Focus Areas

Research

Improving access to healthy, affordable foods can help prevent and reduce health issues among children and families. Yet many families do not have access to healthy affordable foods in their neighbourhoods and communities. We conduct research that focuses on increasing access to healthy foods through grocery stores, corner stores, restaurants, mobile food vendors, farmers’ markets, and other food outlets in low-access areas including lower-income communities in urban and rural areas.

Nutrition

We Design nutritional policy frameworks for hospitals. The Policy provides a framework for a standardised approach to food and nutritional care provision by all staff. It encompasses recommendations on nutritional screening and promotes a patient centred approach to delivery of services. It aims to improve the patient’s experience of food and nutritional care in hospital. Hospital meals are considered as an integral component in the management of inward patients, which facilitate recovery and improve patient satisfaction regarding the overall treatment experience. Providing nutritionally appropriate and microbiologically safe food that satisfies the patient’s appetite is the aim of every hospital food service.

In collaboration with the Kosovo Medical Center in Pristina, we are creating a National Nutritional Standard for the children’s ward that will address the importance of nutritional care, hospital food services, challenges faced by the hospital food services, different mechanisms of operation and key indicators of food service quality and standards in a changing climate.

Care giver support

Support groups provide a safe space for caregivers to share stories, give and get advice and validation, vent, and build community.

Nutritional Support: Mindful eating, joyful movement workshops, and experiential classes on food science, kitchen empowerment, and more. Between the extremes of optimal health and death from starvation or malnutrition, there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet. Topics cover treatment, prevention, recovery and rehabilitation for hundreds of health conditions.

Emotional support: The primary value of caregiver support groups is to provide a place where caregivers can give voice to stressful experiences, strong feelings and personal frustrations in the company of others who, ideally, give verbal and head-nod agreement with the issue rather than criticism or value-laden responses that only make these difficult feelings intensify.

Skills Support: Growing your own food is one of the most satisfying aspects of self-reliance and a step toward building resilience. Buying food that is locally grown from your farmer’s market or local grocer is a great way to minimize your environmental impact, but growing your own food takes it to the next level.

There is nothing quite as rewarding as serving up a meal comprised of home-grown ingredients. Growing your own food saves money, and it provides your family with fresh, nutrition-packed produce. Plus, you get the added benefit of knowing exactly what chemicals have – and have not – been part of the growing process.

The Wisdom Keepers

How do we preserve the ancestral knowledge, wisdom, health and medicine as we collectively birth into a new world order. What protected certain parts of the world from this destruction and what did not, why are certain communities more resilient than others. The wisdom keepers is a media platform for the indigenous voice, a platform to bring ancient food practices back to the table.

Our Networks

Pipeline partners: We collaborate in a number of ways with several organizations who share our values and approach to health of people and planet. Some of these include Kosovo Medical Center, Care for Kosovo Kids, Prinses Maxima Centrum, Utrecht, AMC Health, Kosovo

Support Alliance: Primary caregiving provides an opportunity for partnerships between families, primary caregivers, and specialists (for example, mental health, medical, occupational therapists) Our advisory team boasts years of experience in facilitation of individuals and groups right from nutritional advice to emotional, mental support to yoga and energy work.