UC Davis Well being Govt Chef Santana Diaz was invited to take part within the White Home Starvation, Vitamin, and Well being Convention final week in Washington D.C.
Led by Members of Congress from throughout the political spectrum – together with U.S. Consultant Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, the 2022 White Home Convention was a gathering of private and non-private leaders. Their purpose was a coordinated technique to speed up progress and drive transformative change in the US to finish starvation, enhance diet and bodily exercise, and shut the disparities surrounding them.
“We have now to vary our methods, that are powerful to vary even when everybody says we have to change them,” McGovern defined. “My hope is that this convention would be the impetus to be transformational – particularly within the meals is drugs realm.”
It has been greater than 50 years for the reason that first and solely White Home Convention on Meals, Vitamin, and Well being was held in 1969. That pivotal occasion helped provoke actions that included the creation of life altering packages like faculty lunches, the Supplemental Feeding Program for Girls Infants and Kids (WIC), and adjustments to how we label meals.
“I’m humbled and proud to work in assist of the White Home Convention on Starvation, Vitamin, and Well being to assist carry higher well being to People,” Diaz stated. “I’ve all the time been obsessed with meals and empowering folks on their journey towards well being and wellness. This wonderful collaboration will permit us to assist folks on a bigger scale than ever earlier than.”
Good meals is sweet drugs
In August, Rep. McGovern and Rep. Doris Matsui, a Democrat who represents the Sacramento space visited UC Davis Medical Heart for a luncheon to debate the hospital’s “Meals as Drugs” imaginative and prescient.
Diaz defined to the representatives how the Meals and Vitamin Companies group is utilizing wholesome, domestically grown meals within the hospital cafe, at catered occasions and, most significantly, for affected person meals.
Good meals is sweet drugs. After we cut back the pointless components and preservatives of the meals we eat, educate our sufferers, guests and employees, we finally make a more healthy neighborhood.” —Santana Diaz
“Our meals service mannequin is concentrated on native sourcing, diet and style,” Diaz stated. “Good meals is sweet drugs. After we cut back the pointless components and preservatives of the meals we eat, educate our sufferers, guests and employees, we finally make a more healthy neighborhood.”
Along with the luncheon, Diaz led the representatives on a tour of the Medical Heart’s Pavilion Cafe and important commissary kitchen. All through the tour, he highlighted the group’s efforts with superior sustainability packages and defined how the kitchen produces greater than 6,500 meals a day at its three places on the Sacramento campus.
“UC Davis Well being has a mannequin that must be replicated throughout the nation,” McGovern shared throughout his go to. “We have to spotlight these finest practices to point out others how this ‘Meals as Drugs’ transformation can work.”
Spreading his message
Becoming a member of Diaz on the White Home Starvation, Vitamin, and Well being Convention in Washington D.C. have been fellow Sacramentans Rep. Matsui and Patrick Mulvaney, proprietor and chef of Mulvaney’s B&L.
“Sacramento is the Farm-to-Fork Capital, and I’m excited that native leaders Patrick Mulvaney and Santana Diaz are right here as advocates to share how they’re bettering meals entry and selling meals as drugs in our area,” Matsui posted on social media. “We have now a lot to do to extend wholesome consuming and cut back well being disparities throughout the nation, and I’m proud that Sacramento is main the progress on attaining these objectives.”
Diaz hopes UC Davis Well being‘s Meals and Vitamin Companies meals operation turns into a mannequin for different well being care amenities across the nation. A Dedication to sustainable, wholesome meals practices that promote therapeutic and long-term neighborhood well being is the last word purpose.
