Why Medically Tailored Meals Matter: Research & Evidence

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Project Open Hand. Food insecurity is associated with negative chronic health outcomes, yet few studies have examined how providing medically appropriate food assistance to food-insecure individuals may improve health outcomes in resource-rich settings. We evaluated a community-based food support intervention in the San Francisco Bay Area for people living with HIV and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and potential impact of the intervention on nutritional, mental health, disease management, healthcare utilization, and physical health outcomes. The 6-month intervention provided meals and snacks designed to comprise 100% of daily energy requirements and meet nutritional guidelines for a healthy diet. Read the full study in the Journal of Urban Health.

Researchers at the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts published a study, "Estimated Impact of Medically Tailored Meals on Health Care Use and Expenditures in 50 US States." This study found that the MTM intervention would save $32.1 billion in healthcare costs during the first year alone—even after accounting for intervention costs—and avert 3.5 million hospitalizations annually. Read more in Health Affairs.

In the Community Servings: Food as Medicine for Diabetes cross-over clinical trial, conducted from June 2015 to July 2017, we randomly assigned the order of "on-meals" (home delivery of 10 meals/week for 12 weeks delivered by Community Servings, a non-profit organization) and "off-meals" (12 weeks usual care and a Choose MyPlate healthy eating brochure) periods. Read more in the Journal General Internal Medicine.

In 2023, Open Arms of Minnesota, Hennepin Healthcare, and UCare partnered to create Healthy Pregnancy Home-Delivered Meals, a pilot program for patients experiencing high-risk pregnancies. The goal of the program was to support the nutrition of patients who were pregnant and their babies, as there is a great deal of research that supports the connection between a healthy diet and healthy birth outcomes. Read the full review in the Wilder Research Report.

Ceres Community Project. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether medically tailored meals (MTMs) improve outcomes in recently discharged adults with nutrition-sensitive conditions compared with usual care. Adults with heart failure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease being discharged home between April 27, 2020, and June 9, 2021, from 5 hospitals within an integrated health care delivery system were prerandomized to 10 weeks of MTMs (with or without virtual nutritional counseling) compared with usual care. Read the full study in the Journal of Medical Care.

MANNA. The MANNA Institute partnered with the Nutrition Department at Drexel University to conduct a cross-sectional survey of over 200 MTM clients. Read the full study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.