This city declared independence once.
Time to do it again.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fall 2026 · Inaugural Summit
Philadelphia's poverty rate is 23.1% — double the national average. 5 In North and West Philadelphia, 30–45% of residents live below the federal poverty line, and over a third of households in those neighborhoods face food insecurity.
A child born today in North Philadelphia can expect to die 20 years earlier than one born in Society Hill — five miles away. 1 That gap is the largest of any major American city. Larger than Chicago. Larger than New York.
This isn't fate. It's food. And food is something we can change.
Philadelphia — “the city of meds and eds” — has long been the country's leader in health care. We are home to the country's first hospital and first medical school. Philadelphia is home to American health insurance. The city's medical schools — Temple, Drexel, Jefferson, Penn — have trained more physicians than anywhere else in the world. They have also created an international research infrastructure while sitting directly inside the neighborhoods most affected by the country's major public health issues. The Pennsylvania farming sector, less than 50 miles from City Hall, supplies the entire Eastern Seaboard.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has documented our crisis in detail. Organizations like MANNA, Philabundance, and The Food Trust have been working to feed our citizens for decades. The American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association are already here, already working.
We don't need to build the infrastructure. We need to connect it.
Medically tailored meals delivered in FY24 alone — by 9,400+ volunteers. MANNA's model produces31% lower monthly healthcare costsand cuts hospitalizations in half.
Of food distributed every year, serving90,000 people weeklyacross 9 counties. The region's largest hunger-relief organization, operating since 1984.
Pioneered the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative — a model replicated across the country, leveraging over$1 billion in private investmentfor healthy food access.
Philadelphia's original health insurer — the institution that first proved that a whole city could share health risk together. The hometown health plan for 7+ million people.
The newly named College resides in a beautiful new building that brings together state-of-the-art instructional and research space in the heart of North Philadelphia. Right where it's needed most.
Philadelphia's own medically tailored grocery and meal delivery organization — pairing RD-led clinical care with food delivery for members managing chronic conditions across the city and beyond.
Pennsylvania's agricultural sector sits less than 50 miles from City Hall, supplying the Eastern Seaboard. Farmers are healthcare providers. They grow the medicine. They belong here as founders.
Food is medicine. Not a metaphor. Not a trend. A clinical fact — and one Philadelphia's institutions are more qualified than almost anyone on earth to prove at scale.
A 20-year life expectancy gap across five miles of the same city is not acceptable. It is not inevitable. It is a solvable problem. Food is a significant part of the solution. 68 vs. 88 years. Same city. Five miles.
Every stakeholder has a role: the healthcare system, health insurers, nonprofits, universities, farmers, the private sector, the city itself. Together they are unstoppable. Apart, they are underfunded.
Farmers are healthcare providers. Pennsylvania grows some of the best food in the country less than 50 miles from our neighborhoods. That supply chain is a public health asset.
MANNA proves it. When you deliver the right food to sick people, hospitalizations get cut in half and monthly healthcare costs fall significantly. These are not soft outcomes. This is return on investment.31% lower healthcare costs. Hospitalizations cut in half.
The city that pioneered health insurance in 1938 should be the city that proves food as medicine in 2026. That's not nostalgia. That's a mission.
Large institutions belong at this table. The companies that feed Philadelphia — in hospitals, on campuses, in stadiums, on every corner — are part of the prescription. Aligning them is the work.
One summit is a start. One coalition is a movement. This has to outlast any event, any grant cycle, any administration. Philadelphia needs a permanent, coordinated voice on food as medicine.
Coalitions are built by institutions. But they're moved by people. These are the individuals — clinicians, athletes, researchers, chefs, farmers, and community leaders — who are lending their voice to Philadelphia's food as medicine movement.
The organizations shaping the food as medicine conversation nationally already have deep roots here. Philadelphia isn't just a participant — it's where the national work gets proven.
The nation's leading food policy think tank and proven summit organizer. Co-organizing the Philadelphia Food as Medicine Summit, Fall 2026 — bringing their network, templates, and national reach to Philadelphia.
Active Philadelphia board and regional programs focused on cardiovascular health and social determinants of health. A natural partner in a city where cardiometabolic disease and food insecurity converge.
Driving food as medicine policy nationally — in a city where diabetes rates and food insecurity intersect at some of the highest concentrations in the country.
The national coalition advancing medically tailored meals as standard of care — of which Philadelphia's own MANNA is a proud, active founding member.
The nation's largest public health philanthropy — and the organization whose research documented Philadelphia's 20-year life expectancy gap in detail, making the case this coalition is built to answer.
Philadelphia's own medically tailored meal and grocery organization — delivering food as medicine to members managing chronic conditions, with a teaching kitchen and clinical team rooted in the city.
"We are founding the Philadelphia Food as Medicine Coalition — a permanent, city-level body that connects every institution, clinician, farmer, insurer, researcher, and community organization working to make Philadelphia healthier. We are done working in silos. We are done waiting for a national model to emerge. We are the model. "
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · 2026
The founding coalition convenes for the first time — clinicians, farmers, researchers, insurers, and community leaders in one room, building Philadelphia's permanent food as medicine table. Seating is limited. Reserve your spot below.
Registration is handled securely through Eventbrite.