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Trinity Health Michigan describes hospital-based "Food as Medicine" farms, seeks state partnership to expand
Summary
Trinity Health Michigan told a House oversight subcommittee it runs three hospital farms and programs that supplied produce to clinics and 20,000 patients in 2024, and said it is seeking state funds to expand and to secure Medicaid-managed-care reimbursement for healthy-food vouchers in 2025.
Trinity Health Michigan officials told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Public Health and Food Security on Oct. 11, 2025, that the health system operates hospital farms and nutrition programs that supplied produce to clinical partners and 20,000 patients in 2024 and that the system is seeking state partnership and Medicaid-managed-care reimbursement to expand the work.
Caitlin Smoger, director of Food as Medicine on the Farm at Trinity Health Michigan, told the committee the system currently maintains farm sites at Trinity Health Ann Arbor, Trinity Health Oakland and Trinity Health Muskegon McLaughlin Groves and has delivered fresh produce to clinics, community pantries and a FarmShare box program.
Smoger said, “We serve 20,000 patients with food from our farms,” and described a “Produce to Patients” approach that places small fridges in clinic exam rooms, operates client-choice food pantries at hospital sites and runs a 36-week FarmShare box program that pairs subsidized shares for people experiencing food insecurity with paid subscribers.
The program’s 2024 evaluation, supported by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, found measurable changes in participant reports, Smoger said: full-season FarmShare participants reported an average increase of about one-third cup of fruits or vegetables per day (roughly 75 additional servings over the season), and self-reported food insecurity among participants fell from about 80% at enrollment to about 55% at program end. Smoger provided the committee an executive summary of that evaluation.
Smoger described program scale and logistics: 21 clinic partners in 2024; roughly 4,000 pantry visits at Ann Arbor and Pontiac sites in one year; 572 direct FarmShare assistance members and about 1,600 people impacted across 11 counties during the evaluated season. She said Trinity prioritizes local purchasing for its FarmShare and lists participating growers by farm in the program materials.
On funding, Smoger said Trinity uses “a braided funding model” that includes a portion of hospital community benefit dollars and private philanthropy. She added the system is working in 2025 to make farm-share vouchers reimbursable through Medicaid managed-care plans and described a small overhead charge for paid FarmShare participants to cover program bags and staff time.
“We do have a request in to partner with you around some state dollars that would help support this and help us expand,” Sean Gailey, advocacy leader for Trinity Health Michigan, told the committee.
Committee members asked about outreach and evaluation. Smoger said referral pathways run through community health workers, social workers and dietetic teams, and that the program also markets at community events, libraries and school fairs. She said the system is expanding clinical evaluation in 2025 to track clinical measures such as hemoglobin A1C in pilots tied to the Diabetes Prevention Program, hypertension projects and maternal health equity work.
Smoger described education and workforce engagement as part of the program’s goals: summer camps, field trips and rotations for medical students and residents, and an on-staff educator, Laura Meisler, who conducts multiple school touchpoints aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.
No formal action or vote by the committee occurred during the presentation. Trinity representatives said they are capital-constrained and want state support to scale farms and related programs.
The presentation materials cited overlays of life-expectancy data and the USDA Food Access Research Atlas to show geographic disparities in food access around hospital sites, and Smoger said the Muskegon, Pontiac and Ypsilanti service areas illustrate life-expectancy gaps tied to food access.
The committee expressed appreciation for the briefing and adjourned after the discussion. Trinity representatives said they would share additional evaluation results and welcome conversations about state partnership and Medicaid reimbursement pathways.
