With existing cost pressures in the NHS there is now greater emphasis on innovation and new ways of working for cost-effectiveness. As a clinical dietitian working in the community in Chester, I was recently given the opportunity to participate in Nurse First (2009), the UK’s first social innovation programme that rewards participants with a postgraduate diploma for delivering a project in the workplace, rather than writing essays. This article describes the project I developed, Food First, which aims to encourage healthcare professionals working with patients to view food in the same way as we view drugs: a treatment prescribed to treat a condition or disease.