Abbott and NACHC Launch Nationwide Food-as-Medicine Initiative

The NACHC and Abbott Food for Health Initiative represents a long-term strategy to formalize the role of nutrition within the U.S. community health system. While community clinics have historically addressed food insecurity, this program provides the structured training, data collection, and certification frameworks necessary to standardize these interventions. By embedding nutrition into primary care, the partners seek to move beyond fragmented pilot programs toward a coordinated national model.

To address systemic barriers identified in a 2025 assessment of health centers across 37 states, the initiative introduces three core components. These include a national learning lab for staff expertise, a peer-learning network for troubleshooting implementation challenges, and a voluntary certification program known as Food for Health CORE. This certification will recognize clinics that successfully integrate nutrition-related competencies into their daily patient care workflows.

"We often think about healthcare as what happens in a doctor's office, but health is also shaped by access to nutritious food," said Melissa Brotz, Senior Vice President of Abbott and President of the Abbott Fund. The program aims to transform how chronic diseases are managed by treating dietary health as a fundamental clinical requirement rather than an ancillary service. By connecting clinical care with community-based nutrition support, the partners intend to lower healthcare utilization rates and improve long-term patient outcomes for rural and urban populations alike.