Elevance Health Expands Food as Medicine Program to Community Health Centers

In collaboration with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the initiative will train primary care teams to provide personalized nutrition support for patients at risk of diet-related chronic conditions.

Elevance Health announced Monday that its food as medicine program is expanding to support Medicaid members at community health centers.

The initiative, in collaboration with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), will train primary care teams to provide personalized nutrition support for patients at risk of diet-related chronic conditions.

“Incorporating food as medicine directly into primary care enables us to treat nutrition not just as a social driver of health, but as a clinical lever for improving outcomes,” said Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., chief health officer at Elevance Health.

Nutrition support under the program will include medically tailored interventions, coaching, and referrals, with telehealth integration to increase patient access. The program enhances patient engagement, reduces chronic disease prevalence, and strengthens preventive health measures.

Elevance Health’s philanthropic division will provide the NACHC with a six-month grant to develop a scalable food-as-medicine model in community health centers. The model will combine clinical interventions with food delivery. Both organizations aim to establish a national Nutrition Center of Excellence to replicate food-as-medicine care across the U.S.

“For 60 years, community health centers have been innovating in delivering comprehensive primary care, including but not limited to nutrition services, community gardens, and community kitchens,” said Kyu Rhee, M.D., president and CEO of the NACHC. “Our collaboration with Elevance Health is an opportunity to assess, identify, and scale evidence-based nutrition-based care models to the communities that need them most.”

Food as medicine programs have gained traction as policymakers and healthcare providers increasingly recognize the link between diet quality and health outcomes. Earlier this year, Kaiser Permanente and Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Institute established a network to promote nutrition-based care, with Elevance Health among the founding members.

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