Food & Farming

Farms, Food & Health

Together with supporters like you, we bring together health practitioners, employers, schools, farmers, and others interested in connecting health care, wellness, and locally grown food, and inspire a new and healthier food culture.

Culinary Medicine

Culinary Medicine Training Table Health for Groundwork Center on March 14, 2019

Culinary Medicine is a new evidence-based field in medicine that blends the art of food and cooking with the science of medicine. Learn more about Groundwork's involvement here.

Farms, Food & Health Trainings

The Farms, Food & Health Trainings brings together professionals from the worlds of health care and food systems to examine the connection between health care, wellness and locally grown food. Learn more about the trainings here.

FARMS, FOOD & HEALTH

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Farms, Food & Health?

We’ve always known food and nutrition are important to health, but the system for delivering health care has not made food a priority. The philosophy of Farms, Food & Health guides us back to knowing where our food comes from and understanding how to cook with local, nourishing food. It calls for significant engagement from the food system and health care system. We’re connecting the dots between how farmers grow food to how we eat food, and how nutrition play a role in our health.

What is Groundwork's role in Farms, Food & Health?

Since our beginning, Groundwork has been dedicated to preserving farmland. Farms, Food & Health represents an expansion of that focus to include how nourishing, locally grown food can improve individual and community health. Back in 2014 we started a dialog with doctors and other health professionals about the Farms, Food & Health philosophy. They wanted more information about how patients can eat in ways that encourage healthful lifestyles. Our role brings skills and expertise to the dialog by hosting conferences and teaching small groups. We see the value of getting everybody who cares about nourishing food at the same table and talking to one another to come up with new and better ways to improve health with nutritious food.

What does Farms, Food & Health do for the community?

We host educational events that enable the community to experience hands-on learning. Our gatherings make it possible for people to have personal conversations with professionals like dietitians, farmers, chefs and doctors. The Farms, Food & Health philosophy encourages a broad approach to what health is: behavioral, mental, and physical. You can’t have well-being without all aspects combined.

Tell me more about culinary medicine.

Culinary Medicine is an evidence-informed field in medicine that blends the art of food and cooking with the science of lifestyle medicine, nutrition research and our regions local foods. We offer continuing medical education for doctors and allied health care professionals.

Take action.

Be part of Farms, Food & Health by eating locally grown food. Ask yourself, “What is the local part of my plate?” at every meal. Add at least one local item to each meal. Condiment, dairy, meat, vegetable, whatever works for you.

GET INVOLVED!

Resources

Cooking Demonstration

story: free healthy food expo with cooking demonstrations and presentations

2016 Get Local Party

STORY: CULINARY MEDICINE GAINS MOMENTUM IN TRAVERSE CITY

Record-Eagle

STORY: CONNECTIONS LINK FOOD, WELLNESS, AND BUSINESS

What's happening now?

Farms, Food & Health News

Changing School Food Choices Through Policy Reform

Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan (HKHM), a coalition of public and private sector health advocates united to fight childhood obesity, has emerged as an important advocate for the 10 Cents a Meal program. HKHM’s Healthy Food Access Team provides important policy support to inform legislators about how 10 Cents is strengthening Michigan, bolstering both students’ health and farmers’ bottom lines.

Local Food Alliance, Food & Farming Network Benefit from Seed Grants

Thanks to a seed grant from the Michigan Local Food Council Network, the Petoskey-based Local Food Alliance of Northern Michigan will hold its fifth annual “Around the Table” conference on Wednesday, Nov. 8, from 4-8 p.m. with the theme of “Healthy Food for All.” The Food Alliance also plans to hire a part-time coordinator and facilitator to direct and expand its presence within the “Northern Farms Foodshed”.

Introducing Fall Fellows, Tori Craig and Arcelia Moreno

Groundwork Fellows complete projects alongside our policy staff, attend conferences and networking sessions, and receive professional development training. Each fellow completes an independent project to complement Groundwork’s program areas based on their area of expertise, and presents this project to conclude their term.

Share This