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9th Annual Conference

August 22–24, 2019

Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA

Addressing Food Justice through Community Collaborations: How a grass-roots environmental nutrition provider collaborates with health centers to improve access to nutrition education and healthy organic food.

Saturday, August 24, 2019 at 3:00 PM–4:00 PM PDT add to calendar
O'Connor 102
Proposal Summary

Ceres Community Project fosters community health through an integrated approach that includes: teens growing food and preparing organic medically tailored meals for low-income community members struggling with a serious illness such as cancer, heart disease or diabetes; partnering with health centers and the public library system to educate community members about healthy eating; and conducting research and advancing policy to integrate healthy sustainably raised food into health care as a reimbursable medical expense.

In this presentation you’ll understand how Ceres Healing Meals for Healthy Communities model is structured and how that model is being replicated in communities across the country. And you’ll explore two examples of how Ceres collaborates with community health centers to expand nutrition education and access to healthy organic food: 1) an on-going nutrition education program within a health center that reaches 400+ patients annually; and 2) a statewide medical nutrition pilot for congestive heart failure patients that aims to drive policy change within Medicaid as a strategy for increasing access to healthy food.

Skills or Experience

Cathryn is the founder and director of Ceres Community Project. Ceres provides 120,000 organic meals annually to primarily low-income people struggling due to a health challenge. Volunteers grow food and prepare the meals as part of a youth development and culinary education program. Connie is a family physician and the Medical Director of a stand-alone wellness center within an FQHC that collaborates with the Ceres Community Project.

Topic Keywords

Food justice, food access, nutrition education, clinical-community collaborations, medically tailored meals, food as medicine, group visits

Educational Methodology

Presentation/Lecture with Discussion: present information and engage the learners in discussion about the material.

Audience Skill Level

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels

Primary Presenters

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Cathryn Couch, Ceres Community Project
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Co-Presenters

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Dr. Constance J Earl, DO, Wesy County Health Centers and 360 integrative Consulting
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DO

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Session Materials

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