Food and Society at Aspen Institute

06/17/2026

Food and good conversation bring people together. Our ED Corby Ku**er Food & Society and Bobby Flay at The Aspen Institute this Thursday sit down for wide-ranging talk on American cuisine: where it's been, where it's going, and what it means.

More: https://www.aspentimes.com/news/celebrity-chef-bobby-flay-joins-food-writer-for-free-talk-about-american-cuisine/

from The Aspen Times

06/10/2026

What if a low sodium meals plan taste like food you grew up with?

Rethink Food, a chef-led nonprofit in New York, is the only provider of halal medically tailored meals in New York State. Thirty four meals served 2017 are chef-prepared, dietician approved, and culturally specific from Caribbean stews to diabetic-friendly halal staples. One of 15 (and growing) case studies in our Food is Medicine Community Action Plan.

More: www.fimcommunity.org/rethink-food

06/09/2026

The latest from Boston Public Radio: a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's attempt to tie SNAP funding to ideological restrictions, but the damage is done. 4.3 million people have lost food benefits since early 2025, and experts say restoring them could take years.

Listen to Corby Ku**er Food & Society's full conversation on Boston Public Radio: https://aspenfood.org/2026/06/09/the-case-for-eating-your-enemies/

06/09/2026

Why "Farm to Food is Medicine" is a bigger idea than it sounds:

Most of us have heard "food is medicine." But 4P Foods is advancing something more specific: Farm to Food is Medicine.

The difference matters. Their model insists that *where* the food comes from is part of the medicine.

Sourcing locally means:
→ More nutrients (shorter time from harvest to patient)
→ More dollars staying in rural economies
→ More resilient supply chains less vulnerable to climate disruption
→ A stronger evidence base for what regenerative agriculture can do for public health

They've been doing this since 2014.

Their FLiPRx program (with Children's National Hospital + American Heart Association) launched in 2021 to improve diet quality among food-insecure families in D.C. It combines produce prescription boxes with culinary medicine education.

The lesson for healthcare, payers, and policy makers: food interventions work best when they're tied to the land they come from. That's not idealism. That's the data.

Full case study: https://www.fimcommunity.org/cases/4p-foods

05/20/2026

Spotlight: Rachel Newman, Community Health Manager at Restore OKC

Rachel's work in northeast Oklahoma City sits at the intersection of food justice, resource equity, and social determinants of health. Her passion for this work is personal — rooted in her family's relationship with food and community.

She joins us May 27 to share what food-is-medicine programming looks like when theory meets practice.

Free live webinar · 1pm ET · Register:
aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gkDLE1rpTEO7CGVZhtq8Uw

05/20/2026

May is Older Americans Month and this year, we're starting a conversation that's long overdue.

Nutrition is one of the most important drivers of health, independence, and quality of life as we age. Yet for millions of older adults, access to the right nutrition support remains out of reach.

We're proud to partner with National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs(NANASP) for a free webinar on May 29: Nourishing Aging: Nutrition Interventions and the Future of Older Adult Health.

Register free: https://aspenfood.org/2026/05/18/noursing-aging/

Friday, May 29, 2026 p.m. at 2:00 p.m. ET This is a live webinar that will be recorded. As Americans age, nutrition becomes one of the most important—and often overlooked—drivers of health, independence, functional ability, and quality of life. Older adults face unique nutritional challenges sha...

05/19/2026

Spotlight: Justin King, Policy Director at Propel

Propel builds tools for low-income Americans navigating public benefits and Justin understands SNAP not as an abstraction, but as a daily financial reality for millions of people.

He's joining Conversations on Food Justice: Part II on May 27 to discuss what SNAP restrictions look like from the inside.

Free live webinar · 1pm ET · Register:
aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gkDLE1rpTEO7CGVZhtq8Uw

05/18/2026

Spotlight: Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas

As the leader of Texas's largest network of food banks, Celia has seen firsthand what happens when SNAP policy collides with community need.

She joins us May 27: aspeninstitute.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gkDLE1rpTEO7CGVZhtq8Uw

04/23/2026

Grocery bills creeping up? Here's why and it starts with raspberries.

Corby Ku**er Food & Society joined Boston Public Radio to connect dots most people aren't connecting yet: fuel prices, fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a shrinking agricultural labor force, and an FDA loophole that's let food companies self-certify ingredient safety since 1958.

🎧 Raspberries, Ribs, and Regulatory Chaos:

Prepare for a masterclass in culinary doom-scrolling: raspberries are your new economic canary (buy them now, eat them fast), fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are about to ruin your fall salad, and Big Cereal will never, ever lower its prices. But produce might. Meanwhile, the seafo...

03/25/2026

You've seen surge pricing on airline tickets. On concert seats. On Ubers in the rain.

Now it's coming to our grocery stores.

I joined Boston Public Radio this week to flag a quiet but significant development: major supermarket chains are piloting dynamic pricing technology that adjusts what you pay based on store traffic in real time, while you shop.

"It makes sense as soon as you hear it. If they could install software to be specific to certain stores — why not? All sorts of other industries are doing it."

But grocery stores aren't airlines. Food isn't a luxury purchase you can time differently. For families already stretched by years of elevated food costs, variable pricing isn't a minor inconvenience, it's another barrier.

This is what corporate consolidation in the food system makes possible. When a handful of chains dominate the market, there's little to stop practices like this from becoming the norm.

The full Boston Public Radio segment is worth a listen: https://aspenfood.org/2026/03/18/fork-in-the-road-kitchen-abuse-drinking-less-and-our-grocery-bills/

Today on Boston Public Radio: CNN’s John King; food policy analyst Corby Ku**er; NBC Sports Boston’s Trenni Casey.Today on Curiosity Desk: Today on The Cultu...