Who We Are

We are a coalition of Medically Tailored Meal Intervention service providers in California.

CalFIMC is composed of community-based non-profit organizations in California with a collective 140 years of expertise in engaging volunteers and funders to provide meals and support to individuals facing a serious illness, including many clients who do not qualify for other free and low-cost meal services.

Medically tailored meals (MTM) are meals approved by a Registered Dietitian (RD) that reflect appropriate dietary therapy based on evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines to address a medical diagnosis, symptoms, allergies, medication management and side effects to ensure the best possible nutrition-related health outcomes. A Medically Tailored Meal Intervention (MTMI) goes further and includes a CalFIMC approved nutrition education curriculum appropriate for diagnosis and administered by a registered dietitian, in addition to in-home, virtual and telephonic nutrition education and wellness checks, as needed. 

Our Goal

Medically Tailored Meal (MTM) Interventions should be a covered health benefit.

We believe MTM Interventions should be a covered benefit available to all Californians when they need it. By making medically tailored nutrition and food central to our healthcare system we will produce better health outcomes, lower the cost of care and improve patient satisfaction. 

Our Strategy

1. Be a source of information to funders, California policy-makers, and health plans on the benefits of community-based Medically Tailored Meal Interventions.

2. Obtain outcomes data to support that Medically Tailored Meal Interventions to persons with acute and chronic diseases reduce health care utilization.

3. Building a strategy to make our Medically Tailored Meals Intervention available across California.

Our Impact

Fact Sheets and Other Informational Resources

• Medi-Cal Medically Tailored Meals Fact Sheet (1/2019). Click Here to Download.

• The National Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC) Fact Sheet. Click Here to Download.

• The National FIMC engages in research to prove that food truly is medicine, especially for those who have serious and chronic illnesses.  Click Here to see the Research. Click Here to see Research in Progress.

CalFIMC Intiatives

MEDI-CAL MEDICALLY TAILORED MEALS PILOT PROGRAM

In the 2017/18 budget, the California Legislature and Governor Brown approved a three-year, $6 million pilot to evaluate the impact of a medically tailored meal intervention on the health outcomes and health care costs of seriously ill Medi-Cal patients. Coalition partners are providing the services.

CALFIMC ACCREDITATION

CalFIMC Accredited Providers are organizations that have met the criteria to deliver Medically Tailored Meal Interventions (MTMI). The accreditation body is the Accreditation Committee of the CalFIMC, which includes administrative, social work and registered dietitian professionals.

INTEGRATING SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH (ISDOH) PROJECT

ISDOH Project aims to promote dialogue on integrating housing, nutrition, health care and economic stability services to better serve older adults and persons with chronic diseases participating in the Medi-Cal Medically Tailored Meals (MTM) Pilot Program.

Media

Huffington Post

"California Becomes The First State To Prescribe Food As Medicine" By Anna Almendrala, May 8, 2018

New York Times

"Cod and ‘Immune Broth’: California Tests Food as Medicine" By Patricia Leigh Brown, May 11, 2018

Real Simple Magazine

"Doctors in California Are Now Prescribing Food as Medicine, Here’s Why" By Claudia Fisher, May 11, 2018

About Us

California Food is Medicine Coalition (CalFIMC), part of the national Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC), is a coalition of six community-based non-profit organizations with a collective 140 years of expertise in engaging volunteers and funders to provide meals and support to individuals facing a serious illness, including many clients who do not qualify for other free and low-cost meal services. Currently we are partnering with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to provide MTMI services to Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid) members under the first of its kind statewide pilot program.

Click on the logo to learn more about the coalition partners. 

Funded, in part, by Archstone Foundation