Medically tailored meals
Fully prepared meals built around your diagnosis by a registered dietitian — lower sodium for heart conditions, carbohydrate-controlled for diabetes, softer textures where chewing or swallowing is difficult.
Covered by Medicaid · New York 1115 Waiver
Medicaid covers food delivered to your door, prepared the way you eat.
If you have a health condition that food can help, you may be able to receive meals or grocery boxes at home at no cost to you. We deliver across Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, and MBD Care arranges the assessment, the delivery schedule, and the paperwork. Food is where most families start — we can also help with housing, cooking supplies, appliances and transportation.
This is a Medicaid benefit, not a food pantry. There is no application fee, and using it does not affect your other benefits.
What we deliver · Brooklyn · Queens · Bronx · Manhattan
Three ways food is covered
Clinically appropriate meals
Prepared meals for households that need consistent, balanced food but not a condition-specific plan. Often the right fit for families with young children or a recent hospital stay.
Food prescription boxes
Fresh produce, grains and pantry staples delivered for you to cook at home, with guidance from our dietitian on what to make with them.
How meals are prepared
Prepared properly — not substituted
Not every household needs a condition-specific plan, and many keep halal or kosher. Where they do, the meals are prepared to that standard from the start — not adjusted on request. Close to half the meals we arrange are halal or kosher, so this is how the kitchens we work with are already set up.
Standard
- Balanced meals for households that do not need a condition-specific plan
- Planned with our registered dietitian
- Available as prepared meals or as a grocery box to cook at home
Halal حلال
- Meat from certified halal suppliers, zabiha where required
- No pork or pork derivatives anywhere in the kitchen line
- No alcohol used in cooking, including in sauces and marinades
- Separate preparation surfaces and utensils to prevent cross-contact
- Ingredient lists available if your family wants to check them
Kosher כשר
- Meals from kitchens under recognised rabbinical supervision
- Meat and dairy kept fully separate, never on the same plate
- Sealed containers, so packaging stays intact until you open it
- Pareve options where a household keeps stricter separation
- Supervision details available on request, before you enrol
Halal & kosher certification
Kosher certified
Certification is on file and available on request
American Halal Foundation
Certification is on file and available on request
Certificates are available on request, before you enrol.
Beyond the meals
Food is usually where it starts
The same Medicaid benefit that covers food also covers other supports that keep a household stable. If you are already working with us for meals, ask — there is no separate application, and we handle the paperwork either way.
Housing support
Help finding stable housing, and help keeping it — navigating applications, working with landlords, and connecting to the right housing programmes.
Cooking supplies
Pots, pans, knives, storage and the basic equipment a kitchen needs, so that a grocery box can actually be cooked.
Appliances
Where a household is missing something essential — a refrigerator to store fresh food, or a microwave to reheat prepared meals — we can look into it.
Transportation
Rides to medical appointments, dialysis, and the social care appointments that go with them, arranged alongside your other services.
Eligibility
Who can get this
Most people we enrol meet all four of the following. If you are unsure, call us and we will check for you — it takes about ten minutes.
Active New York Medicaid
Managed care or fee-for-service.
Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx or Manhattan
The boroughs we currently deliver to.
A qualifying health need
Such as diabetes, heart or kidney disease, pregnancy, or a child at nutritional risk.
An assessment with our dietitian
A short conversation, in person or by phone, that we arrange for you.
More questions? Read our questions and answers about Medicaid food benefits in New York — who qualifies, halal and kosher options, what else is covered, and how to start.
Our partners
Part of New York’s Social Care Network
MBD Care is a contracted provider with Public Health Solutions, the lead entity for the Social Care Network in our region under the New York 1115 Medicaid Waiver, and works alongside SOMOS. That is why there is nothing for you to pay and no separate application — the benefit comes through your Medicaid coverage.