How can health care organizations support sustainable food procurement and employment opportunities that aim to address the structural drivers of health inequities?
To explore this question, check out Using Procurement to Support Sustainable Local Food Systems, the fifth episode of the Coffee & Science podcast’s Alignment and Advocacy series, hosted by the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) to discuss the roles that health care organizations can play in integrating social care at the community level.
Nessia Berner Wong, senior policy analyst at ChangeLab Solutions, teams with Lauren Poor, regional program manager in the Healthy Food in Health Care program at Health Care Without Harm, to discuss the intersectionality of food systems and creative methods for undoing the structural harms that have been sustained by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the food sector.
Berner Wong and Poor offer successful ways to increase opportunities for local food producers who have historically been excluded from institutional markets. Specifically, they discuss the work of the Anchors and Resilient Communities (ARC) initiative, which was co-convened by Health Care Without Harm. They also talk about challenges in this work — such as the siloed nature of large health care institutions — and highlight how humility and power sharing are necessary to move procurement work forward while honoring its intersectionality.
November 16, 2021