Food as Medicine in Los Angeles County: Policy and Practice Insights from a 2025 Convening
Top Things to Know
The convening emphasized that FIM interventions can be designed to improve patient health while also supporting local farmers, strengthening regional food systems, and promoting economic development.
Stakeholders identified centralized food hubs, stronger partnerships among health plans, providers, CBOs, and food producers, and shared data systems as critical components for expanding access to MTMs, PRx, and other FIM services.
Integrating local, regenerative, or organic sourcing preferences into FIM programs may help advance health equity, support historically marginalized producers, increase the resilience of local food systems, and create additional community-level value from FIM investments.
Summary of Conclusion/Findings
This paper describes the proceedings and key findings from a 2025 Los Angeles County Food as Medicine (FAM) convening that brought together 74 stakeholders from healthcare, public health, community organizations, food systems, agriculture, and managed care to identify strategies for scaling FAM initiatives. The convening highlighted promising models showing that FAM programs can improve food security, health behaviors, mental health, and clinical outcomes while reducing healthcare utilization, including emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Participants emphasized the need for a more centralized regional infrastructure or food hub to better coordinate healthcare providers, health plans, community-based organizations (CBOs), and local food producers. Attendees also identified robust data-sharing and evaluation systems as critical for demonstrating both health and economic impacts and supporting long-term sustainability. Post-event surveys showed strong enthusiasm for expansion, with more than 90% of respondents reporting they were very or extremely interested in growing FAM efforts within their organizations. Two overarching priorities emerged: strengthening strategic cross-sector partnerships and incorporating local regenerative and organic food sourcing into institutional procurement practices to support health, equity, and regional economic development.