At the Stanford Food Summit in November, leaders from the California Food is Medicine Coalition, Project Open Hand, Loaves and Fishes, and others shared insights on the future of food is medicine initiatives. Erika Tribett, Director of Program Strategy and Design at Project Open Hand, and Michelle Kuppich, RDN, Executive Director of the California Food is Medicine Coalition, joined expert panels to discuss best practices and lessons learned from their work.
This year's Food Summit brought together hundreds of researchers, experts, and guests passionate about food, health, and sustainability to create food systems for a more healthy and sustainable world.
During the panel, Tribett emphasized the importance of a lifespan approach to client care, which considers a person’s health needs across their entire life. She highlighted the need for deep collaboration among organizations offering food interventions, including medically tailored meals, healthy groceries, produce prescription programs, and nutrition incentives.
Kuppich, who has served as Executive Director of the California Food is Medicine Coalition since 2022, provided an overview of the policy landscape affecting the development and sustainability of medically tailored nutrition interventions. She stressed the importance of nutrition standards for providers and the role of Medi-Cal’s CalAIM Community Supports in ensuring people have access to the medically supportive food they need.
The discussion also addressed the critical need to increase access to high-quality, plant-based foods. Speakers highlighted the benefits of sourcing local, sustainably-raised foods to support both human and planetary health.