Culinary Health Institute (CHI)
Program overview
The Culinary Health Institute’s mission is to understand how different growing methods for food impact nutrient quality, and how that nutrient quality impacts chronic illness. We also aim to improve access to healthy foods for underserved communities. In collaboration with medical schools, we aim to educate the next generation of doctors and allied health professionals on the impact of whole food, plant-forward diets and the importance of other lifestyle changes to heal the body.
Active Areas
1.
We recently completed a pilot program to deliver healthy, disease-specific meals to outpatients, and we are currently expanding this program to provide a greater reach.
2.
We are working to better understand how therapeutic horticulture impacts high school students.
3.
We are looking at how multiple lifestyle interventions — such as yoga, therapeutic horticulture, culinary education, and resilience training — can help strengthen urban communities.
4.
We are assessing different growing methods and how they impact nutrient quality of the food that is produced.
5.
We are working with medical students to improve knowledge of the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on various disease states.
6.
We are building a culinary kitchen to educate communities and physicians on how to prepare healthy food.
7.
We are hosting community education events on nutrition and lifestyle changes to reduce chronic illness.