Identifying Opportunities to Advance Health Equity Through Correctional Facility Food Service

Student Member Price: $10.00

In order to increase diet quality and prevent chronic disease, dozens of state, city, and county governments and federal agencies have adopted healthy food service guidelines for foods served and sold in public facilities over the last decade. However, few of those policies have addressed the food in correctional facilities. As a result of long-standing systemic inequities, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and low-income populations experience higher rates of poor access to healthy food, chronic disease, and incarceration. Therefore, improving the food environment in correctional facilities is a potential strategy to advance health equity. This session will review the landscape of food and nutrition policies and practices in correctional facilities and new expert recommendations with an equity focus. The session will also feature a case study of healthy food service guideline implementation in one state's prisons.

CPE Level: Level 2 (intermediate knowledge/experience)
CPEU: 1.0

Performance Indicators

• 12.1.1 Promotes nutrition programs and resources to address issues of food security, nutritional health and overall health and wellness.
• 12.3.3 Takes into consideration any population and environmental disparities (health, availability, finances, access) when developing programs.
• 13.2.1 Adheres to and communicates relevant regulations, dietary guidelines and organization policies in menu development and implementation.

Learning Objectives

• Identify opportunities to advance health equity through correctional facility food service.
• Describe expert policy and practice recommendations for the use of healthy food service guidelines in correctional facilities.
• Identify lessons learned from the effort to implement healthy food service guidelines in the Washington State Department of Corrections.

Speakers

• Chris Mornick
• Jessi Silverman