Culinary Medicine & Food is Medicine Program Development
Practical nutrition education that turns knowledge into real-world skills.
I help healthcare systems, universities, corporations, and community organizations build culinary medicine and Food is Medicine programs that work in the real world — from strategy and funding to curriculum, teaching kitchen design and operational systems, and hands-on training for medical professionals, staff, students, and community members. My focus is the practical nutrition education layer: the skills-based backbone that makes broader Food is Medicine efforts like Produce Prescriptions, Medically Tailored Meals, and Medically Tailored Groceries actually work, built through a structured, phased approach rather than guesswork. If you already know what you want to build, I’ll help you build it well. If you’re not sure, I’ll help build a roadmap that fits your capacity and community.
Why Now
Momentum around nutrition education is growing rapidly, but a critical gap remains: translating that knowledge into practical, everyday skills that translate to the kitchen. A new study of primary care physicians, published this year, found that 63% describe their nutrition training as inadequate, even though most value nutrition and want to help their patients with it. Physicians described their training as heavy on abstract science and light on anything they could translate into guidance a patient could use.
The researchers’ conclusion is clear: the fix isn’t simply more hours of content. Physicians need actionable frameworks they can use in a real visit — not more nutrition facts to memorize.
HHS has responded with real momentum — 73+ medical schools across 31+ states have already committed to build in at least 40 hours of nutrition education starting fall 2026. But nutrition education alone won’t be enough. Teaching nutrition isn’t the same as teaching people the skills to choose, cook, and eat well — food-first skills that meet people where they are.
And this challenge extends well beyond physicians. Across the care team — from nurses and pharmacists to registered dietitians and community health workers — professionals need practical tools for helping people turn nutrition guidance into everyday choices, cooking skills, and habits.
The same principle holds across Food is Medicine work broadly: programs like Produce Prescriptions and Medically Tailored Meals are just two examples of interventions that only work as well as the real-world skills behind them. This is exactly where skills-based nutrition education earns its place — the layer that determines whether any of it actually reaches physicians, staff, students, and the communities they serve. Culinary medicine and teaching kitchen programs are built for precisely this gap.
Culinary Medicine Program Development,
Start to Finish
Whether you’re starting from scratch or strengthening an existing program, I help organizations design and implement culinary medicine and teaching kitchen programs that hold up in the real world. The end goal is always the same: a program your team can operate and grow confidently.
Strategy & Program Design
Every program starts with a structured needs assessment — understanding the organization’s goals, constraints, and the community it serves. From there, I build a phased implementation roadmap:
- Concept development and a long-term program vision
- Stakeholder and leadership alignment, so the work has organizational buy-in
- Partnership identification and relationship development that move the program forward
- Funding strategy and alignment, including budget development
- Educational strategy for Food is Medicine and other program initiatives, including Produce Prescriptions and Medically Tailored Meals
- Outside expert engagement — from clinical specialists to grant writers — when a project calls for it
- Ongoing advisory and retainer support for organizations with evolving programs, beyond a defined project scope
Curriculum & Training
Whether building custom curriculum or adopting an existing one, I provide the training, integration, and implementation strategy needed to sustain it long-term. I can help with:
- Curriculum Development & Integration — Custom culinary medicine curriculum where it's needed, or adaptation of an existing evidence-based curriculum when that's the better fit
- Content & Resource Development — Recipe development and patient or participant education materials tailored to the setting, audience, and available equipment.
- Professional Education — Embedding culinary medicine into medical, nursing, dietetics, allied health, public health, Community Health Worker, culinary school training, and more.
- Corporate Wellness Programs — Initiatives that empower employees with the skills for healthier habits.
- Foodservice Training — Continuing education for chefs and foodservice teams in health systems, senior living communities, schools, and other institutions.
Teaching Kitchen Operations
A teaching kitchen program depends on more than the physical space — it requires the systems, materials, operations, and staff training that carry it forward. My approach is grounded in direct experience building and running teaching kitchen programs from design through implementation. Services include:
- Teaching Kitchen Design & Integration – Space planning, equipment selection, and workflow design built around how the space is intended to be used — whether dedicated, mobile, or retrofitted from an existing space. I can work alongside an architect or design firm already involved, or advise from the start.
- Program Operationalization – Standard operating procedures (SOPs), recipes, educational materials, staff training, and training guides to ensure successful implementation and sustainability.
- Culturally Relevant & Accessible Design – Programming that reflects diverse food traditions and local food access, with practical strategies for making the most of pantry staples, fresh foods, and frozen foods.
- Program Evaluation & Research Integration – Frameworks to measure outcomes, support grants, and connect with academic research opportunities.
- Flexible Programming Options – From full-scale initiatives to pilot projects and one-off workshops, I design the right level of programming to fit your goals.
Who This Is For
I support organizations that want to use food as a catalyst for meaningful change, including:
- Healthcare systems and hospitals
- Universities and academic institutions
- Rural health institutes, networks, and healthcare organizations
- Corporations and employers
- Community organizations & nonprofits
- Foodservice & culinary teams
Case Study: Food is Medicine at Land Grant University
The Opportunity
A public university’s rural health institute identified an opportunity to integrate two complementary but disconnected assets: a statewide network of rural health educators with established community reach, and a network of institutional kitchens with culinary expertise and workforce training infrastructure. Kitchens were positioned to expand from general meal production into medically tailored meal production, but lacked standardized tools to do so. Federal SNAP funding cuts enacted that year underscored the need for coordinated action, and the institute utilized grant funding to support the engagement.
The Approach
The engagement began with structured interviews with rural health education directors and institutional kitchen operators across the state. The work produced three deliverables — an Operations & Readiness Toolkit, an Outreach Toolkit, and a comprehensive Food is Medicine curriculum for medical and allied health students. Together, they equipped institutional kitchens for medically tailored meal production and prepared allied health students and culinary professionals with the practical and technical skills to deliver hands-on nutrition education. Each deliverable was designed to help participating hospitals document the programming and report it as part of their community benefit activities.
The Result
A scalable, community-anchored model now connects the state’s rural health education network and institutional kitchen infrastructure, with a built-in evaluation framework to track progress on food access, chronic disease management, and other community health outcomes as the programming scales. The work positions the state as a model for integrating culinary medicine, community nutrition, and local food systems into healthcare and education.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my organization is just getting started with culinary medicine or Food is Medicine work?
Most organizations start here. I typically begin with a structured needs assessment and recommend a pilot or phased approach to test what resonates before committing to a full build — the plan is shaped around your organization’s current readiness and resources, not a one-size-fits-all starting point.
How can a program like this be funded, and can you help secure it?
Rural Health Transformation Program funding, USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, HHS’s new medical school nutrition education initiative, and a range of other federal, state, and nonprofit foundation sources are actively supporting this kind of work right now — and that funding can cover both program infrastructure (equipment, staffing, materials) and the strategic design work itself, including bringing me on as the architect of the program. When a project requires securing funding, I partner with grant writers and fundraising professionals to help identify opportunities, build a pipeline, develop a funding strategy, and prepare a compelling case for support.
What are the first steps to building a culinary medicine program?
It starts with understanding your goals, audience, and constraints — kitchen availability, budget, and staff. From there, I help build out a plan covering everything from identifying a space and training staff to curriculum, before moving into piloting and scaling.
What kind of support do you offer for teaching kitchen design?
I can help with space planning, equipment selection, and workflow design for teaching kitchens in any format — dedicated, mobile, or retrofitted from an existing kitchen or classroom. If an architect or design firm is already involved, I work alongside them to make sure the space is built for how it will actually be utilized, not just how it looks on paper.
Can you provide long-term support?
Yes. My goal is always to help you build a program your team can run confidently — depending on scope, that can include train-the-trainer models, documentation, and operational tools designed with that in mind. But growth is part of the process, and some organizations want a continued partner as things evolve, scale, or need more content development. For those cases, I also offer retainer and ongoing advisory support.
How long does it take to build and launch a teaching kitchen program?
It depends on scope — a pilot program can often launch in a few months, while a full systems-change initiative like a statewide curriculum and toolkit build typically spans six months to a year or more. I’ll give you a realistic timeline early in the process, based on your goals, resources, and how the program is phased.