Partners for Healthy Food Access Program

1. Increase Medi-Cal member access to nutritious, medically supportive food.
2. Engage Medi-Cal members to manage their own health to reduce preventable illness, chronic disease and hospital readmissions.
3. Strengthen community-based partnerships to support Medi-Cal members in incorporating nutritious food into their daily life.

When facing a serious illness, being well-nourished is critical. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, food insecurity is one of the top ten causes for costly hospital readmissions.

Medically supportive food programs have been shown to:

• Improve blood pressure.
• Reduce hemoglobin A1C levels in individuals with diabetes.
• Reduce BMI.
• Decrease food insecurity.
• Improve overall health.

Health care providers may refer patients to a food prescription. A food prescription is a model for medical treatment or preventative service for patients that are experiencing:

• Diet-related health risks or conditions.
• Food insecurity.
• Other documented challenges to accessing nutritious foods.

Food prescriptions can improve health outcomes and increase patient engagement in self-managing health.

Many chronic conditions and related health care spending are largely preventable with proper nutrition.

Health care settings are uniquely positioned as places where Medi-Cal members facing food insecurity and chronic conditions can be identified and provided access to medically supportive nutrition.

The Harvard Wellness Study (2010) reported that every $1 spent on healthy food reduces health care and economic costs by $3.27.

Grants can be used to support costs associated with the implementation of nutritious, medically supportive food prescription projects that directly serve the Medi-Cal population and support the Partners for Healthy Food Access Program funding goals. Funding is not intended for emergency food distribution only.

Project components

This funding opportunity requires:

• Multi-sector partnerships (e.g., health care, community-based organizations, government agencies, civic organizations, businesses) with specific, relevant roles for each partner.
• An integral role for one or more health care partner(s) in screening Medi-Cal members for food insecurity and one or more chronic disease(s) and providing referrals for members (i.e. food prescriptions) to participate in the project.
• Distribution of nutritious, medically supportive food on a regular basis or a determined period of time.
• A behavioral, nutrition education and/or healthy cooking component.
• Engagement of Medi-Cal members in developing a culturally appropriate food prescription project that will meet their needs.

Strategy examples

Here are some examples of strategies that could meet program requirements.

Screening, monitoring and tracking

Utilizing technology to integrate chronic condition and food insecurity screening, outcome monitoring and/or referral utilization tracking into clinical workflows.

Vouchers and education materials

Making nutritious food accessible to members through farmers market vouchers/engagement or third-party vendor/partner for distribution of nutritious food and educational/resource materials.

Linking to supportive services

Linking members to supportive services for healthy food access, such as CalFresh enrollment.

Building knowledge and skills

Building Medi-Cal member knowledge and skills to have a healthy diet (e.g., nutrition education, shopping for and preparing healthy food).

Applicants must meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the Medi-Cal Capacity Grant Program (see Eligibility Guidelines).

Applicants must be one of the following:

• A contracted Alliance provider.
• A 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• A governmental entity.

Applicants must provide services to a significant volume of Medi-Cal members in the Alliance service area.

Additional types of partners not listed above may be involved in the project but cannot serve as the applicant (businesses, for-profit housing developments).

An applicant is limited to Partners for Healthy Food Access Program funding for one project at a time, which may be implemented at more than one site.

Grant funding may be awarded for continuation/expansion of successful previously funded projects that use a food prescription model.

One organization must serve as the applicant/grantee organization.

Serving as the applicant for one project would not prohibit an entity from also serving as a partner on another Partners for Healthy Food Access-funded project.

Strengthening your application

Applicants who demonstrate one or more of the following will strengthen their grant application:

• A commitment to linguistic and cultural competence.
• Evaluation of member health outcomes (e.g., hemoglobin A1C for diabetes-focused program, blood pressure, BMI, hospital admissions, etc.).

Amount

The Alliance will consider funding projects up to $200,000 per grant.

Term

Project timelines should be no more than 24 months.

Project timelines are defined as the date the project scope of work begins (after grant award date) to the date of project completion.

Funding will be considered for expansion of projects already in progress. However, activities completed or costs incurred prior to approval of the grant request by the Alliance will not be considered. A project budget may contain costs for more than one site.

Eligible expenses

Examples of eligible expenses include:

• Personnel expenses (salary and benefits) for one or more Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) with direct responsibilities for the project.
• Consultants and vendor costs for project start-up and/or implementation of project.
• One-time purchase of equipment dedicated to project implementation.
• One-time cost to develop reporting and/or electronic health records (EHR) templates to capture data related to food insecurity screening and evaluation of patient health outcomes.
• Cost of nutritious food and distribution.
• Program costs for interventions (gas, non-cash participant incentives, materials, etc.).
• Indirect costs up to 15% are eligible and may be included in project budget.