Our proposed project will serve as a proof of concept that medicaid reimbursement funds can be spent locally to ensure that as nutrition supports become available in illinois, local food businesses…

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago received a $752,000 Project Grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFDA 10.225) to serve as a proof-of-concept for deploying Medicaid reimbursement funds through local food businesses in Illinois. The award, obligated on September 15, 2025, with an ultimate completion date of September 14, 2028, will formalize community leadership and capacity building within the West Side Food Collaborative to enable local food producers and distributors to access Medicaid reimbursement for nutrition support services. The hospital will provide comprehensive technical assistance including training and capacity building, program pilot development and evaluation, data collection and analysis, technical support for referral systems, health communication, and research and best practices dissemination.

This initiative addresses critical infrastructure gaps within the local food economy by demonstrating sustainable partnerships between the healthcare sector and local food producers. By establishing processes for Medicaid reimbursement at the local level, the project will build economic resilience for food businesses while expanding access to locally produced nutritional supports and positioning the food system to scale these partnerships as Medicaid waiver programs expand.

Our proposed project will serve as a proof of concept that medicaid reimbursement funds can be spent locally to ensure that as nutrition supports become available in illinois, local food businesses are positioned to provide these services.while working with our food partners to design this project, we identified several critical needs within the local food economy:medicaid reimbursement infrastructure: local food producers and distributors often lack the infrastructure needed for medicaid reimbursement for nutrition support services.revenue stability: local food organizations consistently express the need for multiple payment and funding streams.through this project, ANN & robert H. Lurie children's hospital (lurie children's) will formalize community leadership and capacity building in our existing west side food collaborative (the collaborative) to support the collaborative's goal of securing insurance reimbursement for nutrition supports. We will achieve this by providing technical assistance in the following areas:training and capacity buildingprogram pilot, development and evaluationdata collection and analysistechnical support for referral systemshealth communicationresearch and best practices disseminationthe project will build infrastructure for the local food economy to partner directly with the healthcare sector to receive medicaid reimbursement for locally produced foods. By demonstrating these partnerships, this project increases the capacity for growing the partnerships as the medicaid waiver continues to gain traction.