 Free ALL IN Eats Nutrition Training Webinars for Food Entrepreneurs:
March 11, 2021 @ 5:30 pm
Sign up to join us March 11 @ 5:30 pm for FREE Nutrition Training!
Dozens of amazing food entrepreneurs in our community have been pitching in to help produce healthy, prepared meals for families in our community. To support these food entrepreneurs, we have developed ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards that provide guidelines on proportions of healthy veggies, proteins, starchy carbohydrates, and fats. As well as expert insights into selecting the ingredients that build into peoples’ wellbeing. We’ll be offering these trainings over two evening webinars, both of which are free and open to anyone:
Webinar 1: Basic ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards
- Learn what all the numbers mean and how to create menus that meet recommended nutrition guidelines
- March 11 @ 5:30 pm
Webinar 2: Culturally Appropriate Methods for Adopting ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards
- Learn from three local Chefs from our Latinx, Pan Asian, and Black communities. They’ll share their tested methods for adjusting the ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards to their culturally-creative meals to help take the guesswork out of your menus.
- Date: TBD
Sign up here for both events! - Anyone welcome!
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La Familia: COVID-19 Vaccination Town Hall Meeting
March 8-9, 4:30-6:00PM
See flyer here. O en español
Register here!
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 Free COVID Vaccination at True Ministries!
True Vine Ministries is having free vaccination for members of the community. See above flyer for details.
 ALL IN Eats Working Group Meeting Initiatives
Alameda County is going all-in for ALL IN Eats, as members of the community collaborate on a Working Group zoom call. Members across the East Bay work towards a more equitable future by contributing their ideas and expertise in the local food economy. Some propositions included outreach to established businesses and farms, more financial incentives, and organizing a better fleet or drivers to expedite the food recovery/distribution system. From each portion of the community came different ideas, but with a common goal. Find a quick summary of each breakout room here… and recording
 Advancing Food as Medicine Policy in California
The California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) is a mutli-year Medi-Cal waiver proposal that the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) plans to submit this Summer to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to succeed the current, and much smaller Medi-Cal 2020 115 waiver. DHCS's current CalAIM proposal lays out an ambitious framework to transform the state’s Medi-Cal program to improve the quality of life and health outcomes of our population. CalAIM recognizes the variety of health issues that many people have and is designed to advance whole person care approaches that address the Social Determinants of Health, reduce the complexity of the Medi-Cal system, and improve quality outcomes, reduce health disparities, and drive delivery system transformation. Where other Medicaid systems have failed to acknowledge the gaps in the healthcare system, CalAIM seeks to fill in the gaps by targeting social inequities that have left much of the population underserved. One of those gaps is the lack of attention on chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or depression which may be caused by a social determinant of health like food insecurity. .
In order to maintain a good health, we must make sure people have healthy diets and access to healthy food. Under CalAIM, dietary health issues that are addressed before hospitalization can prevent strain on the healthcare system and keep healthcare costs low. The CalAIM application to CMS provides an opportunity to improve Medi-Cal beneficiaries’ access to healthy foods through the Meals/Medically Tailored Meals/Medically Supportive Food option in the proposal’s In Lieu of Services (ILOS) component.
The inclusion of medically supportive food interventions like food/produce prescriptions, food pharmacies, and grocery boxes in the CalAIM proposal is revolutionary and would help put California ahead on a budding idea that has already seen great results in other states such as Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Oregon. To support the implementation of the Meals/Medically Tailored Meals/Medically Supportive Food ILOS option, the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation and SPUR want to better understand what medically-supportive food and nutrition interventions in California are already being implemented in health care settings and what barriers exist to scaling these interventions statewide. They have created a survey to help map California’s exiting Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition infrastructure, which we hope you can either complete or share with relevant partners.
Who should fill out the survey?
- Community based organizations & government departments who provide food based supports and either already do or want to partner with health care.
- Health insurers and health care providers who provide food based supports already or want to in the future.
Why should I fill the survey out?
- To ensure you are represented in a statewide map of MSF&N interventions in California!
- To build connections between health care and food-based support providers.
Okay, where do I go to take the survey?!
For more information about the survey, you can visit https://www.spur.org/featured-project/medically-supportive-food-and-nutrition. If you have any questions about the survey please contact Jennifer Tong at Jennifer.Tong@ucsf.edu or Katie Ettman at Kettman@SPUR.org.
Organizations such as SPUR, a nonprofit public policy organization in the Bay Area has endorsed the idea, saying, “The need for these food-based interventions in Medicaid has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which highlighted many health and social inequities, especially for Black and Brown communities….we support the inclusion of medically supportive food and nutrition interventions as an In Lieu of Services Benefit. Evidence suggests that a broad range of healthy food supports can improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs.” For more on SPUR’s statement, click here.
In addition to the CalAIM opportunity, Assemblymember Bonta has introduced AB 368, which will establish a two-year Food Prescription Pilot to provide medically supportive food to Medi-Cal beneficiaries in three counties, including Alameda County, who have one or more chronic health condition(s) with a focus on eliminating racial health disparities and reducing food and nutrition insecurity. You can the press release from Assemblymember Bonta’s Office about the legislation, which features quotes by Supervisor Wilma Chan, Dr. Steven Chen, and Dr. Larissa Estes-White.
AB 368 (Bonta) will first be heard in the State Assembly’s Health Committee (likely in early April). Organizational Letters of Support should be received by March 30th and uploaded through the Advocate Portal: https://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/. If you have any questions about AB368 (Bonta), please email Rachel Richman, Senior Policy Advisor, Medically Supportive Food, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan at Rachel.Richman@acgov.org.
Your Voice Matters!
Many organizations have come forward to support the vision of CalAIM and have written letters of support. Some organizations who have submitted a letter of support include:
- SPUR: Ideas + Action for a Better City
- Davis Street Community Center
To help Food as Medicine, write a support letter! Template here.
 Help Us Build a Better Alameda County!
UCSF, in partnership with the Center for Vulnerable populations, Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, and SPUR, is working to complete a landscape analysis of Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition (MSF&N) interventions currently being provided across California. Medically-Supportive Food and Nutrition has just been added to the state's Medicaid waiver proposal (CalAIM, page 217), and we are working to better understand the current availability of these services.
MSF&N interventions are defined as food and nutrition supports provided to patients in service of improving their health and in coordination with a medical provider. They include, but are not limited to, medically tailored meals, fruit and vegetable vouchers, and food pharmacies. To learn more, please click here.
In order to build a comprehensive map of services and providers, we ask that you, or someone who you feel best suited at your organization, fill out this survey. The survey will take no more than 10-15 minutes and asks questions including basic organizational information, types of interventions provided, intervention criteria, and funding sources. Once we have compiled answers, we will share results and a map with everyone who has participated
Again, we hope to reach every health care provider, insurer, government agency, and community-based organization providing medically-supportive food and nutrition interventions across California. Please feel free to forward this survey to the appropriate contact at your organization as well as forward it to other partners or connections you may have.
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact:
Jennifer Tong or Katie Ettman.
 The Urban Farming Internship Experience
The Youth Urban Agriculture Internship was established as a three-phase internship program with varying activities in each phase. Phase one was a 16 week internship that featured basic job training, activities on nutrition, food production, healthy cooking, and visioning and planning for the Bite Café at the REACH Ashland Youth Center. Participants would develop their action research project through engaging in hands on experiences to better understand the complexities of our food system and build opportunities to implement change in their community. At the end of the 16 weeks youth participants would be exposed to the environmental, social, medical and political implications of the food they eat, have an understanding of the college and career pathways they need to pursue careers in these fields, and have a plan of action for the Bite Café.
The Coronavirus pandemic forced the Youth Urban Agriculture Internship to pause after several weeks of engaging youth. In order to continue youth engagement despite the ‘Shelter in Place’ order, we shifted the internship outdoors to Dig Deep Farms (DDF) in Ashland. At DDF, youth learned about permaculture and regenerative growth practices. This funding from Sutter Health supported farm tools, personal protective equipment (PPE), snacks, water and gift cards for participating youth and one school-based support staff. Each intern will received stipends for the total amount of hours their participated in the program at a rate of $20-25/hour. This internship did not only provide youth with work experience but provided economic resources (stipends, transportation support) to support the youth and their families during high rates of unemployment due to the shelter in place order
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