Food is Medicine Series

In this webinar you will meet a Clinical Instructor and Lawyer from Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law Policy and Innovation, and a dynamic Director of Food from a North Carolina Nonprofit that has cracked the code on Food is Medicine Contracts. Intro Speaker Erika Hanson, JD, Clinical Instructor at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School will give a Food is Medicine CMS Guidance Decode. Featured Speaker, Ms. Sam Hoeffler, Director of Food Programs for Reinvestment Partners, an anti-poverty non-profit based in Durham NC, and the over $20 Million Food is Medicine juggernaut feeding thousands in North Carolina. Reinvestment Partners is working to build a produce prescription program that meets people where they are, scales across geographies, and works for healthcare partners. We also want to make sure that anyone who needs a produce prescription gets one, so we also focus on advocacy, policy work, and systems change at the national level. The program has served more than 120,000 people across North Carolina and has contracts with Blues and other Plans for sustainable success. Reinvestment Partners has one of the biggest food is medicine budgets in the nation! Tune in and learn how.

This Movers & Shakers webinar will introduce you to a Gerontologist from Tulsa and a Social Entrepreneur from Chicago. Each one tackles local food systems and solutions very differently. Yet both find using food is medicine is building resilience in their people and their communities. Learn how urban resilience and resilient people may be one of the health outcomes of Food is Medicine programs in both cities. Meet LaToyia Huggins, the Executive Director of Christmas in the Wards, Wards 365. She is a multi-faceted social entrepreneur and leader who works to build resilient communities and bridge systemic gaps through policy and programs. She also contributed to the national roll-out of Fresh HUBS parallel nutrition program for the Produce Alliance, LLC., as VP of Strategic Partnerships. Learn from Erin Martin, the Director of FreshRx OK. Erin brings a distinct approach as a Gerontologist trained to focus on how illness affects the elderly, and how nutritious foods affect lifespan and chronic diseases. And Erin is also certified in Regenerative Soil Advocacy. She sources local, regeneratively grown produce to increase the nutritious content of the food improving health outcomes while supporting the local farm economy of North Tulsa.

Listen to the story of one man who changed his life using food as his medicine. Chris Irizarry, CEO of FoundCare with nine medical clinics serving thousands of patients daily, is poised to spread the word and infect his staff, his doctors, his patients, and an entire city with his new found pathway to health. Chris is interviewed by two Palm Beach Atlantic University students, Richard Humble and Elizabeth Haskell, who are realizing the power of food as medicine for more focus and energy to realize their full potential in each day. Filming and Editing done by PBA University Library Food is Medicine Workship Program and Mark Zaskey.

Watch this riveting webinar on two NIH Scientists with different approaches to Culinary Medicine in the "RECIPE FOR FOOD IS MEDICINE: CULINARY MEDICINE AND TEACHING KITCHENS". Dr. Nicole Farmer is a Staff Scientist and Attending Physician at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. She is the Acting Head of the Dietary Behaviors and Biopsychosocial Health Section within the Translational Biobehavioral and Health Disparities Department and an adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the George Washington School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Farmer’s research focus may be categorized into three major areas: psychosocial outcomes of health behaviors, the role of cooking interventions on dietary behaviors and cardiovascular outcomes, and mechanisms of health disparities. Dr. Farmer provides an overview of culinary medicine and teaching kitchens across Food is Medicine programming as well as evidence on metabolic, psychosocial, and dietary benefits of interdisciplinary cooking interventions. Intervention designs in addition to results of a plant-based culinary medicine teaching kitchen among clinical patients at risk for cardiovascular disease will be discussed Dr. Andrea Krenek is a registered dietitian, chef, and research fellow at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases within the National Institutes of Health. Her doctoral research at the University of Florida focused on the effects of dietary, culinary medicine, and teaching kitchen interventions on cardiometabolic, psychological, and nutritional outcomes. Dr. Krenek received her PhD from the University of Florida / IFAS working with Dr. Anne Matthews, Assistant Dean of the College of Life Sciences, who shared her Food is Medicine passion. Thank you Dr. Anne Matthews for this stunning collaboration in assembling this webinar presentation.

Watch this video to learn how Florida can save $1 Billion and also generate $1 Billion in new revenue for a new food is medicine economy and ecosystem. We have the model, we have the program, we have the network. We need HB 253 and SB 488 to pass this year in Tallahassee in the Florida Legislature. Movers & Shakers wanted! Join us in the good fight! www.healthandnutritioncoalition.com/policy-impact

Learn from Dr. Scott Angle about the state of food and plants locally, nationally, and around the globe. Dr. Angle shares a future landscape with plants re-envisioned, AI-smart farming, and blueberries with increased antioxidants to fight cancer or disease. Food is medicine at UF/IFAS means engineering the plants to become our medicine.

Watch the live audience reaction to the announcement by Florida House Rep. Mike Caruso (R) that he is sponsoring the Food is Medicine Bill in the 2024 legislative session. HB #253 is launched at the Jumpstart Session.

Catch inspiration from all-stars in food is medicine in Palm Beach and Broward County: Billy Smith- WPB Veterans Administration, Tom Pietrogallo- Poverello, Maura Plante- Living Hungry, and Kristen Schroeder-Brown- Healthy Living Programs, Holy Cross

Watch the three hosts of the Jumpstart Session wrap it up with closing remarks. Michael Farver, SFHC sites his best-of-the-day moments, Maura Plante, Living Hungry talks FiM Bill action strategies, and Kim Saiswick, Holy Cross Healthplex reminds us all why it matters. Thank you!

Listen to the opening remarks and welcome from Mark Doyle, CEO of Holy Cross Hospital and HealthPlex at the Jumpstart Session Florida Food is Medicine event on October 23, 2023, at Holy Cross. What is Food is Medicine and how Holy Cross and Trinity Health are working in this area?

Meet the Florida Health and Nutrition Coalition from two members of the Steering Committee for the Jumpstart Session event and the Florida Food is Medicine Symposium in May 2024.

Meet U.S. House Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, our "Clean Cooking Congresswoman" and cancer survivor who shares her passion for Food is Medicine in her speech, one week after her Cancer Survivorship Summit at Nova Southeastern University. She said years ago she might have M&Ms for breakfast. “In changing the way I ate, I transformed a lot of the way my family ate.” https://www.instagram.com/cleancookingcongresswoman/

Meet Michael Farver, CEO of South Florida Hunger Coalition and a cancer survivor who shares his commitment to Food is Medicine one week after attending the Cancer Survivorship Summit convened by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz at Nova Southeastern University, with Dr. Jill Biden Keynote. Michael Farver, a hunger feeder in Florida for four decades, we thank him for his legacy.

Health Outcomes in FiM from Design to Evaluation: A Roadmap for Running a Successful FiM Program How do you successfully conduct a Food is Medicine program, from design to implementation to evaluation? Researchers from Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School will present their work step by step to lay out a roadmap. Dr. Kurt Hager will start us off with the sourcing of food science research protocol for the HFP and expound on how he collaborated with faculty and partners to design a program with evaluation in mind from beginning to end. The IRB process, consents, standardizing repeatable experiences and packages, and screeners pre-, mid-, and post all come together at the program implementation launch. Maura Plante will pick up with bringing the program to life and the implementation overview of the successful program. Taking family-sized MTG sets from concept to live events, with belonging, cohesion, timing, iteration, and evolution over 4 years and 2 cohorts reviewed. Plus you will meet 3 HFP clients who changed their lives and health. Elsa Konieczynski will present the final evaluation of the successful program. Elsa will walk through the data deep-dives, her process and decision-making, the outcomes, and the report review. Elsa will share the actual evaluation results & next stepsof communications and collateral for policy and community impact. Bring your own program to life. Ask your questions in the comments. We are happy to support new FiM program launches.

Welcoming Presentation: Meet Mel Downey-Piper, National Sr. Community Health Lead for the American Heart Association for a brief on "What Does Health Equity Look Like in Florida?" Followed by our Featured Speaker Thomas Pietrogallo. Learn from Medically Tailored Groceries Expert Tom as he explains Health and Nutrition Security & Poverello's FIM models. A homegrown Food is Medicine All-Star and Florida gem, do not miss his compassion and drive in this 1 hour webinar by the Florida Health and Nutrition Coalition.

Welcoming Presentation by Anna Meszaros, UF IFAS Extension Agent for a Brief on "What Fruits & Vegetables Grow in Florida? Featured Speaker is DC Greens FIM Expert, Kristin Sukys, as she explains Produce Prescriptions and Medicaid models. Kristin Sukys from DC Greens together with The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School recently released a new report, Mainstreaming Produce Prescriptions in Medicaid Managed Care: A Policy Toolkit and Resource Library. This toolkit is the third report of a series exploring ways to increase access to produce prescriptions in the US healthcare system.

This is the 2nd Movers & Shakers Webinar series of the Florida Health and Nutrition Coalition. This webinar is a Food is Medicine Research primer by Dr. Kurt Hager, Seminal FiM Researcher from UMASS Medical, Tufts University, NPPC, and more. Dr. Kurt Hager’s research focuses on the effectiveness of nutritional interventions and policies on chronic disease in the U.S., including evaluations of produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals integrated into clinical care. He has been involved in policy initiatives at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, as steering committee member of the National Produce Prescription Collaborative, and with the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. He is currently an instructor at University of Massachusetts Medical School where is evaluating the effectiveness of novel programs addressing food and housing insecurity under Massachusetts’s Medicaid Section 1115 Waiver. His presentation will provide background on research to date for Food is Medicine, policy opportunities to expand access to services, and a description of the Massachusetts waiver evaluation.

Florida Food is Medicine Fact Sheet by Erika Hanson, CHLPI at Harvard Law School with the Florida Health and Nutrition Coalition. The inaugural webinar in the Movers & Shakers Webinar Series with the Florida Health and Nutrition Coalition on May 5, 2023. Speaker Erika Hanson is a Clinical Instructor and Attorney in the Health Law and Policy Clinic at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School where she focuses on policy advocacy to address the social determinants of health, improve health equity, and mitigate health disparities with a focus on the needs of low-income people living with chronic illnesses. She has a particularly active portfolio dedicated to nurturing the integration of Food is Medicine interventions into health care delivery and financing at the state level. She previously worked as a Staff Attorney at The Legal Aid Society in New York City for nearly five years, where she provided direct services, conducted class action litigation, and led policy advocacy on a wide range of health law issues. Prior to working at The Legal Aid Society, Erika was a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow and a Reproductive Rights & Health Legal Fellow at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.