Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) in partnership with the Global Food Institute (GFI) at the George Washington University, hosted the Good Food for All Summit 2025 last week. This summit is part of a growing movement in the United States that seeks to improve the health of Americans by improving access to healthy foods. In hosting this event, GFI continues the work to transform people’s lives and the health of the planet by changing the way we view food’s integral role in creating a greater world.
More than a hundred representatives from all sectors in the country’s food system—including national leaders from the grocery industry, philanthropy, community investors, local government, policy makers and advocates—gathered in the University Student Center Grand Ballroom, where tables were heaped with centerpiece bowls of fresh fruit, and healthy food was served throughout the day.
Building healthier communities
The emcee for the day was Tyler Yarbrough, director of PHA’s Mississippi Delta Program, who shared a model in transforming a corner store into a community hub that provides access to fresh food at fair prices.
“It’s about building healthier communities,” he said. “One bite, one partnership, one innovation at a time.”
In a video, GFI founder José Andrés addressed the group. “Food is love,” Andrés said. “Food is community. Food is health. Food is humanity. Food is our contribution that we must share together. You’re here because you are already doing the work. You are changing lives.”
In welcoming remarks, Stacy Dean, GFI’s Carbonell Family Executive Director, said the summit convened at a time when food is at the heart of nearly all the world’s most pressing challenges.
“We know all about rising food prices. We’ve watched documentaries about the environmental challenges that come from the way we grow our food,” Dean said. “We’ve seen the dramatic photos of long lines at food banks during the pandemic. We’ve heard about the changing climate in regions of the world where there is serious and widespread hunger.”
She said the solution is working together with organizations like the D.C. Central Kitchen and other local champions that serve as beacons for increasing the availability and consumption of fresh foods and vegetables.
“The change we want and need to ensure that our food system delivers healthy food that all communities need is happening,” she said.
Nishant Roy (l), chief impact officer at Chobani, and Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO at FMI - The Food Industry Association.
The Good Good Food Campaign
PHA has been involved in reshaping the food system toward health for 15 years, according to Noreen Springstead, PHA president and CEO. She said “real lasting change only happens when we bring diverse perspectives, assets and knowledge to the table. That is the spirit of this summit.”
“We seek social impact, and we prioritize the needs of people in communities where good food is too often far out of reach,” Springstead said. “We are moving beyond the traditional charity model to one centered in dignity, choice and health.”
She described a PHA marketing campaign—The Good Good Food Campaign—that is “designed to make finding and choosing better-for-you food simpler and more engaging for everyone so you can feel good good. We all know good food powers good health.”
Working with Novo Nordisk and the International Fresh Produce Association, PHA formed partnerships with groups in cities including Denver, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Wichita, she said, “to uplift existing assets in each community.”
Perspectives across the food system
Other speakers included Sara Fleisch, Instacart director of policy research and development, whose program Instacart Health has delivered millions of servings of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables directly to low-income households in low access areas. Also presenting was Apurva Patel, director of social impact at Novo Nordisk, which along with Instacart and Amazon Access, was a major sponsor of the summit.
Nishant Roy, chief impact officer at Chobani, appeared in conversation with Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO at FMI-The Food Industry Association. He described how Chobani was able to capture a quarter of the yogurt market by providing a nutritious product at an accessible price and reducing the amount of sugar from 43g to 16g, forcing the competition to follow its example of providing healthier products.
During a panel discussion on “A Healthy America Powered by Good Food for All,” led by Amaris Bradley, senior vice president at Eat Well Global, representatives from sectors across the food landscape offered perspectives on the levers that need to be pulled to realize the power of food to build health.
Noah Cohen-Cline, director of Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, said the foundation has been working to expand the use of the Medicare and Medicaid programs states are already using “to pay for food as a standard of care, as a cost-effective solution for preventing and managing chronic disease.”
Then, he said “healthy food packages like medically tailored meals, designed by a dietitian, or a fruit and vegetable box, could be delivered privately to a person’s doorstep, or a benefit on a grocery card can be used for groceries tailored to a condition like diabetes or hypertension.”
Creating healthy corner stores
In a closing panel on “Creating Healthy Corner Stores,” Bill Dietz, GFI director of research and policy, described how PHA’s work in getting a big supplier of convenient stores to provide fresh fruits and vegetables sparked his interest in corner stores.
“It is important to view the corner store not as an isolated intervention but part of a broader food system,” Dietz said, “that extends from production to transportation to stocking, to purchasing to preparing food. These systems are unique. What is a food system in one neighborhood may not be the same as a food system in another.”
The success of the models, Healthy Corners, run by D.C.’s Central Kitchen and J’s Grocery in Clarksdale, Mississippi, that is supported by PHA, are based on a GFI analysis of social networks of people in low food access areas.
“Ultimately,” Dietz said, “these systems are going to be designed by the community, not by us.”
Equitable solutions for all
In a breakout session on the connection between access to healthy foods and the social determinants of health, Daniel Chen, associate director of research at the GW Center for Community Resilience, discussed GFI’s research in determining the barriers and solutions to accessing fresh food in low-income neighborhoods in Cincinnati and the District of Columbia where costs, transportation, isolation and unemployment are factors. This work is funded by Novo Nordisk through GFI.
“There is no single solution. No silver bullet. It is important that we are beginning to think beyond our food system,” Chen said. “The system around it has to change for everyone to be healthy.”
