June 2023: Center Representation
June 2023:
Center Representation
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“Nutrition Incentive Statewide Scale Mini-Convening
Executive Director Amy Yaroch, Senior Research Scientist Courtney Parks and Senior Research Associate Morgan Szczepaniak attended the Nutrition Incentive Statewide Scale Mini-Convening in Philadelphia, Penn., April 11–14. This mini-convening was hosted by Fair Food Network and The Food Trust, a grantee and Nutrition Incentive Hub partner, and brought together a sub-group of nutrition incentive grantees and representatives from Center for Nutrition and Health Impact (formerly the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition) and USDA. The group explored how to structure networks, process, systems and roles to reach the administrative efficiency and momentum necessary to grow statewide program reach. Parks and Szczepaniak’s Data Management Systems and Scaling presentation aimed to help grantees consider how they may need to address or adapt technology platforms, systems, processes or staffing to be able to scale their programs effectively in the areas of firm level data, participant surveys and financial disbursements.Pictured above (left to right): Senior Research Scientist Courtney Parks, Senior Research Associate Morgan Szczepaniak, GusNIP Program Advisor Paige Williams, Executive Director Amy Yaroch
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“Harkin on Wellness Symposium
Research Associate Emily Shaw attended The Harkin Institute’s 2023 Harkin on Wellness Symposium on April 13 in Des Moines, Iowa. The goal of this annual symposium is to convene national and local practitioners, policymakers, students, educators and members of the public to discuss wellness- and nutrition-related topics. The 2023 symposium explored new approaches to improving health and food outcomes, reimagining the food system from farm to table and making such systems more sustainable. ”
“Food is Medicine Research Initiative
Principal Research Scientist Carmen Byker Shanks attended the Rockefeller Foundation and United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Food is Medicine Initiative press event on April 24 in Washington, D.C., where these organizations announced their new partnership and outlined a joint initiative to increase food security and decrease diet-related diseases among U.S. veterans. Additionally, they intend to “expand Food is Medicine programs, from medically tailored meals to produce prescription programs, at key VA healthcare facilities across the country.””
“Tufts Food is Medicine Summit
Principal Research Scientists Carmen Byker Shanks and Chris Long attended the Food is Medicine National Summit on April 26–28 in Boston, Massachusetts. Jointly hosted by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute at Tufts University, with Center for Nutrition and Health Impact (formerly the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition) as a leadership circle partner, and Executive Director Amy Yaroch on the planning committee, this summit brought together 200 healthcare system leaders, practitioners, researchers, investors, policymakers and patients with lived experience to participate in conversations centered around reimbursable, food-based health interventions.”
“44th Annual Society of Behavioral Medicine Conference
Executive Director Amy Yaroch, Senior Research Scientist Courtney Parks and Research Scientist Bailey Houghtaling attended the 44th Annual Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Conference from April 26–29 in Phoenix, Arizona. The 2023 theme, Translating Science into Impact, underscored the need for experts to translate behavioral science into real-world impact on individual and community health, policy and legislation. On April 27, Parks, Houghtaling, and Yaroch participated in a symposium entitled, Scaling Up Produce Prescription Programs for Impact, where Yaroch served as a discussant. On April 28, Yaroch participated in the symposium entitled, Child and Family Health Special Interest Group (SIG) and Health Equity SIG Present: Success, Challenges, and Future Directions for Food as Medicine Initiatives to Advance Health Equity symposium, where she presented GusNIP Produce Prescription (PPR): Where does PPR fit into Food as Medicine?”
“National WIC Association Annual Education and Training Conference
Adjunct Senior Research Scientist Jennie Hill, Senior Research Scientist Betsy Anderson Steeves, Project Coordinator Chelsea Hollowell, and Senior Research Associate Francesca Papa attended the 2023 National WIC Association (NWA) Annual Education and Training Conference from May 1–4 in San Diego, California. The conference allows Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) professionals to learn about innovative programs and practices in WIC, hear directly from United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS) staff and network with colleagues, such as state and local WIC agency staff, USDA-FNS officials, WIC service vendors/partners and WIC researchers. In partnership with USDA-FNS, Hill and Anderson Steeves co-led the WIC Online Shopping Listening Session. In this session, they provided updates on Center for Nutrition and Health Impact’s (formerly the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition) WIC Online Shopping grant and an overview of USDA-FNS’ proposed rule on online shopping in WIC. Session attendees had the opportunity to share feedback, suggestions and concerns about WIC online shopping with the Center and USDA-FNS in real time.Pictured above (left to right): Senior Research Associate Francesca Papa, Project Coordinator Chelsea Hollowell, Senior Research Scientist Betsy Anderson Steeves, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist Jennie Hill
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“Food as Medicine Summit
Executive Director Amy Yaroch attended the Food as Medicine Summit from May 10-11 in Chicago, Illinois. Yaroch co-led the session, Facilitated Multi Stakeholder Discussions: What aligned actions can we collectively implement to drive transformative change?, where small, multi stakeholder groups discussed Food as Medicine from a community, system and policy perspective, and worked to identify the action-focused approaches necessary to accelerate Food as Medicine.”
“Nutrition Incentive Hub 2023 National Convening: June 6
Center for Nutrition and Health Impact (formerly the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition) Executive Director and Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) Nutrition Incentive Program Training, Technical Assistance, Evaluation, and Information Center (NTAE) Project Director Amy Yaroch, Principal Research Scientist Carmen Byker Shanks, Principal Research Scientist Chris Long, Senior Research Scientist Courtney Parks, Associate Scientist Hollyanne Fricke, Project Coordinator for Reporting and Evaluation Joanna Akin, Project Coordinator for Technology Taylor Kaminsky, Project Coordinator for Communication and Outreach Ruth Quattro, Project Manager for Produce Prescription Programs Elise Mitchell, Research Associate Natalie Cizek and Research Associate James Marriott represented the Center at the Nutrition Incentive Hub 2023 National Convening from June 6–8 in Arlington, Virginia. This biannual event allows attendees to connect with and learn from a national network of nutrition incentive and produce prescription practitioners, Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) grantees, funders, policymakers, technology providers, researchers and more.
Pictured above (from left to right): Senior Research Scientist Courtney Parks, Program Advisor Melissa Richert Brown, Executive Director Amy Yaroch, Project Manager for Produce Prescription Programs Elise Mitchell, Project Coordinator for Technology Taylor Kaminsky, Project Coordinator for Communication and Outreach Ruth Quattro, Principal Research Scientist Carmen Byker Shanks, Project Coordinator for Reporting and Evaluation Joanna Akin, Program Advisor Kelli Wilson Begay, Associate Scientist Hollyanne Fricke, Research Associate Natalie Cizek, Principal Research Scientist Chris Long
To kick off the 2023 National Convening, Yaroch welcomed attendees alongside GusNIP NTAE Center Project Lead of Technical Assistance and Fair Food Network Chief Strategy and Program Officer, Holly Parker, providing an overview of key takeaways from GusNIP Year 3.
In the Data Visualization & Storytelling Through Maps presentation, Quattro, Mitchell and Marriott highlighted Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a computer-based tool used to capture, manage, analyze and visualize spatial or geographic data, and delved into how the Nutrition Incentive Hub and GusNIP grantees can use GIS maps to understand relationships, patterns and trends in our physical and social environments.”
“Nutrition Incentive Hub 2023 National Convening: June 7
Parks, Akin and Fricke shared information about the background, development and main findings of the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) Year 3 Impact Findings report. In this deep dive, they covered the overall economic impact and reach of GusNIP projects and took a closer look the main nutrition incentive- and produce prescription-specific results in the report.
Pictured above: Joanna Akin, project coordinator for reporting and evaluation, co-leading the deep dive session about the GusNIP Year 3 Impact Findings report alongside Courtney Parks and Hollyanne Fricke (not pictured).
Presenting Leveraging Nutrition Incentive Hub Website Tools to Strengthen Your Program, Parks and Kaminsky provided an overview and interactive examples of existing online tools on the Nutrition Incentive Hub website, including the Searchable Resource Library, Discussion Groups Portal and Grantee Dashboards Portal. They also featured the GusNIP NTAE Economic Impact Calculator, a new tool that captures the economic impact of nutrition incentive projects at brick-and-mortar and farm direct sites. The GusNIP NTAE Economic Impact Calculator is set to launch later this summer.
In two learning sessions on evolving the GusNIP produce prescription (PPR) and nutrition incentive (NI) evaluation, Yaroch, Long, Byker Shanks and Fricke highlighted GusNIP goals, GusNIP PPR and NI evaluation, key PPR- and NI-specific findings in Year 3 of GusNIP and emerging PPR and NI evaluation priorities. They also co-led a listening session which posed discussion questions about how to use GusNIP PPR and NI evaluation to advance the movement and practice of Food as Medicine, center the voices of program participants from communities that are marginalized and share participating programs’ stories.
Pictured above (from left to right): Nutrition Incentive Hub Senior Program Manager Rachel Hoh, and Principal Research Scientist Carmen Byker Shanks providing closing remarks.
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