Episode 25: The Workings and Exploration of a Clinic Garden and Outdoor Classroom

Last week was Food Champion Week at Aliados Health. We hosted a Food Champion Roundtable event, and taped two podcast episodes related to food and nutrition. This is the second podcast episode and features Edye Kuyper from CommuniCare Health Centers.

Edye Kuyper manages CommuniCare Health Centers’ food programs that connect patients with healthy food and with each other in order to prevent and manage diet-related disease. Raised on a farm in Vermont, Edye served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Mauritania. Edye holds an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis. Prior roles include facilitating better integration of agriculture and nutrition development efforts in low-income countries, and providing technical assistance to community-based nutrition education and food security projects that engage low-income U.S. households. Edye also lectures in the Nutrition, Food and Dietetics program at CSU-Sacramento.

CommuniCare Health Centers’ (CCHC) “Food is Medicine” initiatives integrate food with the delivery of clinical services. CCHC is located in Yolo County, where agricultural traditions run deep. Programs draw on unique community strengths to address patients’ mental and physical health needs while considering environmental justice. Initiatives to date include the Garden and Outdoor Classroom, cooking classes, and produce distribution and prescriptions.

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