ANGIE MILES: The Biden administration has called for Medicaid health benefits to be used for the purchase of groceries.

A creative solution addressing food scarcity and poor nutrition, and acknowledging the medicinal power of food.

In Fredericksburg, Dr. Nimali Fernando has been working on the same issue with children, promoting food as medicine in her pediatric practice.

NIMALI FERNANDO: A lot of the kids I was seeing were either overweight or obese, and I wanted to really sort of study, what are kids eating?

How can I help?

How can we prevent this?

So that's what I set out to do, starting the Dr. Yum Project, and then also shifting my practice to a private practice where I could share a kitchen, share a garden, and really focus on nutrition as sort of the cornerstone of the practice.

ANGIE MILES: By teaching children and their families how food can alleviate many ailments like attention issues and weight challenges, and improve overall wellness, her practice and the connected nonprofit, known as the Dr. Yum Project, are working to change outcomes for whole communities.

HEIDI DEEUGENIO: The Meal o Matic is a really cool tool that you can use.

You can look in your refrigerator or your pantry and see what's available, and then create a customized recipe out of all those things in your kitchen.

It's a really great way to be able to get kids that don't think they like a lot of foods to be able to control what the meal is with foods that they do like.

ANGIE MILES: According to the founders, data demonstrates already that the effort to promote the curative power of food is paying dividends in healthier communities and improved diets.