Good Food in Healthcare Cohort

At the Alliance for Health Equity (AHE), we are partnering with Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), and The Doula Part to convene a learning cohort of Chicagoland hospitals that are working toward opportunities for healthy local food procurement, under the Good Food in Healthcare Cohort initiative.

This learning cohort will provide opportunities for hospital food and nutrition, sustainability and procurement leaders to come together to share strategies related to healthy local food procurement. As part of the implementation of each health system’s community health strategy and the Alliance for Health Equity Food Action Agenda, this Good Food in Healthcare Cohort will create a Learning Cohort of hospitals engaged in intentional food procurement practices, provide specialized TA to your hospital team on implementing good food practices, provide each team with education seminars and materials on good food purchasing, and provide linkages to other food justice organizations in their nearby community.

We kicked off the first meeting of the Learning Cohort in late May. Joining the cohort, we thrilled to be working with Cook County Health, Advocate Aurora Health, Rush University Medical Center, Loyola Medicine, Lurie, Children’s Hospital, Swedish Hospital (North Shore), and Northwestern Medicine. At our first meeting we focused on the one of the core competent of the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), Local Economies. We had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Weslynne Aston and Jay Qureshi on sustainability and equity in social-ecological systems.

Our next Cohort meeting will be in August and we are excited to see the next steps our Cohort members take in reshaping their food procurement standards!

If you have questions about the Good Food in Healthcare initiative, please contact us.