Our Culinary Medicine Initiative is building a statewide coalition of community partners and collaborators. Some of these key stakeholders include local schools and school districts, farmers, chefs, county extension offices and Supplemental Nutritional Assistant Programs, and federally qualified community health centers. Our focus is on breaking down silos and connecting community members and organizations together to provide access to fresh healthy food and nutrition education. Our goal with developing these networks is to engage health professional students in service learning opportunities to empower communities to overcome the challenges of food insecurity and diet-sensitive diseases like diabetes.
We are currently developing models for collaboration and community impact in three pilot communities throughout Arizona including Yuma, Tucson and South Phoenix.
