Access to healthy food can be a big problem for underserved and rural communities, says Ashlie Thomas, a public health nutrition professional focused on how food systems, nutrition security and chronic disease prevention shape everyday health and health outcomes. But access to healthy food is just one component.
“A lot of folks don’t know what to do with the food that’s being distributed to them once they get it,” says Thomas, who is known on social media as the Mocha Gardener and who has been featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. “Through my research and through the work that I’ve been doing around North Carolina, I’ve discovered this opportunity to explore how food not only gets to people but how that nutritious food gets into the bellies of people.”
The UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral student and former Eshelman Innovation entrepreneur in residence is developing Terralink, a digital health platform that serves many functions, starting with helping groups produce and distribute nutritious food more efficiently. That includes the growing trend of hospital gardens and the “food as medicine” concept, which views nutrition as a therapeutic tool to prevent disease and manage chronic conditions.
“With that pipeline, I’m hoping that we can offer people ways to not only understand the nutritional value of the food that they’re receiving … but also how to figure out creative and smart ways, helpful ways and … delicious ways of consuming that food,” she says during the latest episode of the video series “North Carolina Innovators You Should Know,” hosted by former Eshelman Innovation Executive Director John Bamforth.
