Food Is Medicine: Why Missouri Should Treat Food Like the Healthcare Tool It Is

In Missouri, we are paying for the lack of access to healthy food, just not at the grocery store.

We are paying for it in emergency rooms.
We are paying for it in hospital stays.
We are paying for it when a baby is born underweight and needs specialized care.
We are paying for it when someone with diabetes can’t afford healthy food and ends up back in the hospital.

Food insecurity is not just a moral issue; it’s a public health issue and an economic issue.

Right now, limited access to nutritious food in Missouri is associated with nearly $1 billion in avoidable healthcare costs each year. That’s not charity spending. That’s emergency care, inpatient care, and long-term complications tied to preventable disease.

We already know what drives a large share of healthcare spending: chronic disease. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in Missouri. More than one in three adults is classified as obese, and more than 12 percent of adults have diabetes. These conditions are expensive to treat, especially when care begins in the emergency room instead of at the dinner table.

That is why the Food Is Medicine Act matters.

What Is Food Is Medicine?

The Food Is Medicine Act, HB 2355, SB 1075, y SB 1499 would require the Missouri Department of Social Services to pursue a federal Section 1115 Medicaid waiver to test targeted nutrition services through MO HealthNet. In plain terms, it allows the state to test whether providing healthy food as part of healthcare can reduce the need for more expensive medical treatment. This is not a permanent expansion of services. It is a structured, time-limited demonstration. It must be evaluated, show results, and prove cost-effectiveness. And the evidence suggests it can.

National evidence shows that “medically tailored meals (MTMs) can lead to a 70% decrease in ED visits; a 52% decrease in inpatient hospital admissions; a 72% decrease in skilled nursing stays; and a 16% decrease in healthcare costs” (Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, Food as Medicine Coalition, 2024).  Avoiding these high-cost services is one of the most effective ways to reduce long-term healthcare spending. 

Missouri has already seen promising results. A Fresh Rx pregnancy pilot in the St. Louis region increased food stability by 44 percentage points and reduced low-birthweight births by 5.3 percentage points. Based on those outcomes, the program projected approximately $5.3 million in annual Medicaid savings in St. Louis City alone.

Those projections measure short-term savings only. They do not include the long-term benefits of a healthy baby growing up stronger, with fewer medical complications and more stability at home. Prevention costs less than treatment. We know that instinctively. Food Is Medicine applies that logic to healthcare spending.

Why This Is Also About Missouri Farmers

Food Is Medicine is not just health policy. It is an agricultural policy. 

Small and mid-sized Missouri farmers, especially specialty crop producers growing fruits and vegetables, operate in a high-risk environment. They invest in seed, labor, irrigation, and equipment months before harvest. They take on debt, gamble on the weather, and on markets. Many invest their time and money without knowing whether what they grow will sell.

Large corporations dominate distribution systems. Small producers struggle with unstable demand and limited infrastructure. Rural Missouri continues to lose farms, population, and local processing capacity.

All three bills filed this session that create the Food Is Medicine Act include language that, whenever feasible, prioritizes local growers and community-based organizations in the Food is Medicine program.

That matters.

Healthcare is one of the largest sectors of our economy. If even a portion of healthcare spending is directed toward Missouri-grown food, it creates a stable, healthcare-backed demand stream. That means farmers can have buyers lined up before planting. It lowers risk. It supports long-term planning. It encourages investment.

And local food dollars multiply. Research shows that every $1 spent on locally produced food generates between $1.32 and $1.90 in local economic activity. That means jobs, supply chain growth, processing, transportation, and rural business expansion.

We can either send healthcare food dollars out of state to national vendors, or we can keep those dollars circulating in Missouri communities.

Why This Moment Matters

Federal funding for SNAP-Education has been eliminated. Nutrition education and prevention resources are shrinking. At the same time, healthcare costs continue to rise. We can continue paying for preventable illness on the back end, or we can test prevention on the front end.

The Food Is Medicine Act gives Missouri a chance to do something practical: test a prevention strategy with built-in accountability. Measure the outcomes, see if hospitalizations decrease, if costs stabilize, and if farmers gain stable markets.

This is not about expanding government for the sake of it. It is about spending smarter. It is about recognizing that food is not separate from health. It is about acknowledging that access to healthy food has economic consequences. It is about strengthening families and strengthening farms at the same time. Food Is Medicine is a simple idea: if we invest in healthy food, we invest in healthier people. And healthier people mean stronger families, lower healthcare costs, and more productive communities.

Missouri can lead on this. Support HB 2355, SB 1075, y SB 1499. Take action by clicking the button below to complete our Action Alert; let your legislators know that you want to see the Food Is Medicine Act passed in Missouri!