We’re excited to share that New Venture Advisors (NVA) has received a grant from Builders Vision, an impact platform committed to building a more humane and healthy world through work in food and agriculture, energy, and oceans.
The grant will support a partnership between NVA and the Medicaid Food Security Network (MFSN), a national network led by Share Our Strength and HealthBegins, to help community-based organizations more viably participate in Food is Medicine (FIM) programs. FIM programs use food and nutrition interventions as part of clinical care for patients with diet-sensitive conditions like uncontrolled diabetes, and they hold real promise for improving health outcomes and addressing food insecurity.
But promise doesn’t always translate into practice. Early FIM efforts have shown strong policy momentum alongside limited operational and financial viability for the community organizations best positioned to deliver medically supportive foods and meals. Too often, FIM programs operate without a clinical care connection which weakens outreach, enrollment, and long-term impact. Without the right tools and support, many community based organizations struggle to assess feasibility or design sustainable models, and health plans have increasingly turned to large commercial vendors that are disconnected from local food systems and community needs.
This work aims to change that. NVA and MFSN will develop practical tools and a technical assistance model to help nonprofits, healthcare providers, managed care organizations, and policymakers build FIM programs that are clinically integrated, financially sustainable, and rooted in community food systems, including connections to SNAP, WIC, and local food producers. To get there, we’re partnering with the Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM), a statewide network supporting food banks and community partners, as our first pilot site to test and refine the model in a real market context.
This work builds on NVA’s growing body of Food as Medicine consulting experience, including a 2025 Medicaid Medically Tailored Meals feasibility study with FBCM and a national landscape analysis for Kansas State University’s Food as Medicine and Community Health Initiative. We bring that hands-on experience in operational planning and financial modeling joined with MFSN’s healthcare integration and financing expertise, to this next chapter of work.
This grant also reflects Builders Vision’s deep commitment to Food is Medicine, including their role in co-anchoring the Food is Medicine Impact Fund with The Rockefeller Foundation. We’re proud to be part of that ecosystem.
We’ll be sharing more as the work develops. Feel free to reach out if you’re working in this space. We would love to connect.
