 2022)
- Implementing a Medically Tailored Meals Program (YouTube)— Network spotlight about contracting with health care plans in California to implement a medically tailored meals program (Nutrition and Aging Resource Center, 2024)
- Open Arms — Presentation on services and partnerships provided by Open Arms of Minnesota, including preparing and delivering medically tailored meals (Open Arms of Minnesota)
- Food Is Medicine— Resources to prevent and manage diet-related diseases, as well as promote well-being through food and nutrition (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)
- Food Is Medicine Briefing (YouTube)— 40-minute video toolkit kickoff (HHS, 2024)
- Food Is Medicine Briefing (YouTube)— 40-minute video toolkit kickoff (HHS, 2024)
- Food is Medicine Toolkit— Guide to help clinicians, healthcare systems, and communities design, implement, and sustain programs (Tufts University)
- Meeting Community Needs Through Medically Tailored Meals and More — Interview on what works with Meals on Wheels Cheyenne (Nutrition and Aging Resource Center)
- California Food is Medicine Coalition— Association of nonprofit organizations providing medically tailored meals and nutrition services to individuals with chronic and acute illnesses (California Food is Medicine Coalition)
- The Medically Tailored Meal Intervention— Definitions, history, and standards for medically tailored meals (Food is Medicine Coalition)
- Humana Well Dine— Post-discharge and chronic conditions meal delivery program (Humana)
- Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan— Program to address the nutritional needs of individuals to prevent, manage, and treat diet-related chronic illnesses (Food is Medicine Massachusetts)
- Innovations in Nutrition Grant Initiatives — Presentation on Maryland's medically tailored meal program
- Medically Tailored Meal Survey — Survey of more than 30 states to identify programs offering medically tailored meals and gather tips and best practices (Nutrition and Aging Resource Center, 2025)