How Health Systems Fund Mobile Markets: Partnership Models
Health system funding has become a significant source of support for mobile markets. As hospitals recognize fresh food access as a health determinant, they're investing in programs that address it. Understanding how these partnerships work helps both health systems to structure programs and operators to seek partners.
Why Health Systems Fund Mobile Markets
Health systems have multiple motivations for mobile market investment.
Community benefit obligations require nonprofit hospitals to demonstrate community investment. Mobile markets qualify as community health improvement activities that can be documented on IRS Schedule H.
Population health strategy is increasingly recognizing food access as essential. Value-based care models that reward keeping patients healthy create incentives to address social determinants like food insecurity.
Food-as-medicine frameworks treat food access as a legitimate healthcare intervention. Mobile markets become clinical tools, not just community outreach.
Patient need is visible through screening. When food insecurity screening identifies thousands of food-insecure patients, health systems face pressure to respond.
Partnership Models
Health system mobile market involvement takes several forms.
Direct operation: The health system owns and operates the mobile market as part of its operations. The mobile market is staffed by health system employees or contractors, appears on the hospital's budget, and operates according to health system policies.
Advantages: Maximum control, direct integration with clinical care, clear accountability. Challenges: Requires operational capability hospitals may lack, higher direct costs.
Contracted partnership: The health system contracts with an external mobile market operator. The health system provides funding. The operator handles logistics and execution. Contract terms specify performance expectations, reporting requirements, and integration points.
Advantages: Leverages specialized operational expertise, clearer cost structure, less organizational complexity.
Challenges: Less direct control, requires effective contract management, partner selection matters greatly.
Grant funding to community operators: The health system provides grants to existing mobile market programs serving its community. This is lighter-touch involvement. It offers financial support without operational responsibility.
Advantages: Lowest administrative burden, supports existing community infrastructure. Challenges: Limited influence over operations, harder to integrate with clinical care, outcomes harder to attribute to health system investment.
Funding Structures
How health systems financially support mobile markets varies.
Operating budget allocation treats mobile market expenses as hospital operating costs, similar to other community health programs. Ongoing funding is built into annual budgets.
Community benefit funds earmark resources specifically for community benefit activities, including mobile markets. These funds may have separate governance and reporting.
Grant awards (internal foundation): Hospital-affiliated foundations may provide grants to mobile market programs, including the hospital’s own initiative or external operators. In some cases, foundations fund collaborative models, for example, the YMCA’s collaborative food access hub added a mobile market powered by Farmers’ Truck, demonstrating how philanthropic capital can catalyze cross-sector partnerships and expand infrastructure capacity.
Pass-through funding: Health systems may channel external grant funding link to grant blog (from USDA, state programs, or private foundations) to mobile market operations, serving as fiscal agent or administrative lead.
Integration Points
The most effective health system mobile market partnerships create explicit connections to clinical care.
Referral pathways direct patients identified through food insecurity screening to mobile market resources. This might be a warm referral from social work, printed materials from clinical staff, or follow-up outreach.
Produce prescription programs provide patients with vouchers redeemable at the mobile market. The health system funds the vouchers. The mobile market provides the redemption point.
Data sharing allows the health system to track which patients use the mobile market and correlate participation with health outcomes. This requires appropriate agreements and privacy protections.
Location placement puts mobile market stops at healthcare facilities: hospital campuses, clinics, community health centers. Places patients already go.
What Health Systems Should Expect
Realistic expectations for health system mobile market investments.
Costs will be ongoing. Mobile markets require sustained funding, not one-time grants. Budget for year-over-year support.
Utilization takes time to build. Patient participation grows as awareness spreads. Don't expect immediate high volumes.
Attribution is imperfect. Connecting mobile market participation to health outcomes definitively is methodologically difficult. Accept reasonable evidence standards.
Operational learning is required. Even contracted partnerships require health system attention to integration, promotion, and relationship management.
For more on health system mobile markets, see: Mobile Markets for Hospitals and Health Systems.
