CHICAGO, July 8, 2026 — After brandishing a stick to force healthcare foodservice’s adoption of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) dietary principles, the Trump Administration is trying a carrot.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) began soliciting pledges Wednesday from healthcare facilities to follow the controversial new Dietary Guidelines for Americans on a voluntary basis.
The Department specifically listed eight guidelines it would like hospitals and other health providers to follow in their patient-feeding operations, ranging from limiting the use of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to eliminating deep-fried items altogether. The eight principles are the foundation of MAHA’s dietary platform.
The pledge, which can be given and “signed” online, only mentions patient-feeding, with no reference to cafes or other foodservices that serve facility staff and patients’ visitors. In some healthcare institutions, those outlets generate more than half the host establishment’s foodservice revenues or transaction count.
The request for promised voluntary compliance with MAHA principles follows an announcement in March that the federal government would deny Medicare payments to hospitals that disregard the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Every hospital in America was alerted about the new policy, HHS said at the time.
“We are going to bring every hospital in the country in line,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said at the time. “This is going to help them with their procurement companies, the fact that it's now essentially a federal mandate.”
No indication was given as to why HHS is promoting voluntary compliance with MAHA guidelines after making adherence to the standards a condition of receiving federal funds. About 90% of U.S. hospitals rely on Medicare funds, according to United Medicare Advisors. HHS has not mentioned any unique benefits the volunteering facilities would enjoy, such as participation in marketing campaigns solely for the pledge-takers.
But Kennedy said when announcing HHS’ stick approach to fostering MAHA compliance back in March that he believed hospital foodservices would be eager to follow the dietary guidelines even without the threat of losing funds otherwise. He suggested at the time that hospital foodservice professionals eager to serve more healthful food on principle would use the threat of monetary loss to mute the objections of administrators and financial monitors.
Wednesday’s announcement comes as the food-away-from-home industry is awaiting the federal government’s release of a UPF definition. Many political observers have speculated that the Administration may wait to release the new standards until after the midterm Congressional elections in November. Their theorizing holds that the definition may not be liked by some segments of the population and could cost Republicans some votes, given the party’s control of the White House.
Also yet to be released are the new guidelines for the National School Lunch Program. Schools participating in the initiative provide free or discounted meals to underprivileged students and are then reimbursed by their host states with federal funds. The institutions will need to abide by the Dietary Guidelines if they wish to continue receiving the subsidies.