On April 8, Health Affairs held a virtual event exploring our April 2025 theme issue on food, nutrition, and health.
This event was free and open for all to attend.
The United States is facing a national epidemic of diet-related chronic disease that has led us to reevaluate our relationship with food through the lens of health.
While a range of diet and lifestyle interventions have sought to address diet-related chronic diseases, there is widespread recognition that much more work remains to be done at the federal, state, and local levels to improve access to healthy, safe, and affordable foods; eradicate hunger; and reduce health disparities.
In April 2025, Health Affairs published a theme issue on food, nutrition, and health exploring these topics. The articles highlight the relationships between food security, nutrition security, income, and health; Food is Medicine programs; innovative Medicaid initiatives; and much more.
On April 8, Health Affairs and authors of the theme issue papers discussed the major findings and insights from the issue.
Panels included:
- Opening Roundtable,
- Food is Medicine,
- Food and Nutrition Insecurity, Equity, and Justice,
- Government Programs & Policies, and
- Community Voices.
Confirmed speakers:
- Seth A. Berkowitz, Associate Professor of Medicine, Section Chief for Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Sass Borodkin, Executive Director, Resources for Organizing and Social Change
- Shuyue Deng, PhD Candidate, Food is Medicine Institute, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
- Ilana Fischer, Researcher, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
- Kaitlyn Fruin, Preventative Medicine Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles
- Kathryn Garfield, Director of Whole Person Care, Clinical Instructor, Health Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
- Kurt Hager, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Amanda Hege, Lecturer, Director of Dietetic Internship, Appalachian State University
- Sonya Jones, Executive Director, Caja Solidaria
- Jesse Lipman, Roots Food Programs Coordinator, Kokua Kalihi Valley
- John Lumpkin, President, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
- Jennifer L. Pomeranz, Associate Professor of Public Health Policy and Management, New York University
- Mary Kathryn Poole, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
- Ronit Ridberg, Research Assistant Professor, Tufts University
- Colin Schwartz, Federal Senior Advocacy Advisor, Food Is Medicine, American Heart Association
- Heather Thomas, Director, A Place to Thrive, A Place for Kids, A Place to Stand
Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Health Affairs thanks Angela Odoms-Young of Cornell University and Dariush Mozaffarian of Tufts University, who served as theme issue advisers. We thank the Episcopal Health Foundation, The Kaiser Permanente Funds at East Bay Community Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the BlueCross and BlueShield of North Carolina Foundation for their financial support of the issue and this briefing.