9th Annual Conference

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.

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.

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

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

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels