A positive side effect of the pandemic: Demand for local food is through the roof.
Marydale DeBor was honored to receive the Community Heroes ‘Food Justice Award’ from New Haven Farms at their 4th Annual Harvest Celebration & Contra Dance on October 13th. Read more about it on the New Haven Farm website.
Food Pathfinder and FA founder/director Marydale DeBor was a VP at New Milford Hospital in Connecticut when she was interviewed by Katherine Gustafson for Change Comes to Dinner. Marydale was instrumental in creating and developing Plow to Plate, a nationally recognized community- and hospital-based network of programs dedicated to combating obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. “Two years ago, DeBor moved to New Haven to start the consulting firm Fresh Advantage. She now does work similar to what she did in New Milford . . .” read the book review.
How they can help fix our health and food systems
At the National Farmers Union convention this spring, a roomful of farmers listened attentively to Marydale DeBor, who was pitching a new idea.
“I am looking for you to be doctors to the world,” she said. A board member of the New England Farmers Union and delegate to the convention, DeBor has a vision for food’s role in health care: “Food is Primary Care.” It’s the tagline for her consulting company, Fresh Advantage (www.freshadvantage.com), which works with institutions nationwide to create health-driven and mission-aligned food service operations.
Indeed, good nutrition can help address many of our nation’s health challenges. A root cause of our poor health is a food system gone wrong: ubiquitous processed food laden with excess salt, sugar and fat, along with inadequate access to healthy food for many. Poor diet contributes to public health problems of obesity and related chronic diseases – diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
For the first time in its 111 year history the National Farmers Union will hold its convention in New England and Fresh Advantage’s Marydale DeBor is pleased attend as a member of the New England Farmers Union board of directors and delegate to the national convention.
Marydale will present at a breakout session called “Scaling up to Meet Demand” which will look at how farmers can grow to meet the demand for local foods by expanding and by working with fellow family farmers through cooperatives and other organizations.