Food is Medicine

The Challenge

Bringing together nine independent food banks to launch a new to market offering, together.

Feeding Florida saw an opportunity to bring a collective offering to a new commercial market. Doing that meant new ways of working across independent organizations, and a path beyond the network’s traditional nonprofit model to unlock new revenue streams. The question was how to move from idea to action.

Together we set out to:

  1. Test whether buyers wanted the offering, quickly
  2. Define what buyers need and shape the MVP around it
  3. Design an operating model that supports a pilot and future scale

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Project Overview

Client

Feeding Florida

Project Type

Non-Profit

Industry

Non-Profit
Social Impact
Healthcare

Project Attributes

Experience Design
MVP
Demand Validation
B2B2C

Key Milestones

  • Still In progress, as of October 2026
  • First insurer pilot secured

A market-ready brand and pitch: Nourish Florida

A health plan co-designing the pilot

Multiple payment models and a pilot pricing approach

Pilot SOPs and a unified HIPAA policy underway

The Impact

A buyer-validated offering, on its way to pilot.

Feeding Florida went from an idea to an offering health plans are actively shaping. Nourish Florida has a brand, a pitch, a pricing approach and a validated value proposition. Five MCOs are in active conversations, and we are already co-designing the pilot with a partner.

Behind the scenes, the network now has what it needs to deliver: a refined service blueprint, pilot SOPs built on how food banks work today, and a HIPAA compliance policy in progress.

“You’ve gotten us farther, faster than we thought possible. This isn’t a capability we have in-house, and it doesn’t make sense for us to build it. What we need is exactly this: a partner who can help us learn quickly and get us ready to scale.”

Chief Executive Officer
How we did it

We tested demand with real buyers before building anything.

Designing the offering together

We gathered input from all 9 food banks through an asynchronous study and interviewed 5 of them in depth. We also consulted HMA on the cost model and the MCO landscape. Then 12 food bank leaders and operators spent two days co-creating a draft service blueprint, go-to-market strategy and pilot launch plan.

Building a brand to pitch test

We created the Nourish Florida brand after studying other Food is Medicine programs and adjacent services. Then, with input from subject matter experts, we built the pitch and assets for MCOs.

Building an MVP based on how food banks work today

We interviewed all 9 food banks about their current Food is Medicine workflows and assessed their pilot readiness. A data workflow survey pointed to low-tech, HIPAA-compliant workflows and shaped the first technical requirements.

Testing demand with buyers and MCOs

We pitched every prioritized MCO and are now talking with 5 of them, and Simply has moved into recurring pilot design sessions. Buyers validated the Nourish Florida value proposition, and we identified several ways MCOs could pay for the work. We also developed a pricing approach for qualifying pilot partners.

Preparing for pilot

We refined the service blueprint and began writing pilot SOPs based on how food banks work today. We also started a unified HIPAA compliance policy and the technical requirements, and kept the full network aligned throughout.