By Sol Moure, Senior Associate, Nutrition Incentives
A few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to represent The Food Trust at a Mini Convening for GusNIP (a USDA program that provides grants to projects that help low-income people buy fresh fruits and vegetables) grantees in O’ahu, Hawaii.
The topic was Food, Land and Culture, and the goal was twofold: 1) to experience how GusNIP projects in Hawai’i are contributing to the health of the land and culture, and the intersections with individual health; and 2) to share successes and challenges of connecting GusNIP projects to land and culture, and come away with new ideas and approaches to try.
During the four-day convening, fellow grantees (all doing some version of SNAP-incentives or produce prescriptions) and a few partners from the Nutrition Incentive Hub visited healthcare settings that are using farms, cultural foods and edible forests as a vehicle for food access and healing, redefining what health is in the process. A central thread in our reflections was the role of local/regional food production in food security and resilience, and the many ways our programs can help strengthen them and bring equity to the forefront.
Aside from the learning and discussing, we also got knee-deep in the mud and helped weed traditional kalo (taro) patches and harvested a few things for our lunches.
I’m so deeply thankful for the opportunity and humbled by being able to represent the organization among such wonderful thought leaders in our field. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this was the experience of a lifetime.