Episode 21: The Power of Medically Tailored Meals

This episode features Cathryn Couch who is the founder and CEO of Ceres Community Project, a non-profit working to foster health by connecting people to one another and to a healthier food system. Ceres provides 150,000 organic medically tailored meals annually to primarily low-income people struggling because of a health challenge. Youth volunteers grow food and prepare the meals as part of a youth development, culinary and food system education program. Ceres has trained a dozen communities across the United States and in Denmark to replicate their model and the organization supports 8 Affiliate Programs.

Couch is the 2020 chair for the California Food is Medicine Coalition, a six-agency collaboration conducting the first statewide medically tailored meal pilot for MediCal members. Ceres is also one of four agencies currently conducting large-scale randomized control trial for medically tailored meals at Kaiser Permanente. Couch is as advisor to the Aspen Institute’s Food & Society initiative; contributed to the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2020 report Rest the Table, sits on the leadership team for Hearts of Sonoma County – a collaborative working to reduce heart attacks and strokes; and participates in Marin Food Policy Council, California Food & Farming Network, and the Food Lab at Google.

Couch previously gave a TEDx Talk in 2018 on nutritious meal delivery, which can be viewed here.

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