Spring 2012 Program
Topic: Integrating Regional Food System Work in Nutrition Education and Outreach
Please note: Presentations have been distributed to all registered participants. The Live Q/A Session will take place Tuesday, May 15, at 12:00p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
The growing interest by the public in regional food systems is expanding rapidly. The regional food system is complex and influenced by numerous factors including social issues, food safety, and access. These many facets of regional food systems can often cause confusion not only from consumers but also from the nutrition professionals who are working with them. The Spring 2012 Current Issues in Nutrition program discusses why and how nutrition professionals can get involved with regional food system work in order to better serve their clientele.
Speakers
Keecha Harris, DrPH, RD
Keecha Harris is Principal of KHA Inc, a public health consulting firm based in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Harris has a rich programmatic and social science perspective on regional food systems. She has led evaluations of federally and privately funded community development, food systems and child wellness efforts as well as provided project management support for organizations such as the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Dr. Harris has led team projects including a multi-state, community food policy initiative; the evaluation of an initiative aimed at increasing enrollment in the State Child Health Insurance Program for the Paso del Norte Health Foundation; the evaluation of the impacts of technical assistance provided to Communities Putting Prevention to Work grantees; the evaluation of the Champions for Healthy Kids Program for General Mills and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundations; and conducted scans on the opportunities for philanthropy to make Program Related Investments (PRIs) in food and activity for WK Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations. She is a contributing author to Whole Measure for Community Food Systems: Values Based Planning and Evaluation.
Dr. Harris is an alumnus of the inaugural class of Food and Society Fellows and was recognized by the Birmingham Business Journal as one of its 2010 Top 40 Under 40. She earned bachelors of science with honors from Iowa State University and completed master and doctoral level studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She has held teaching appointments at UAB in the School of Public Health and in the Journalism School at the University of Missouri. Keecha has served on advisory boards for the Glynwood Center Harvest Awards, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Food and Community Fellowship Program and the Girls Inc Body + Mind Initiative. Her community service includes serving on the Advisory Board for the Alys Stephens Center for Performing Arts and on the Parent Leadership Team for Spelman College. She is a former Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Objectives:
- Understand the relationships between community and regional food systems
- Understand how community food systems contribute to regional food system infrastructure
- Know how the values of sustainable agriculture align with intercultural competence and social justice
- Identify the practice elements of culturally competent, socially equitable food sytems
- Contemplate models in practice that are economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just and increase access to healthy food
- Learn about a method for evaluating progress to food systems justice: Whole Measure for Community Food Systems
Mike Hamm, PhD
Michael Hamm is the C. S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University. Mike has a B.A. in Biology from Northwestern University, Ph.D. in human nutrition from the University of Minnesota and held a NIH post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University's Institute of Human Nutrition. Mike is currently appointed in the Departments of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies; Crop and Soil Sciences; and Food Science and Human Nutrition. Prior to moving to MSU he was Dean of Academic and Student Programs for Cook College and Chair, Dept. of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University. He was co-founder and director of the New Jersey Urban Ecology Program and founding director of the Cook Student Organic Farm. At MSU he is director of the newly-created Center for Regional Food Systems - an effort to bolster MSU's teaching, research and outreach around regional, community-based food systems within Michigan and around the world. Mike has published extensively in the areas of community food security and sustainable, regional food systems. Mike is a member of the Governor-appointed Michigan Food Policy Council.
Objectives:
- Be able to describe reasons for engaging in regional food system work within a dietetics framework.
- Understand the primary components of a regional food system and how they relate to the current global food system.
- Understand the range of activities currently underway nationally and identify ways to interact.
- Understand Federal efforts with regard to regional food systems through the USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.
Past Programs
Registration is still available for past Current Issues in Nutrition programs. Each cost $35 to participate. Topics include:
Vitamin D: Sunshine or Supplement (April 2009)
Appetite, Satiety, and Body Weight Regulation (November 2009)
The Good Gut Bugs: Prebiotics and Probiotics (April 2010)
Where Does Your Food Come From and Does it Matter? (November 2010)
Shake the Salt: New Sodium Recommendations and Implications (April 2011)
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Science behind the Recommendations and Applications for Nutrition Education (November 2011)
Click here for more information or to register for a past CIN program.
