4th Annual Florida Food is Medicine Symposium October 8th, 2026

 8:00 am 

Welcome! Doors open, Registration, Materials & Goody bags.

8:00 am - 8:45 am 

BREAKFAST SPONSOR: Sifter Solutions  Network and enjoy healthy breakfast and  fresh coffee or tea, meet Andrew Parkinson, CEO, Sifter Solutions and Health-Friendly

• FREE Healthy Food Rx Shopping Companion for all  Florida Food is Medicine programs and clients. Try it! 

8:00 am - 4:00 pm 

Scholars and Academics in Florida Food is Medicine, Health, and Plants will host a Poster Session from the University of Florida. Expect to learn about recent published articles and funded pilots in the Rotunda at the Entrance. Meet the Scholars, hear them discuss their ideas, add your own. 

8:30 am - 8:45 am   

Welcome from  Maura Plante, FL Health & Nutrition Coalition 

Dr. Jay Groves, 4 Roots Farm & Culinary Health Institute

Kim Saiswick, Board Chair, South Florida Hunger Coalition 

8:45 am - 9:00 am

A One Challenge Question Game to get us warmed up.

Celines Martinez, RDN, Co-Chair, Orlando Regional Network, HEBNI with  Kim Saiswick, Co-Chair, Broward Regional Network, will lead the "What is Your Why?" 

9:00 am - 9:15 am   

SPONSOR Winter Park Health Foundation

Welcome by local and national leaders framing food and health to start our day.

• Nick Abrahams, President and CEO, Winter Park Health Foundation
• Dr. Samantha Brown-Parks, MD, MPH, Regional Director, Region IV, U.S. Department of  Health and Human Services

9:15 am - 9:50 am   

Keynote: Dr. J. Scott Angle,  University of Florida's Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

9:50  am - 10:30 am

Meet Policy Activators, Leaders, and Lobbyists with fresh updates from DC to Tallahassee on the FIM funding landscape.

1. Jonathan Chapman, Florida Association of Community Health Centers
2. Brie Lowry Cox, Farms to Hospitals, Events with HHS & DACs
3. Emily Callahan, Food is Medicine Institute, Tufts University
4. Erin Martin, Accountable Food is Medicine Bill, Fresh Rx OK

SPONSOR BMG Cares Foundation

10:30 am -10:45 am Networking Break 

10:45 am - 11:00 am    Anna Lin Schweitz Feeding Change, Milken Institute shares her latest publication Activating the Food Is Medicine Ecosystem: A Framework for Stakeholder Partnerships drawing on the expertise of leaders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors—including individuals with lived experience participating in FIM programs—the report offers shared language, practical tools, and a menu of approaches with Florida Health & Nutrition Coalition's Case Study featured on pg.15. 

11:00 am - 11:30 am   

Host Anna Lin-Schweit, Milken Institute,  leads a round of questions to learn from  the frontline innovators in Florida FIM : Meet our 8 Regional Networks of Excellence Co-Chairs 

1. Pensacola-Pete Mougey, One Pensacola (virtual)
2. Alachua- Pastor Gerard Duncan, Alachua County Comm. Anna Prizzia
3. Orlando-Glen Providence, HEBNI
4. Pasco – Nichole Dube, Access to Fresh
5. Tampa-Dhalia Bhumbaca, Well Built 
6. Broward - Jolene Mullens, SFHC, 
7. Palm Beach County - Maura Plante, Living Hungry 

11:30 am -11:45 am

Dr. Deborah Kennedy, Food Coach Academy  & Brie Lowry Cox,  chat over how we can heal ourselves from chronic diet-related conditions. Both share how health is found in culinary food, family heritage, and sharing (psychology) right at home in the kitchen or even in hospital kitchens.

11:45 am - 12:00 PM

Corby Kummer, Food & Society, Aspen Institute will share for the first time in Florida the foundational resource: Food is Medicine Community Action Plan published February 2026.  This roadmap is designed to help community-based organizations scale food-based health interventions that address food insecurity and improve health outcomes with their own local flavor and essence.

12:00 pm - 12:45 pm

Keynote: Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Food is Medicine Institute, Tufts University shares his urgent indictment of the food we eat, how it is making us sick, and the choices that led us here, and a call for a revolutionary new food system that can mend our health, economy, and planet, from a world-renowned expert in nutrition, medicine, and public policy. 

*Book: FOOD IS MEDICINE - Healing Our Bodies, Nourishing Our Minds, and Transforming Our Food System.

12:45 pm - 4:00 pm

Tour a Mobile farmer market, a mobile teaching kitchen, the Pleasantville Mobile Produce Rx Clinic Bus,  & HEBNI's Mobile Veggie Van.

12:45 pm - 1:30 pm  

SPONSOR: FareRx 

You're invited to a sponsored healthy lunch by FareRx. 

1:00 PM 

Meet Founder & CEO Mike Canji interviewed by Ellen Brown, Food is Health Substack,  about how FareRx new model to capitalize on positive Health Outcomes to reverse the tide of chronic disease. 

1: 30 pm - 3:30 pm / SOLD OUT

Dr. Deborah Kennedy, Food Coach Academy,  hosts  the Culinary Health Masterclass in a Teaching Kitchen . This 2-hour masterclass will explore a Build-A-Bowl experience in the new culinary kitchen. The class will enjoy meeting local legends, Ronice Weaver and Fabiola Gaines, Founders of HEBNI way ahead of their time centering cultural food for health. 4Roots Farms fresh picked herbs, greens or veggies on the menu!

Pre-registration is closed. All seats are Sold Out. 

SPONSOR Florida Association of Community Health Centers

1: 30 pm - 2:00 pm

Our 2025 FIM Bill Sponsor, FL House Rep. Debra Tendrich  leads a dynamic set of new-to-you model presentations. Meet this year's FL FIM All Stars Class of 2026: 

1.  Dr. Jay Groves, Culinary Health Institute
2. John Hall, Promised Land Farm + Cynthia Coulter, Lake Butler Hospital 
3. Dr. Tiffany Carson, Moffitt Cancer Center  
4. Aria Garling, Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay
5. Surprise 

SPONSOR Morrisey Market

2: 00 pm - 2:30 pm

Anthropologist Dr. David Himmelgreen, University of Southern Florida (USF) shares his maverick model mapping social factors affecting health from food and community pathways  into one coherent singularity. 

&

James Rota shares his personal story.  James is a giver and cancer thriver who experienced his own health restoration ups and downs from  a local FIM program- the Healthy Food Rx, to hunger and food pantry groceries, to his passion creating healing.

2: 30 pm - 3:00 pm

Host Erin Martin, FreshRx OK, leads a dynamic & lively discussion on medicinal quality foods - how to source, farm, deliver, or grow your own! 

1.  Spencer Pratt, Chief Growth Officer,  NourishedRx  (virtual)
2. Andrew Parkinson, Sifter Solutions & Health Friendly
3. Tommy Ward, 4 Roots Farm
4. Anna Haas, Premier Produce / What Chef's Want, Hospital Restaurant Food Provider
5. Emily Roach, Morrissey Markets (virtual)

3:00 pm - 3:55 pm 

Chronic disease accounts for 8 out of 10 leading causes of death. Integrated FIM strategies link nutrition and healthcare at the University of Florida, our land grant university with a medical campus, uniquely positioned to  leverage nutrition, Extension, medicine, specialty crop breeding, technology, and community. UF/IFAS FIM Initiative researchers share PLANTMED seed funded proposals.

3:55 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Annual "3 Top Takeaways" by Michael Farver, South Florida's own "Grandfather of Hunger" and a founder in Food is Medicine across Florida.

SPONSOR Moffitt Cancer Center

5:30 pm - 6:45 pm

Tour the Farm, Refreshing Mocktails  in the Grove

Trail: Soil to Health 

Learn about Regenerating America's health from her soil up. Meet the farmers, ranchers, FIM leaders paving the way.

1. Soil Chemical Abatement – Martin Franze , Material Remediation
2. Regenerative FL Farmer – Mike Garcia, Ever Oaks Farm
3. Regenerative Rancher - Joel Hollingsworth, Smoke River Ranch
4. Regenerative Health Outcomes - Erin Martin, Fresh Rx OK
5. Farm to  FIM – Nichole Dube, Dube Farms

Here is the link to register for the zoom as Virtual Tickets