2nd Annual Food is Medicine National Summit [VIDEO + SLIDES]
April 24, 2024

About the Event

In collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, the Food is Medicine Institute was pleased to have hosted the second annual Food is Medicine National Summit in Boston, MA on April 24-25, 2024.

This 2-day Summit, supported by Kaiser Permanente, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Walmart Foundation, was the nation’s premier event on food is medicine. It built on last year’s Summit, which was attended by over 1,200 people in person and online. We had an even bigger audience this year, bringing together healthcare leaders, clinicians, community and advocacy organizers, investors, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and patients with lived experience to share and highlight advances, best practices, challenges, and next directions in food is medicine.

This year’s Summit focused on the exciting new directions in food is medicine research in communities, healthcare, research, and government; and the intersections with policy and patients.

Watch: 2nd Annual Food is Medicine National Summit

00:00 – Welcome to the 2nd Annual Food is Medicine National Summit and Introductory Remarks: Overview of Food is Medicine, Chris Economos, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Cecilia Gerard, Food is Medicine Institute; Bechara Choucair, Kaiser Permanente; Devon Klatell, The Rockefeller Foundation

15:20 – Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote: Food is Medicine Platform for the Country and the Provider,” Dariush Mozaffarian, Food is Medicine Institute

31:09 – Opening Keynote: “Build a Healthier, Hunger Free America,”  Congressman Jim McGovern, U.S. House of Representatives

52:22 – Panel 1: “Federal Policy Directions in Food is Medicine,”  Jessica Lee, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Ruth Petersen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Caree Cotwright, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Joshuah Marshall, Indian Health Service; Christine Going, Department of Veterans Affairs; Dan Glickman, Moderator, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Bipartisan Policy Center

1:52:51 – Fireside Chat 1: “Lived Experience with Food is Medicine Programs,”  Vanessa Georges, FIMMA Advisory Board Member; Debra Cooper, FreshRx Oklahoma; Joseph Moeykens, Veterans Affairs Produce Rx Program; David Waters, Moderator, Community Servings

2:28:52 – Panel 2: “Food is Medicine Advances in Cities and Communities,”  Richard Comeau, Hunger Free Oklahoma; Erin McAleer, Project Bread; Dion Dawson, Dion’s Chicago Dream; Benjamin Leong, Kaiser Permanente; Brent Ling, Moderator, Wholesome Wave

3:15:53 – Fireside Chat 2: “The Business Case for Healthy Communities,”  Dariush Mozaffarian, Food is Medicine Institute; Brooks Tingle, John Hancock

3:36:23 – Panel 3: “FIM Advances in Healthcare,”  John Lumpkin, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation; Nebeyou Abebe, Highmark Health; Kofi Essel, Elevance Health; Livleen Gill, Apostle Group; Rishi Manchanda, Moderator, Health Begins

4:29:29 – Closing Remarks: “Call to Action,”  Cecilia Gerard, Food is Medicine Institute

Speakers

Nebeyou Abebe

SVP, Social Determinants of Health, Highmark Health

Ariel Altman

Head of Industry Partnerships, YouTube Health

Allison Aubrey

Correspondent, NPR News

Seth Berkowitz

Associate Professor, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Kelliann Blazek

Special Assistant to the President for Agriculture and Rural Policy, The White House

Andrew Bremer

Director, NIH Office of Nutrition Research

Bechara Choucair

Senior Vice President and Chief Health Officer, Kaiser Permanente

Allison Collins

Director of Lifestyle and Culinary Medicine for Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara

Richard Comeau

Chief Program Office, Hunger Free Oklahoma

John R. Combes

Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Debra Cooper

Outreach Coordinator, FreshRx Oklahoma

Caree Jackson Cotwright

Director of Nutrition Security and Heath Equity for the Food and Nutrition Service at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Dion Dawson

Founder/Executive Director, Dion’s Chicago Dream

Stephen Devries

Executive Director, Nonprofit Gaples Institute Nutrition and Lifestyle Education

Joseph Doyle

Erwin H. Schell Professor of Management and Applied Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management

Stacey Ecoffey

Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs, Indian Health Service

Christina Economos

Dean, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University

Shereef Elnahal

Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Kofi Essel

Food as Medicine (FAM) Program Director, Elevance Health

Holly Freishtat

Senior Director of Feeding Change, Milken Institute

Pritesh Gandhi

Chief Healthcare Executive, Walmart Health & Wellness

Katie Garfield

Director, Whole Person Care, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Harvard Law School

Vanessa Georges

FIMMA Advisory Board Member

Livleen Gill

President & CEO, Apostle Group, LLC

Secretary Dan Glickman

Senior Fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center

Adjunct Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts Unviersity

Christine Going

Senior Advisor, Food Security Office at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Nira Goren

Head of Health Information Quality, Google

Lisa Green

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Family Christian Health Center

Timothy Griffin

Dean for Educational Affairs, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University

Josh Hix

CEO, Season

Michelle Howell

Farmer, Need More Acres Farm

Mark Hyman

Founder and Senior Advisor, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

Jim Jones

Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, Food and Drug Administration

Jim Kirby

Chief Commercial Officer, Kroger Health

Devon Klatell

Vice President, Food Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation

Jessica Lee

Acting Chief Medical Officer, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, CMS

Benjamin Leong

Physician Director for the Center for Healthy Living, Kaiser Permanente Downey

Brent Ling

Director of External Affairs, Wholesome Wave

John Lumpkin

President, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation

Yvonne Maddox

President and CEO, TAThornton Foundation

Rishi Manchanda

CEO, HealthBegins

Joshuah Marshall

Senior Advisor to the Director, Indian Health Service

Erin Martin

Director, FreshRx Oklahoma

Sarah Mastrorocco

Vice President and General Manager of Health, Instacart

Erin McAleer

President & CEO, Project Bread

Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA)

Ranking Member, House Rules Committee

Joseph Moeykens

Veterans Affairs Produce Rx Program

Andrew Moose

Head of Health and Wellness, World Economic Forum

Michelle Morse

Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Danielle Nierenberg

President and Founder, Food Tank

Ed Park

Co-founder and CEO, Devoted

Ruth Petersen

Director, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Lisa Quintiliani

Associate Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Tufts Medical Center

Pamela Schwartz

Executive Director for Community Health, Kaiser Permanente

Hilary Seligman

Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco

Stefany Shaheen

President, Good Measures

Linda Shiue

Director of Culinary Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco

Alissa Wassung

Executive Director, Food Is Medicine Coalition

David B. Waters                     

CEO, Community Servings

Fang Fang Zhang                   

Food is Medicine Institute

About the Food is Medicine Institute

The Food is Medicine Institute is a university-wide collaborative effort based at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, bringing together experts from across disciplines with other local and national collaborators to advance food is medicine research, training, patient care, and community and policy engagement. Tufts is the leading academic institution globally for advancing food is medicine, engaging in multiple large food is medicine interventional trials in collaboration with health care systems, extensive policy and comparative effectiveness analysis, and more. The first-of-its-kind Institute serves as a catalyst to drive change, improve health, reduce health disparities, and create a more equitable and resilient health care system that recognizes the power of nourishing food.