The purpose of this study is to understand the food landscape in Texas and learn about potential partnerships between food-oriented community-based organizations and Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.

A systematic search of food-oriented community-based organizations shows these organizations in Texas to be diverse in type, purpose, size, and activities. While a large portion of our sample could be primarily identified as food banks/pantries, they also offer a wide range of other activities.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) are passionate about the communities they serve and while many indicated that they need more information about potential partnerships with Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), the majority expressed openness to future partnerships.

Barriers to partnership between CBOs and MCOs included funding/resources, volunteers/employees, and the need for more information, although this varied by size of the organization.

Education for both CBOs and MCOs would help facilitate future successful partnerships, particularly among smaller, lesser-known organizations. Barriers specific to smaller organizations should be carefully considered when forming partnerships. For all CBOs, partnerships that include a purposeful investment in building relationships offer the highest potential for meaningful and sustained collaboration.