Spreading the Magic of Teaching Kitchens at the 2024 Teaching Kitchen Symposium

In mid-November, our team members were privileged to speak at the Teaching Kitchen Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have been involved with the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, the host organization, for many years—and in fact met through this wonderful organization. We have continued to love to grow in our practice, partnerships, and reach with this inspiring group of professionals and friends. Three sessions at the conference provided opportunities to share our learnings from many of years in practice and research.  

Culinary Medicine Workshop

The conference opened with a culinary medicine workshop hosted at the nearby Salt Lake Culinary Education building. This session included a short time for didactic learning and answering audience questions and a comprehensive breakout cooking period for groups of participants to experience learning to cook three distinct dishes and learning about effective tactics to teach them to diverse audiences. Participants learned about key concepts such as adaptivity, patient engagement, and even specific cooking methods and tips, and clearly appreciated the opportunities to talk with and learn from one another throughout the workshop.  

Presentation About Funding Teaching Kitchen Programs

Later during the conference, Olivia spoke on a panel with Dr. Nate Wood, director of culinary medicine at Yale University, and Dr. Sian Cotton, founding director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, about how to fund development and operation of teaching kitchen. We frequently find in our consulting work and presentations that attendees’ top-priority topic is understanding how their teams can be paid for this time-consuming but important work. No sole funding source can work for every provider, and many will need to pursue and implement multiple tactics. Here are some of our common suggestions:  

Investigate what is already operating in your neighborhood and consider means to collaborate  

Use Find Help, Neighborhood Navigator, or 211 to search for existing patient-facing resources in your community so that you can refer to them

Leveraging existing budgets and teams

Consider any employee wellness and population health funds from your organization that may be allocated toward your program—and how to frame your program to align with their values and objectives

Medical billing and insurance reimbursement (whether through public or private plans); see this document for various options  

Patient registration fees (either per session or for a series/course)  

Public or private grants (see this list we compiled for examples) or other philanthropic support  

Throughout our presentation, we conveyed that an operation of any size begins with an idea and relies on a team to grow. Also, awareness is crucial for attracting support and myriad marketing efforts with local and national media can help build this awareness among key stakeholders.  

Presentation About Healthcare and Food Policy Advocacy

Just before the conference concluded, Christina presented along with Dr. Shad Marvasti, founding director of the culinary medicine program and associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, about how professionals of all backgrounds can leverage teaching kitchen experiences as powerful catalysts for systemic change through policy in both healthcare and food systems. They first reviewed the current political landscape surrounding the growing roles of lifestyle medicine and food is medicine—which intersect through culinary medicine—in healthcare and food systems and how critical food system issues affect public health. We then offered many tactics to effectively advocate for policy changes at local, state, and federal levels that can improve access to and engagement with teaching kitchens and the beneficial health outcomes that can result.  

Our team continues to seek ways to spread knowledge and resources to equip healthcare providers to implement teaching kitchens, grow their evidence base, and be advocates for positive change in the US healthcare and food systems. Contact us to learn more about our work and discuss how we can help your organization to meet your goals at christina@rewire-health.com.

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