Food as Medicine Campaign

Access to quality, nutritious foods can have tremendous impacts to health, particularly for older adults and children. Growing evidence has shown that programs that work to provide access to nutritious foods to people that may not have access or as part of a medical intervention can improve health, this is known as “food as medicine initiatives”, "food is medicine", or "Food Rx". To improve health in Kentucky, it is important we are able to draw on existing state and federal resources to help fund food as medicine initiatives.

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Healthcare insurers, Managed Care Organizations, and health service providers can support programs that help provide healthy foods as a tool for health, including surveying for food insecurity, nutrition or food prescriptions, or providing on-site food pantries at health centers. Some Food as Medicine policy ideas KFAN members are exploring: 
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• Ensure Kentucky incentivizes participation in food is medicine initiatives in the Medicaid program, such as Food Prescription programs, through Managed Care Organization contracts.
• Utilize a Medicaid 1115 waiver to use federal Medicaid funds to pay the direct costs of non-medical services for medically-tailored meals.
• Utilize Medicaid Flexible Services to help cover the cost of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
• Utilize Medicaid and other health programs to directly-certify children for free school meals.
• Ensure Kentucky is able to draw down national resources that can help fund food as medicine innovations, such as the recently-expanded Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) program through the USDA which provides funding for nutrition prescription programs.

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The 2023 Farm Bill

The Farm Bill is a package of legislation that has a significant impact on the food system in the U.S. The package governs programs from how food is grown, including crop insurance and sustainable farming practices to how food is consumed, by ensuring families with low incomes can access food. Every 5 years the Farm Bill expires and is updated through an extensive process where it is passed by Congress and signed into law by the President and the last Farm Bill passed in 2018.

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KFAN Farm Bill Priorities:
1. Ensure all people who need help putting food on the table get it through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and emergency food assistance, including working families, college students, children, and seniors.

• Eliminate the three month time limit - a requirement to report work hours for certain adults, ensuring older adults, people with any immigration status and college students can access SNAP.
• Reject proposals that undermine the effectiveness of SNAP.
• Include programs from institutions of higher learning in SNAP Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) to ensure that enrollment in postsecondary programs automatically meets compliance, work participation or core activity requirements.
• Increase SNAP to ensure the amount of grocery money provided to families is adequate, so that families do not have to choose between rent, medical bills and paying for food.
• Ensure seniors, children and those served through emergency food assistance programs are able to receive adequate and culturally-appropriate foods.​

2. Support local and regional food supply chains so farmers can market their products and Kentuckians can have healthy, affordable food options.

• ​Modernize the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP)
• Expand the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP)
• ​Improve access to Local Agricultural Marketing Programs (LAMP).

3. Support the future of Kentucky agriculture by providing all farmers - urban and rural, especially those historically underserved, with affordable access to land and resources.

• ​Modernize the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP)
• Invest in local processing and procurement to support rural and urban agriculture communities.
• Advance racial equity across the food system by improving access to USDA funding and programs for farmers of color.​

​Click for more detail about these recommendations...

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Ensure a Strong Safety Net in Kentucky

The Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) within CHFS provides help with groceries to over 500,000 Kentuckians through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and P-EBT benefits to over 600,000 Kentucky kids. In 2021-2022, SNAP and the P-EBT program helped put food on families’ tables during the pandemic and brought federal funding to local economies, including more Kentucky farmers than ever before. DCBS needs resources for data management, outreach and communications as well as adequate wages to maintain critical staff who administer programs.
Other general administrative CHFS policies KFAN could advocate for include:

• Shift to a welcome mat orientation,
  
• Lengthen and maintain eligibility periods across programs,
  
• Maintain all available categorical eligibility across programs and,
  
• Expand and keep voluntary education and job training by increasing the number of SNAP Employment and Training opportunities available across the state and virtually.
  

Ensuring state agencies have the resources to pay, recruit and maintain an efficient, well- administered, and adequately financed Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) is essential to supporting farmers, farming communities and families facing food insecurity across the Commonwealth.