Midwest Convening brings focus on food, nutrition interventions in rural communities
With a goal of providing shared learning opportunities and advancing the knowledge around the use of healthy food and nutrition interventions in the battle against chronic illness, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute partnered with Sunflower Foundation to bring the Food is Medicine Midwest Convening to Topeka. The event was held Jan. 25-26, 2024, at the Sunflower Nonprofit Center.
Food is Medicine is an initiative that, in close coordination with the health care sector, involves the provision of healthy food to aid in the prevention, treatment and management of chronic disease. Aspen Institute is a leader in initiatives to expand access to food and nutrition interventions, while Sunflower supports emerging Food is Medicine work with community health centers across Kansas.
Aspen seeks to share knowledge about food and nutrition interventions, identify strategic priorities and facilitate new collaborations in places where access to such interventions has been limited or non-existent. The Midwest Convening, which brought together thought leaders and emerging and established scholars in fields connected to Food is Medicine, focused on the need for and potential of Food is Medicine in rural communities.
The event featured enlightening panel discussions and informative presentations on such topics as Food is Medicine in rural America, the influence of generational poverty on health, diet-related health disparities, federally funded produce prescription programs, food and nutrition interventions in tribal communities, the role charitable food systems and the health care safety net play in the initiative and the impact Food is Medicine can have when funding and public policy come together. Participants also heard an update on Sunflower Foundation’s pilot project.
Both Sunflower and Aspen are deeply grateful for the participation of Native researchers, implementers and thought leaders who offered critically important perspectives on Food is Medicine through the lens of indigenous communities.
For the foundation and its partners in Kansas, the event was an educational opportunity that will help advance the emerging Food is Medicine work across the Sunflower State. For Aspen and other leaders in the field, it was a chance to hear about the work being done in rural areas and use what they learned to broaden the knowledge base on food and nutrition interventions.
On April 9, 2024, Food & Society at the Aspen Institute released the 2024 Food is Medicine Research Action Plan.
Scroll down to learn more about Sunflower Foundation’s work in Food is Medicine and to see videos, photos and presentations from the Food is Medicine Midwest Convening.
Videos
Day 1 - Morning session
Day 1 - Afternoon session
Day 1 - FIM Research Perspectives
Day 2 - Morning session
Speaker Presentations
Click below to see each speaker’s PowerPoint presentation
Kari Bruffet of the Kansas Health Institute sets the stage by discussing what health care looks like in rural America.
Kristine Sande, of the Rural Health Information Hub, looks at diet-related health disparities in rural America.
Julia Valliant, of the Center for Rural Engagement at the University of Indiana, talks about food deserts in rural America.
Michael Meit, of the Center for Rural Healthcare Research at East Tennessee State University, leads a panel discussion on Food is Medicine in communities with generational poverty.
Sunflower Foundation’s Food is Medicine Evaluation and Advisory Team – Mariana Wetherill of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Kristina Bridges of the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Susan Harvey of the University of Kansas – talk about the Kansas Food is Medicine pilot project.
Lucia Herrera Jones of UnitedHealthCare and Emily Brown of Attane Health kick off a panel looking at Food is Medicine from the payer perspective.
Donna McClish, of Common Ground Producers and Growers, Inc., addresses the topic of Food is Medicine from the payer perspective.
Trina Ragain, of Eccentricity Consulting, participates in a panel discussion about Food is Medicine from a public policy perspective. She gave a presentation on Fresh Rx.
Missty Slater, Ioway Tribe Chief of Staff, participates in a panel discussion on Food is Medicine in Tribal communities.
Cassandra Nguyen of the University of California-Davis, Kelli Wilson Begay of Maven Collective Consulting, and Tia Benally of Seven Directions share a presentation on Food is Medicine in Tribal settings.
Cassandra Nguyen of the University of California-Davis, Kelli Wilson Begay of Maven Collective Consulting, and Tia Benally of Seven Directions share a presentation on the Navajo Food Security Project.
Chris Long, of the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, speaks about GusNIP Produce Prescription projects.