Feeding the Family-A Food Is Medicine Intervention: Preliminary Baseline Results of Clinical Data from Caregivers and Children

Top Things to Know

The strong caregiver–child correlations in BMI and metabolic markers show shared risk.

With most households reporting low/very‑low food security and financial strain, produce or grocery benefits should be designed to stabilize nutrition security (sufficient dose, predictable cadence, culturally relevant choices).

Because caregiver food security status mirrored children’s food security, FIM evaluations should track linked family outcomes (adult + child diet, biomarkers, and security) and test program features (dose and choice) that may drive household‑wide impact.

Summary of Conclusion/Findings

This brief report presents baseline data from Feeding the Family, a pragmatic 2×2 factorial randomized trial testing medically tailored meals (MTMs), grocery prescriptions (GP), their combination, versus delayed control among 31 caregivers and 51 children in an urban primary care clinic. Nearly 90% of caregivers reported low–very low food security and 93.6% reported financial strain, underscoring high socioeconomic vulnerability at enrollment. The team observed significant caregiver–child biomarker correlations, including caregiver–child BMI (r=0.59), caregiver LDL with child A1c (r=−0.79), and caregiver total cholesterol with child BMI (r=−0.62), suggesting interlinked metabolic risk within households. Caregiver use of food assistance was associated with higher child vegetable intake, and caregiver food security scores tracked with children’s food security, indicating household‑level coupling of nutrition access and diet quality. As a baseline paper, no intervention effects are reported yet; the findings justify a family‑centered FIM approach and will guide evaluation of whether dose (amount of food) and choice (ability to select foods) incrementally affect outcomes beyond counseling alone.