Largo food pharmacy gives free groceries to 200 patients

A grocery pickup tied directly to a doctor’s order is now operating in Largo, where the Capital Area Food Pharmacy has served 200 patients and is trying to close a gap that many Prince George’s County families know too well: the space between medical advice and what they can actually afford to eat. The program sits on the UM Capital Largo campus and treats food as part of care, not as a separate charity line.

Patients who screen as food insecure receive a prescription for the pharmacy and can pick up about 40 pounds of fresh produce and shelf-stable groceries every two weeks at no cost. Physicians can refer patients with high-risk pregnancies, gestational diabetes, hypertension, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes or obesity, and the program also provides recipe cards and other nutritional help so the groceries can translate into meals at home.

The milestone was marked May 27, 2026, with an open house that drew public officials, advocates and other visitors. Nathaniel Richardson, Jr. and Radha Muthiah both framed the partnership as a way to make healthy food easier to reach for patients who are already navigating chronic disease, while also reducing the time, energy and expense that often come with trying to manage care across separate systems.

The Largo site is part of the Capital Area Food Bank’s larger Food Is Medicine push, which treats nutritious food as a medical intervention rather than an extra benefit. The food bank launched its first food pharmacy in October 2021 at Children’s National Hospital’s Diabetes Care Clinic, expanded in summer 2024 with a second Children’s National site in Columbia Heights, and said by December 2024 that food pharmacies were operating at four regional hospitals and clinics.

That growth matters in Prince George’s County, where food access and health outcomes have long been tied to cost of living. The Prince George’s County Memorial Library System launched its Community Health Worker in the Library program on May 10, 2022, pairing free groceries with preventive health assessments and public health staff, while the County Council created the Food Security Task Force in 2020 to address healthy food access and related policy questions.

The need remains large. The Capital Area Food Bank’s 2025 hunger report said 36% of the Washington region, about 1.5 million people, experienced food insecurity at some point in the prior year, and a separate October 2025 briefing estimated food insecurity in Prince George’s County at 49% during the survey period. In that context, the key question is not whether the Largo food pharmacy is compassionate, but whether county, hospital and public-health leaders will back models like it strongly enough to show whether they can cut hunger, improve chronic-disease management and eventually ease pressure on emergency rooms.