The Ceres Community Project, a nonprofit that promotes the production of and access to healthy, sustainable food as the foundation of health, released a new report describing their efforts to advance policy and systems change to support a healthy, just, and sustainable world. Ceres provides medically tailored organic meals to families experiencing health crises.
Ceres, a CCOF partner organization, is based in Marin and Sonoma counties in California and is focused on three primary policy and systems change goals:
- Prove the case for medically tailored meals and other food as medicine interventions in improving the quality of life and outcomes for patients while reducing health care costs
- Disrupt health care to integrate medically tailored meals and other food as medicine interventions into medical care as billable and reimbursable medical costs
- Promote sustainable and organic food as a key strategy for improving health equity and addressing personal, environmental, and climate health
The report outlines effective pilot programs and research being conducted on medically tailored meals; work on the local, state, and national level to support the integration of healthy food and nutrition education into medical care; and promoting organic and sustainably raised foods.
Ceres is participating in the CCOF Foundation’s Roadmap to an Organic California project and is working with CCOF on expanding equity in organic food systems. Ceres CEO Cathryn Couch spoke at CCOF’s 2019 Annual Conference in a talk titled “The True Cost of Food: Organic is your Best Health Care Plan.”
For more information about the Ceres Community Project, visit ceresproject.org.