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We're Leading The Nation's

Largest Food is Medicine Trial

Uniting world-class experts to reimagine food assistance as healthcare

 The full Food is Medicine project website has moved to fimlabuci.com.

 Explore our partners, milestones, and updates there.
 

Visit FIM Lab UCI website here: FIMLabUCI.com

The Crisis The Nation Faces

Chronic diseases now affect 60% of U.S. adults and drive 90% of all healthcare spending—totaling $4.9 trillion annually and rising at an unsustainable 7.5% per year. This burden falls hardest on low-income populations, including Medicaid recipients.

Our Landmark

Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

Our study addresses the root cause of this epidemic: Poor Diet. It is the frontier FIM RCT to date in the U.S., designed to generate rigorous, nationally generalizable evidence on the effectiveness of FIM interventions to address (prevent & manage) the chronic disease epidemic. We will test strategic nutrition interventions for a large cohort of a representative Medicaid recipients with chronic conditions, carefully sampled in Southern California.

  Interventions We’re Testing:

  • Direct produce delivery

  • Direct produce delivery with education

  • Fresh Funds (Vouchers for online Purchase)

  • Control Group: Usual Care

    📦 Removing Barriers, Enhancing Access:
    Each strategy is designed to eliminate both economic and environmental barriers to healthy eating.  

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Key Aims of Our Study

Our Goal

To understand what works, for whom, and how scalable food interventions can be integrated into healthcare systems.

​     ✓ Measure Impact

  • Assess how Food is Medicine (FIM) strategies affect dietary habits, chronic disease markers, and household finances through a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT)
    ✓ Compare Approaches

  • Evaluate which interventions are most effective: simple access (e.g., produce delivery), education-based models, or online voucher systems.
    ✓ Inform Policy & Practice

  • Generate actionable insights for patients, clinicians, health systems, and policymakers on how to scale evidence-based FIM solutions nationwide.

 Scientific & Research Leadership​

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 Implementation & Operations​

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Public Sector & Government Partners

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 Engagement & Community Integration

  • Food banks & nonprofits – Input on cultural relevance, feasibility, and acceptability

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Become Our Partner

Make Food Part of the Cure
We are expanding our Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board and actively seeking:

🤝 Health systems, nonprofits, and funders aligned with our mission

🏛️ Policy leaders ready to drive change

💸 Philanthropic partners to unlock the nation’s most rigorous Food is Medicine trial

📧 Interested in partnering, funding, or advising → Email us today:  oliko.vardishvili@uci.edu

🗣️ Let’s talk. Let’s lead. Let’s change how America treats chronic disease.

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