Systems Change
Nourish is a field catalyst organization that confronts the root causes of why food remains peripheral in health care. We work with leaders across multiple scales to unlock the transformative potential of food as health, in all its dimensions.
We seek to transform the mindsets, norms, habits, resource flows, as well as power and policy dynamics, to create regenerative food and health systems that reconnect people with land, culture, and well-being.
We draw from our experience in systems leadership, change management, process design, policy-making – and a deep conviction that food can advance planetary health – to do our work. We convene changemakers; facilitate collaboration across silos; prototype, test and scale innovations; surface new narratives and share stories and data that build a transition pathway to a better future.
Our Guiding Principles
Changing systems means embracing complexity
Health care and food systems are large and complex, but often remain siloed. To determine where and how best to intervene, we acknowledge and embrace complexity and a diversity of viewpoints. We engage teams of changemakers to test innovative approaches to address hurdles and scale solutions through collaboration.
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions
Social and planetary systems are complex, and made up of many regional and local systems. Meaningful solutions address the unique needs and relationships of people and communities in ways that are rooted in culture, land, and history. Signals that change is happening and that capture learning for the next iteration of work are critical.
People have to change before systems can
We consider the mindsets and beliefs that are held by, and shape, the people and dynamics that hold the current food and health systems in place. Our programs develop awareness-based systems leadership skills that reveal the shifts in beliefs and behaviours – across personal, organizational, and policy scales – that are necessary to contribute to the conditions of large-scale systems change.
Where we’ve been shapes where we go
We consciously bring history into our understanding of the problems we tackle, in particular the truth and history of colonization. Nourish is committed to listening and learning from the deep wisdom shared by Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and communities, particularly their awareness of how culture, food, and land are interconnected with well-being. We value and embrace both Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and doing, and adopt the Mi’kmak Elder Albert Marshall’s Teaching of “Two-Eyed Seeing.”
We can take a bite out of emissions
Food and a functioning health care system are priorities for us. Deliciously, solutions for the two are an interlinked way to improve planetary health.
“What an extraordinary example of how a simple change to a hospital food service model can have implications for patients (better experience), staff (joy in work), value (lower costs and reducing waste) while also holding potential to transform the way we think about hospitals – in socially responsible procurement, reducing their carbon footprint and becoming true anchoring institutions in their community. The workshop convened senior policy makers and thinkers who can advance this agenda further. Brilliant.”
~ Nourish policy workshop participant
Systems Change Resources
Tools
Transition Practice Study. From individual action to systems change: Instituting values-based food procurement
Report
Food for Health Innovation Retreat
Perspective/Stories
Nourish Hosts Lunch to Change the Future of Health Care Food
Tools