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Food Is Medicine: A Low-Cost, Plant-Based Cooking Class Series For Food Pantry Users, Carolyn Ellis

Senior Honors Projects

Food insecurity, defined as the limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate, safe, and acceptable food, is a major public health concern. In 2017, 15 million US households were at one point food insecure. Food insecure adults typically have poorer diet quality than food secure adults independent of poverty. Both food insecurity and poor diet quality are associated with diet sensitive chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. People who rely on food pantries are a subgroup of concern due to their limited ability to purchase food. As meat, poultry, and seafood are the most expensive items …