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Huge victory! Medically Supportive Food & Nutrition Now an Optional Medi-Cal Managed Care Benefit in California
The federal government recently approved California’s Medicaid waiver, which includes an optional benefit for Medi-Cal managed care plans to cover medically supportive food and nutrition for eligible patients. This is a huge opportunity to integrate the Recipe4Health program – whose patients receive healthy produce from Dig Deep Farms – into health plan offerings. Recipe4Health supports several community clinics in making “produce prescriptions” through a food pharmacy and offering a behavioral pharmacy to provide intensive nutritional and behavioral coaching and group social support. Planning is underway in collaboration with Alameda Alliance for Health to make Recipe4Health available to eligible patients in Alameda County as part of California’s new Medicaid waiver.
 California Budget and Legislative Update
The California State Legislature is back in session, bills are being introduced and the Governor’s Budget has been released.
At the January 27 meeting of the All In Eats Working Group, Political Solutions, Alameda County’s legislative advocates in Sacramento briefed the group on the $600M+ in funding included in the Governor’s proposed FY23 State budget to address food insecurity, farm to school programs and farms on CSU campuses.
We also got a refresher on the sometimes complex legislative and budget process in the Capitol.
The deadline to introduce new bills for 2022 isn’t until later this month but there are a handful of bills pending from last year. Budget hearings will also start next month. In the coming months, the Budget Committee will review the Governor's budget proposals, may make changes or add needed detail. You can see the presentation here ALL IN Eats Working Group Agenda 1 27 22
ALL IN Eats leaders will monitor developments closely and may make recommendations to ALL IN and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for positions. Meanwhile, many ALL IN Eats member organizations are also following legislative developments. Below are links to two of them. If your organization is actively involved in legislation/budget advocacy in Sacramento or Washington, DC and would like a link to your work in the next newsletter, please email rachel.richman@acgov.org
Nourish California, Food4All: https://nourishca.org/get-involved/state-legislative-advocacy/food4all/
Alameda County Community Food Bank Advocacy Alerts https://www.accfb.org/get-involved/advocacy/
Live/Work Farms
Lively discussion about Live/Work Farms on January 26, 2022
Several ALL IN Eats members and organizations have been meeting to discuss the intersection of sustainable agriculture, affordable housing, and equitable employment.
This group, known as "Live/Work/Farm," most recently met last month to begin discussing potential locations for a pilot project. If you are interested in being notified about the meetings, please email rachel.richman@acgov.org to be added to the mailing list.
Food Hub News
Alameda Food Hub
Preliminary discussions have begun with the City of Alameda about the use of a large city-owned facility for a future Food Hub.
Hayward Food Hub
The City of Hayward received a $125,000 planning grant from the Stupski Foundation for the development of a food hub in South Hayward at the Matt Jimenez Community Center, a City of Hayward facility. Many thanks to City of Hayward staff and our ALL IN Eats team for writing the grant proposal.
ALL IN Eats Accomplishments: 2021 in Review
• Developed a business plan
• Secured additional land for regenerative urban farming
• Launched Black Farmer Project
• Identified locations for Food Hubs, recruited partners and began early
negotiations
• Implementing the Good Food Purchasing Policy
• Convened 40+ organizations in monthly working group/learning community
meetings and established an Executive Team
By the numbers:
• 71,587 bags of healthy groceries delivered*
• 350,736 meals prepared and delivered to seniors and families by
34 Food Hub vendor
• 47 new interns/job trainees
Recipe4Health Grocery Bags
• 2020: 7653
• 2021: 17,061
• *Including R4H
Our Work in 2022:
• Complete the Development of Two Urban Farms, including the
Black Farmer Project
• Launch Food Hubs in East Oakland and Alameda
• Fully Implement the Good Food Purchasing Policy
• Launch the ALL IN Eats Online Purchasing Portal
News You Can Use
Report: Produce prescriptions, financial incentives help poor eat more fresh fruit and vegetables | Successful Farming 1/19/22 (references Recipe4Health)
Health care plans must embrace food- and nutrition-based medical interventions Katie Ettman, Food and Agriculture Policy Manager, SPUR, SF Examiner, January 13, 2022
Food hubs and rebuilding missing middle market structure in agriculture: The social in supply chain development Plan Journal 2021 https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/pt/covidwho-1368055?lang=en
Careers
Urban Farmer, Dig Deep Farms, DSAL dsal job listings
Part-time Program Assistant, All In Alameda County Program Assistant
Store Transitions Coordinator, Saba Grocers Initiative Careers – Saba Grocers Initiative
Friendly Reminders
Partnerships:
If you have not already done so, please review the Partnership Agreement and sign up. ALL IN Eats Working Group Partnership Agreement
Partnership sign up
Farmers:
Farmer collective interest form https://forms.gle/6mMFQUR2YkT17MHG7 Multiple pathways for farmers to get involved and benefit
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