Industry stakeholders gathered at the Friedman School to explore ways to make food a focal point of health.
How can policymakers, healthcare systems, and patients themselves work to make food and nutrition the center of healthcare? That was the question nonprofit, government, and private sector leaders sought to answer at the Food is Medicine National Summit: Transforming Healthcare, held at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy recently.
“We are at a tipping point to characterize and catalyze the most promising solutions to reduce the crushing and inequitable health and economic burdens of diet-related diseases — an opportunity we must not let go to waste,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition and dean for policy at the Friedman School.
Following the summit, four community organizations and four individual leaders were honored for their work advancing nutrition security with the 2022 Jean Mayer Prize for Excellence in Nutrition Science and Policy. Supported through a gift to the Friedman School from John Hancock, the shared $100,000 prize is named after Tufts University’s tenth president, pioneering nutrition scientist Jean Mayer,
The winners were Robert Bertram (USAID), Sara Bleich (Harvard University), Ismahane Elouafi (Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.), and Oran Hesterman (Food Fair Network). The nonprofit groups About Fresh, Community Servings, Concern Worldwide, and Valid Nutrition also received honors for their groundbreaking efforts to ensure equitable access to healthy food, around Boston and beyond.
In announcing the winners, Lindsay Hanson, head of behavioral insurance, global strategy, and delivery at John Hancock, said she was “proud of the work that we've done together to advocate for the sensible solutions to the systemic challenges that face society today, including the need for greater federal nutrition research, coordination, and investments.”
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