Medically Tailored Meals

Houston Food Bank’s Medically Tailored Meals program delivers fresh meals designed by Registered Dietitians to support individuals with serious illnesses and limited mobility.

Who Medically Tailored Meals serves?

Medically Tailored Meals serves people living with serious illnesses who benefit from specifically designed foods for their diagnosis and other complications.

Nutritious meals support health for people with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, COPD, cancer, and HIV/AIDS as well as limited mobility and ability to complete ADLs.

How does Medically Tailored Meals work?

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Clients are referred by a healthcare provider or plan, which also recommends a menu to support specific conditions like diabetes or HIV/AIDS.

Icon of a registered dietician making a recommendation.

Houston Food Bank confirms eligibility and conducts a nutrition risk assessment.

Icon of a healthy meal.

A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) completes a comprehensive nutrition assessment and creates a personalized meal and care plan.

Icon of an MTM van making a delivery.

Clients receive a minimum of 10 frozen, nutritionally tailored meals per week, delivered to their home, for 6 months.

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The program includes ongoing nutrition education, counseling, and reassessments to ensure meals continue to meet evolving health needs.

The impact of Medically Tailored Meals

0%
fewer inpatient admissions
0%
reduction in health care costs
0%
fewer skilled nursing facility admissions
0%
less emergency department visits
0%
increase in adherence to antiretroviral therapy among people with HIV
0%
lower total average monthly healthcare costs for recipients

Are you the right fit to partner with us?

  • Are you a healthcare plan or hospital system?
  • Do you desire to make a difference in your patients health outcomes through nutrition?
  • Do you have clients who meet the criteria above?
  • Do you have the ability to add another referral process to your workflow?
  • Are you invested in sharing data regularly with Houston Food Bank to track outcomes?

If you answered yes to all these questions, contact us to get started.

An MTM delivery van

Houston Food Bank hopes to expand Medically Tailored Meals to include more chronic health conditions and serve each neighbor’s unique nutrition needs while on their way to health and healing

Contact us at mtminfo@houstonfoodbank.org for all inquiries about partnering with us to start MTM at your organization!

Sources

  1. Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, Jean Terranova, JD, Lisa Randall, PHD. “Association Between Receipt of a Medically Tailored Meal Program and Health Care Use.” JAMA Internal Medicine, 22 April 2019, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2730768
  2. Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, Jean Terranova, JD, Caterina Hill, Toyin Ajayi, Todd Linsky, Lori W. Tishler, Darren A. DeWalt. “Meal Delivery Programs Reduce The Use of Costly Health Care In Dually Eligible Medicare And Medicaid Beneficiaries.” Health Aff, April 2018, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29608345/
  3. Kartika Palar, Tessa Napoles, Lee L. Hufstedler, Hilary Seligman, Fredrick M. Hetch, Kimberly Madsen, Mark Ryle, Simon Pitchford, Edward A. Frongillo, Sheri D. Weiser. “Comprehensive and Medically Appropriate Food Support Is Associated with Improved HIV and Diabetes Health.” Journal of Urban Health, 17 January 2017, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-016-0129-7