Charting New Territory: POWERFUL Tool +Model from DC to Orlando

Intro Speaker: Ms. Emily A. Callahan, MPH, RDN.    

In this Movers & Shakers Webinar you'll have the chance to meet two influential leaders who are revolutionizing the landscape of Food is Medicine. 

From the Washington D.C. metro area, a nutrition policy strategist will share a new fact-packed resource from the Food is Medicine Institute, a compelling educational advocacy tool designed to drive impactful change. Emily A. Callahan, MPH, RDN is the Director of Policy Strategy at the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.  Emily serves as the Director of Policy Strategy at the Food is Medicine Institute (FIMI), which is housed at the prestigious Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Emily works closely with FIMI's inaugural Director, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, to craft and implement a strategic vision aimed at influencing federal policy change to advance nutrition science, food is medicine, and nutrition security. In her role,  Emily helps plan and execute a strategic vision for informing and driving federal policy change across key priority areas, including advancing nutrition science, food is medicine, and nutrition security. 

FIMI Food is Medicine fact sheet. 

In her talk, Emily will walk us through a powerful tool for use on Capitol Hill or Tallahassee halls - a new fact-packed, Food is Medicine fact sheet. This precise, persuasive resource was recently put to work by dozens of FIM supporters at a national congressional advocacy day and is ripe for further use in a wide range of settings.

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Featured Speaker: Dr. Maureen Hawkins, PhD. 

Hailing from Orlando's Second Harvest Food Bank, a rising star in the field will share her compelling approach, integrating care into the intersection of hunger and health. Dr. Maureen Hawkins holds the position of Director of Health & Hunger Strategies at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. With over 22 years of experience as a public health professional, she is deeply committed to advancing health equity through her work at the intersection of health and hunger.  Maureen’s expertise and personal dedication drive innovative strategies aimed at addressing the root causes of food insecurity while improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations by adding a new layer of care through thoughtful case management which most food is medicine operators have never witnessed before.This innovative hybrid model is already yielding remarkable results, promising healthcare outcomes. 

The Role of Food Banks as Drivers of Health

 Dr. Maureen will speak on The Role of Food Banks as Drivers of Health. Learn how Second Harvest food bank is raising the bar to impact the health and wellbeing of our neighbors in Central Florida. How to balance emergency feeding needs with complex care of medically tailored food? You will hear how a well-developed food is medicine program is utilizing a new spectrum of care model. You will learn how the personal touch of health care is utilized to impact the patient experience, improving health and hunger outcomes. 

 Don't miss this opportunity to get new tools, insights, and inspiration from these dynamic leaders shaping the future of Food is Medicine

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 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. 

We are continuing to see increased federal support for the incorporation of health-related social needs (HRSN) services, including Food is Medicine, into patient care, with HHS holding a historic Food is Medicine Summit in January 2024 and the Biden-⁠Harris Administration Action to Improve Health and Wellbeing by Addressing Social Determinants of Health announced in November 2023.  As more and more state-based stakeholders look to leverage these opportunities to address negative health outcomes, rising health care costs, and deepening disparities in their states, CMS has released helpful guidance detailing the coverage pathways for HRSN services in Medicaid and CHIP, including services allowed, coverage limitations, exceptions, and population target examples.  Erika will cover what Food is Medicine stakeholders need to know about this guidance: what has changed, what hasn’t changed, and what does it mean for stakeholders on the ground.

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 Featured Speaker, Ms. Sam Hoeffler, Director of Food Programs, at ReInvestment Partners, the Multi-Million Dollar 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. During this discussion, we'd like to share some of the ways that we orient ourselves to the Food is Medicine movement and some of the lessons we've learned as we've built a program that has served more than 120,000 people across North Carolina. Ms. Sam Hoeffler's talk will share how they got started, where they are now, how they get state funding, what not to do, and Sam's best tip for going big fast.  

Reinvestment Partners, an anti-poverty non-profit based in Durham NC, started Food is Medicine programs by securing COVID 19 pandemic funding to   electronically distribute about $3.5m in funds restricted to fruits and vegetables via our produce prescription. Due to the demand for their successful program, a new funding stream of appropriations was opened and renewed year after year by the North Carolina Legislature. Advocating and lobbying, efficient program delivery with dignity and respect, and health equity for all has earned Reinvestment Partners one of the biggest food is medicine budgets in the nation. The Waiver 1115 Medicaid Pilot implementation is up and running funding Reinvestment Partners challenging the team to scale their food is medicine programs quickly  to reach thousands of client in 2023. We are excited to hear the actual steps to success taken, the traps to avoid, and most-unexpected wins in building successful funded Food is Medicine Programs. 

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 LaToyia Huggins is 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.

Every day, historically marginalized, hard-to-count communities grapple with access gaps in goods and services, inequities in resources, and the struggles of resiliency in their neighborhoods. Wards365's purpose is to make every day count: Supporting equity, access, and resiliency to the people, communities, and wards of Chicago three hundred sixty-five days a year.

Chicago’s Wards 365 defines resilience as the capacity to withstand and recover quickly from difficulties, and to possess the ability to spring back into shape.  Ms. Huggins will present how Wards 365 uses Food is Medicine to help prioritize equity in lived experience, foster resiliency and community self-determination, and to build local systems and propel human capital across Chicago communities 365 days a year. 

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Erin Martin is the Director of FreshRx OK, a Gerontologist and a certified Regenerative Soil Advocate. After working in long-term care and serving low-income seniors in HUD housing, Ms. Martin saw the inequities in the healthcare system particularly polypharmacy and processed foods. 

Gerontologists are trained to focus on how illness affects the elderly and how nutritious foods affect lifespan and chronic diseases. Ms. Martin is passionate about spreading the truth of food is medicine and the link to soil health.  FreshRx OK sources local, regeneratively grown produce to increase the nutritious content of the food improving health outcomes, but also support the farmers and economy of North Tulsa.  

The idea for FreshRx OK was sparked at the Tulsa Food Security Council as Dr. Kent Farish shared that his diabetic patients compliant with prescriptions and doc visits—were continuing to get worse!  The Council agreed to test Food is Medicine and launched the Fresh Rx OK pilot in April 2021. Fresh Rx OK has since then tripled in size, is a GusNIP funded PPRx, and now has national recognition for the innovative way they systemically address food and health, selected by CHLPI Harvard Law for FiM advocacy support. Through person-centered care, education, and food as medicine of nutrient dense, locally grown produce, Fresh Rx OK reduces health disparities, has proven health outcomes,  and gives people more ways to improve their health and discover their own resiliency.  

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   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  will provide 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

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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 collaborative in assembling this webinar presentation. 

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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.  

   Dr. Hager's third and final doctoral dissertation study was published recently in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes and featured in the Washington Post! The Authors found that receiving produce prescriptions for an average of 6 months was associated with improvements in blood pressure, blood sugar control, and weight among adults with hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Authors also observed improvements in fruit and vegetable intake and food insecurity, including among children, which could lay an important foundation for child development.  

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, screeners pre-, mid-, post all come together at program implementation launch.

   Elsa Konieczynski is a master’s student at the Tufts Friedman School pursuing her degree in Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science. She also works as a research coordinator at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center where she supports research on healthy aging. Her research interests include food security, dietary patterns, and health equity.

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 final report review. Elsa will share the actual evaluation results & next steps of communications and collateral for policy and community impact.

  Clinical and community-based partnerships are essential to bringing equitable health outcomes to patients throughout Florida. Mel Downey-Piper, National Senior Community Health Lead for the American Heart Association, will open our presentation with a 15-minute overview about how achieving health equity requires intentional focus on reducing health disparities and how implementing Food is Medicine initiatives can improve community health outcomes.

Mel has been working in public health for 20 years, with experience ranging from violence interruption to sexual health to heart health. In her time at the American Heart Association, Mel is proud to have increased direct funding to the community based on their identified needs, including food insecurity initiatives and promotoras de salud or community health workers.  She also launched a local health equity committee and Food is Medicine National Collaborative. Mel was previously the Health Education Director at the Durham County Department of Public Health in North Carolina leading a team of 35 health educators and violence interrupters and co-led Durham’s successful application to be one of six national RWJF Culture of Health award recipients. Achieving equitable health outcomes through clinical and community-based partnerships is the work of the American Heart Association (AHA). As National Senior Community Health Lead, Mel Downey-Piper presents Health Equity in a 15-Minute overview from health disparities to health equity. 

Thursday, August 17th from 2:00 PM Eastern.

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  Tom Pietrogallo is a national FiM All-Star for over a decade right here in Florida. Poverello’s Pop Up Eat Well Center, a “Harkin on Wellness” designee, collaborates throughout South Florida’s vulnerable communities with other non-profits seeking to improve the health of their clients through learning to eat well. Senator Tom Harkin echoes Poverello’sefforts  saying“We believe innovative and progressive wellness and nutrition initiatives that address nutrition security can have a larger impact on catalyzing real solutions that provide not only food but also well-being for everyone.”

Thomas Pietrogallo is the innovator CEO of Poverello, who started the Pop Up Eat Well Center. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker MSW/LCSW, he also brings business mind with an MBA. Tom is the mover and shaker leading FiM  in Broward and Palm Beach County having launched the Food Farmacy & Whole Teen Healthy programs with Living Hungry in PBC, among many others. Tom cranks up the dial on innovation in nutrition security through clinical interventions like produce prescriptions; innovative tech tools for client-choice pantry options, with a focus on reducing the disparities in healthy food access and purchasing, with dignity and community at the heartbeat of it all. Don't niss this FiM dyanamo and his presentation. 

Thursday, August 17th from 2:00 PM Eastern.

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Anna Meszaros is the UF/IFAS Extension Agent for commercial vegetable and tropical fruit production in Palm Beach County. She will share a 15-minute overview of fruit and vegetable production in Florida with an emphasis on tropical fruits and fresh winter vegetables grown in South Florida. Anna will also talk about the diverse group of local growers who have been farming in the area for generations.

Anna Meszaros is the UF/IFAS Extension Agent for commercial vegetable and tropical fruit production in Palm Beach County. She is responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs to support vegetable and fruit production and offer continuing education units (CEUs). In collaboration with stakeholders, including growers, industry members, and UF/IFAS faculty, she designs, conducts, and evaluates studies that assess vegetable variety performance, crop response to fertilizers and soil amendments, and improved weed and pest management tactics. She collaborates with other extension agents to respond to clientele training needs regarding the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). She prepares “extension-friendly” publications while promoting agriculture via multiple platforms.

.Thursday, July 13th from 3:00 PM Eastern.

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. 

Kristin Sukys is a freelance consultant looking to boost nutrition security and health equity across our food and health care systems in the US.  She manages DC Greens food as medicine portfolio, focusing on increasing access to produce prescription programs in the district and she also co-facilitates the National Produce Prescription Collaborative (NPPC) State Policy Working Group to equip produce prescription advocates with the education, tools and resources necessary to successfully advocate for state-level policy change.

Thursday, July 13th from 3:00 PM Eastern.