Reverse Disease? Enter Medically Tailored Groceries & Meals

Meet Florida's Best and the Nation's Best to learn how to use food is medicine that produce health outcomes even reversing disease.

Florida Speaker: Pastor Gerard Duncan is the senior pastor of Prayers By Faith Family Ministries and the Executive Director One Community Health and Wellness Center, under the umbrella of Pleasant Street Civil Rights and Cultural Arts Center in Gainesville, Florida. Through his own spiritual journey and his work ministering to the members of his community, he has seen first-hand the power of restoring hope through social change. 

The Food is Medicine Program in Gainesville, FL has successfully provided nutrition intervention counseling and healthy food access to medically underserved patients in Gainesville throughout 2024. The program specifically targeted communities with high rates of cardiovascular disease and food insecurity, serving as a vital bridge between healthcare and nutrition. In 2025, Food is Medicine program was gifted the first Mobile Food Pharmacy Bus in partnership with UF Health, Florida Blue and UF Health Equal Access Clinic. The 2024 survey highlights a clear need for preventive cardiovascular health education. While emergency room visits were common for conditions like high blood pressure and chest pain, Food Is Medicine Program graduates show a promising trend: fewer ER visits through better health management.

National Best:
The Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC) is a national coalition of nonprofit organizations that provide medically tailored meals (MTMs) and groceries (MTGs), medical nutrition therapy and nutrition counseling and education to people in communities across the country living with severe and chronic illnesses. FIMC advances access to these life-saving interventions through policy change, research and evaluation, and best practices.
Cate Hensley and Maya Schockly will present an overview of FIMC, their work to develop research-driven, best-practice standards within the field and spotlighted FIMC nonprofits including one of Florida’s own, Feeding Tampa Bay. We hear good news from an overview on FIMC Policy efforts nationally in Washington DC with in-progress movement on the Physician Fee Schedule RFI, MTM Bill, and more. Plus, Medically Tailored Groceries standards and membership as FIMC builds out a community of practice that is stronger together. And the FIMC MTM Accelerator - applications 2026 are now open!