This article is part of State of Health, a series about how Michigan communities are rising to address health challenges. It is made possible with funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.
A new Trinity Health initiative will allow people in the Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Grand Rapids areas to access fresh, affordable produce from local organizations through their Medicaid health plans. The new program will involve Trinity Health, a Livonia-based health system, acting as an intermediary between Medicaid health plans and small, community-based organizations (CBOs) in western and southeastern Michigan. Trinity Health will bill the health plans on the CBOs’ behalf, allowing them to provide local, healthy food to Medicaid recipients in their communities.
The program grew out of an increasingly popular concept known as “food is medicine,” which advances the simple idea that a nutritious diet is a crucial factor in people’s health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services brought attention to the approach in 2022, and in 2025 Michigan Medicaid health plans received federal approval to offer four different “food is medicine” programs under a Medicaid provision known as In Lieu of Services (ILOS)…