The food pharmacy: Theory, implementation, and opportunities

The food pharmacy is an emerging program model designed to increase the access to and consumption of healthful foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Existing research on the efficacy of the food pharmacy model shows that these programs have been effective in improving patient understanding of nutrition and removing barriers to healthy eating, and in turn may have a significant impact on diet-related health outcomes. However, efforts to date aiming to evaluate program effectiveness have been small and lack rigorous research methods. More research is needed to adequately assess the longitudinal effects of food pharmacy programs on healthful food intake and diet-related health outcomes. In this review, we outline the strengths and limitations of previous programs and explore possible options to improve the scalability and sustainability of food pharmacy programs.