2023 Hunger and Health Illinois Conference-Chicago
Registration for this even has ended.
Join us for the 2023 Hunger & Health Illinois Conference! Hosted by Illinois SNAP-Education Conference Goal: Catalyze collaboration among local, public, and regional organizations around addressing food insecurity and health. University of Illinois Extension will host two locations in May 2023. This registration will be for the Chicago location. Check-in will be held from 9:00-10:00 in the morning. A conference agenda will be available when you arrive. The cost of registration is $10. Lunch is included. Fee waivers are available.
Chicago Conference:
When: May 1, 2023
Where: Kennedy King College, 740 W 63rd Street, U Building, Chicago, IL 60621
Agenda / Breakout Session Descriptions:
10:00-10:20- Keynote or Welcome
10:30-11:00 am - Breakout Session 1 SWAP: Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) is a policy, system, and environmental intervention designed to promote the donation and selection of nutritious foods throughout the charitable food system. Food pantries working with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, have likely been hearing about SWAP as a system to rank the nutritional value of food. In this session, participants will learn more about what SWAP is and hear from a food pantry that has successfully implemented SWAP at their food pantry.
Breakout Session 2 Trauma Informed Practices: Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes, as well as provider and staff wellness. It can also help reduce avoidable care and excess costs for both the healthcare and social service sectors. Trauma-informed care seeks to: Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand paths for recovery; Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in patients, families, and staff; Integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and actively avoid re-traumatization.
11:30 am-12:45 pm- Lunch/Booths
12:45-1:45 pm- Breakout Session 3 Produce in Pantries: Food pantry guests are at the highest risk for inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables in their diet and as the excess of non-perishable foods that fill food pantry shelves keeps getting higher food pantries need innovative ideas to find fresh produce. To improve food access in our community, how can we encourage home and community gardeners to donate the excess harvest to food pantries and promote food pantry coordinators to buy reduced-priced fruits and vegetables, or start a food pantry garden?
Breakout Session 4 Cooking Demo-Lights, Camera, Action: Virtual presentations, and cooking demonstrations have become vital skills. Whether you work from home, in a pantry, at school, church, or any other area, knowing how to set up your space is a critical component of an effective food demo. Learn how to set up your online cooking class or in-person demonstration, without the stress and hassle, so you can focus on presenting.
2:00-3:00 pm- Grant Writing: A major obstacle many pantries face in their work to increase healthy foods for their guests is funding. Refrigerators, shelving, freezers, and sometimes even food can be quite expensive, and the cost is often greater than what organizations are able to receive in donations. In this session, participants will learn about strategies used by organizations to successfully receive funding and learn from funding agencies about what they look for in successful applications.
3:00 -3:20 pm: Closing action item
General Information
The event will be hosted by the
University of Illinois Extension. Please direct questions to Shirley Vouris at svouris@uic.edu.
* If you will be applying for a fee waiver, please select the check payment option. Please select this link to fill out the application for a fee waiver:
https://illinoisaces.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1z84S2blDETocNU