Northwell to Convene Inaugural Food ‘Is’ Health Symposium

Founders of Harlem Grown, Sharing Excess, Rethink Food and West Side Campaign Against Hunger will join Northwell leadership and clinicians for the health system’s first symposium exploring the connection between nourishment and well-being

NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 47 million Americans, including one in five children, live in food-insecure households. On December 1, Northwell Health, the largest non-profit health system in the Northeast, will bring together the people working to change that. Northwell’s Institute for Community Health and Wellness and Office of Patient and Customer Experience will host the inaugural Food ‘Is’ Health Symposium, uniting clinicians, community health leaders, policymakers and nonprofit innovators to examine the vital link between food access and health outcomes. Those interested in attending virtually can register here. Start time is 9 a.m. ET.

“Food is one of the most powerful drivers of health, yet it is too often treated separately from clinical care,” said Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH, executive vice president of Northwell’s Institute for Community Health and Wellness. “This symposium will bring together the people doing the most innovative work in food access and community nutrition so that we can learn from them and build stronger partnerships across our communities.”

With a focus on how to best fuel meaningful collaborations, attendees can expect to hear from some of the nation’s foremost leaders in food insecurity and “food as health” initiatives, including:

• Tony Hillery, founder and CEO of Harlem Grown
• Evan Ehlers, founder and CEO of Sharing Excess
• Matt Jozwiak, founder and CEO of Rethink Food
• Alyson Rosenthal, chief program officer of West Side Campaign Against Hunger

“Nourishing our communities is central to our mission of improving health for everyone we serve,” said Sven Gierlinger, senior vice president and chief experience officer at Northwell. “By hearing directly from the organizations and people making a difference, others can take those lessons and best practices, implement them in their own organizations and foster creative new partnerships.”

The symposium will also feature Q&A sessions moderated by Donald Jones, founder, chairman and managing partner of Verite Capital Partners and board member of the Community Outreach and Community Health (COCH) committee. Additionally, attendees will hear directly from patients who have been helped firsthand thanks to the work being done to address food insecurity.

Proven commitment

The symposium builds on years of work already paying dividends at Northwell. In 2016, under Mr. Gierlinger’s leadership, the health system set out to transform hospital food across a system that serves well over 10 million meals annually, recruiting Bruno Tison, a Michelin-starred executive chef from New York’s Plaza Hotel and California’s Sonoma Mission Inn, who went on to hire additional chefs and team members from elite kitchens around the world. Together, they overhauled Northwell’s food service from the ground up, eliminating deep fryers, partnering with local farms and approaching hospital dining less like institutional food service and more like a restaurant. Every Northwell location now offers plant-based, whole-food options, several host on-site gardens, and the health system has committed to a 25 percent reduction in food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The system’s food transformation has been recognized, not only by achieving some of the highest patient satisfaction scores in the nation, but also by prestigious organizations. The Slow Food Organization, a global non-profit grassroots group that promotes good, clean and fair food for farmers, restaurateurs and food artisans, has awarded Northwell its prestigious “Snail of Approval” at two of its facilities. Most recently, Lenox Hill Hospital became the first in New York State to earn a five-year Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics designation from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Examples like this, as well as Northwell’s commitment to education through community-based teaching kitchens, helps define a new standard for how to treat food as health.

Across all markets, Northwell has launched 25 food as health programs designed to meet communities where they are. One such program includes Northwell’s Tower Garden initiative, 21 aeroponic, soil-free growing systems deployed in partnership with 16 schools and five senior centers and community organizations throughout Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. Since the program's inception in 2024, more than 1,500 students and 250 seniors have learned to grow and sustain their own food using this year-round vertical gardening system, helping to foster healthier eating habits and lay the groundwork for preventing chronic illness.

A community collaborative agreement with Sharing Excess, a national food rescue organization operating in 42 states and partnering with more than 200 community-based organizations, allows Northwell to explore food-related programming, from supplying produce for community events to supporting produce prescription programs and community food lockers. Complementing this work, Northwell’s Social Care Network has helped establish three community food lockers – publicly accessible, free-of-charge refrigerated units – with plans to expand this cost-effective model to additional high-need areas across the health system.

For more information about the Food ‘Is’ Health Symposium, click here.

About Northwell Health
Northwell is the largest not-for-profit health system in the Northeast, serving residents of New York and Connecticut with 28 hospitals, more than 1,000 outpatient facilities, 22,000 nurses and over 20,000 physicians. Northwell cares for more than three million people annually in the New York metro area, including Long Island, the Hudson Valley, western Connecticut and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Northwell is New York State’s largest private employer with over 108,000 employees – including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners and Nuvance Health Medical Practices – who are working to change health care for the better. Northwell, named a TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2025, is making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. Northwell is training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn.