Fair Table is nourishing health beyond the clinic

Like many parents, Cha Yang doesn’t have the luxury of extra time.  

A mother of four in St. Paul, Yang shares a single bedroom with her young children in a relative’s home. Months after giving birth, she screened positive for food insecurity during a postpartum visit at M Health Fairview Clinic – Rice Street.  

Like many parents, Yang was focused on feeding her children, not herself.  

Her healthcare team was there to help. Yang’s doctor sent a referral to  Mang Vang, a food resource navigator with Fairview, who helps connect patients experiencing food insecurity to food resources that fit their needs. 

“People do not just need access to food. They need access to the right kind of food for their health, culture, home environment, and circumstances,” Vang said. 

Vang knew that with limited space and time, Yang would most benefit from prepared meals rather than ingredients she needed to chop and cook herself.  

Vang helped Yang sign up for Fairview’s medically tailored prepared meal program, a partnership between Fairview’s Fair Table Food is Medicine initiative and Open Arms of Minnesota. Through the program, Yang started receiving weekly deliveries of ready-to-eat, culturally specific Hmong meals.   

The meals gave Yang food she recognized, food she could easily serve, and food that helped her care for herself while caring for her children. 

Food options that fit patients’ lives 

Across Minnesota, hunger is rising. In 2025 alone, more than 31,000 Fairview patients screened positive for food insecurity during routine health visits. Statewide, 1 in 5 families struggle to put food on the table, according to Second Harvest Heartland.  

But food insecurity does not look the same for every person. 

For some patients, groceries are the right support. For others, limited mobility, recovery from illness or surgery, postpartum needs, lack of kitchen access, or the demands of caregiving can make it difficult to turn ingredients into meals.  

That’s why Fair Table offers a variety of food resources for Fairview patients experiencing food insecurity, including: 

• Fresh food prescriptions: Culturally relevant produce, proteins, and pantry staples, along with food skills and engagement materials.  
• Food vouchers: Monthly vouchers that patients can use to purchase groceries from retail and farmers market partners such as The Food Group’s Twin Cities Mobile Market.  
• Medically tailored prepared meals: Fresh ready-to-eat meals delivered to patients who need more immediate or accessible meal support. 
• Shelf-stable food bags: Staple food items available in clinics and hospitals for people with immediate needs. 

“When people receive food they recognize and prefer, the program doesn’t just address hunger, it recognizes choice and dignity,” said Terese Hill, Fairview’s manager of Food is Medicine Strategy. “We want to connect people to dignified options and support choosing foods that improve their health and their lives.” 

The health impact of food 

Fair Table is rooted in a simple idea: food is part of health. Across Fair Table programs, patients are seeing meaningful improvements:  

• Patients enrolled in the medically tailored prepared meals program reported an 80% increase in eating a well-balanced diet. 
• Prepared meal recipients decreased processed or packaged meals by 70%. 
• Participants in Fair Table’s fresh food prescription program experienced an average 7.1% decrease in A1c levels, a key marker for diabetes management, as well as 55% of participants saw a decrease in blood pressure. 
• Patients using the food voucher program had a 14% decrease in emergency department visits and an 11% decrease in in-patient stays. 

For someone like Yang, prepared meals provide consistent access to food that supports recovery and gives her more capacity to care for her family. 

For Fairview, the program reflects a broader belief that what happens outside the clinic matters just as much as what happens inside it.  

Rooted in community 

Fairview keeps the program rooted in community by partnering with local, BIPOC-owned farms, including the Hmong American Farmers Association  and others through The Good Acre, to source produce for patients. 

Through these partnerships, Fairview bought and distributed more than 37,000 pounds of locally grown produce from 42 local farmers, translating into nearly 45,000 meals. 

These partnerships help nourish patients while also supporting local growers and community-based food systems. 

Nourishing lives beyond clinic walls 

Fairview’s social determinants of health screening has identified 113,000 individuals facing challenges with food, housing, financial instability, or transportation. Fair Table is one way Fairview is working to connect patients with support that reflects the realities of their lives.   

"Food insecurity is very real," said Vang. "But there are resources and we’re here to take on some of the work of helping patients navigate what’s available to them.” 

As this need rises, Fairview remains committed to advancing food security by using the healing power of food to nourish patients and enrich communities, inside and outside clinic walls. 

It’s programs like Fair Table that contributed to Fairview recently receiving the 2025 Foster G. McGaw Prize from the American Hospital Association that honors health systems for making a profound impact on community health.  

For Yang and many others, that impact starts with food that fits their life, supports their health, and arrives when they need it.