FREE Health Equity CPE: Quarterly Spotlight on Quality - Food Insecurity: How Can Credentialed Practitioners Support the Community

Food insecurity, or the lack of access to an adequate supply of safe, nutritious food, can affect an individual’s health and well-being with consequences in their physical and mental health, as well as implications in their social systems, well-being, and school or work. The COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters have brought the importance of addressing food insecurity to improve health inequities to the surface. Food insecurity can have many causes, including personal life changes or natural disasters. Credentialed Practitioners are the nutrition and dietetics experts, and as such, bring the knowledge and understanding of human nutrition and food systems that can help support community members experiencing food insecurity, regardless of the cause. This presentation will introduce the work of community food banks, along with the role credentialed practitioners can play in supporting their goals. The session will then investigate the role of nutrition and dietetics credentialed practitioners in a community food bank and delve deeper into ways to support community members to decrease food insecurity and improve health equity.

Objectives:
• Explore food insecurity, how to identify it, and the economic, social, and systemic factors contributing to it.
• Identify opportunities for nutrition and dietetic credentialed practitioners in food bank operations and programming.
• Develop actionable strategies for credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners to enhance food security efforts in their communities.

CPE Level: 2 (Health Equity Related)

“The CPE activity application for "Quarterly Spotlight on Quality - Food Insecurity: How Can Credentialed Practitioners Can Support the Community" has been approved for 1.5 CPEUs by the Commission on Dietetic Registration.”