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ForwardSymposium Session: Integrating Food Literacy into MNT
Food literacy encompasses the knowledge, skills, and behaviors individuals need to navigate complex food environments and make informed choices that support health. However, food access, socioeconomic constraints, cultural context, and environmental factors significantly influence how individuals obtain, plan, and manage food intake. Addressing these realities requires coordinated, interprofessional care.
This session will explore the integration of food literacy into Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) within diverse and inequitable food environments. Participants will examine how structural and psychosocial factors shape dietary behaviors and identify collaborative strategies to address barriers beyond tractional nutrition counseling.
Through case-based applications, participants will clarify complementary roles, strengthen communication, and develop coordinated care plans that align nutrition guidance with resource navigation and behavioral support. By integrating clinical nutrition expertise with social determinants-focused interventions, this session promotes team-based, patient-centered approaches to improving food literacy and sustainable dietary change.
This is not a webinar or course for purchase - this is a module for credit claiming for our 2026 Spring Symposium attendees and cannot be purchased or taken by non-attendees. These sessions are exclusive to our Symposium; however, the topics may be revisited in the future in the form of a webinar or self-study course.
Learning Objectives
After completing this continuing education activity, health care professionals will be better able to:
- Define food literacy and identify its four key components: plan and manage, select, prepare, and eat.
- Describe how the components of food literacy can be applied in dietetics and social work.
- Engage in community outreach and advocate for food assistance programs that support food access and equity.
- Collaborate across the healthcare team to promote food literacy, raise awareness about food pantries, and government assistance programs to help fight food insecurity and promote nutritional health.
Additional Information
Sadé Meeks, MS, RD, is a writer, food activist, Registered Dietitian, and natural storyteller from Jackson, MS. Meeks has a Bachelor of Science degree in Culinary Arts from Mississippi University for Women and a Master of Science Degree in Nutritional Science from California State University, Los Angeles. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Growing Resilience In the South (GRITS Inc.) and an adjunct professor at Purchase College in New York. Meeks is the 2023 recipient of the John Egerton Prize by the Southern Foodways Alliance. Meeks is passionate about food and the stories they tell. She believes it is an essential tool in connecting us to our history, community, and health.
Disclosures:
The faculty and the planners of this educational activity have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.
An “ineligible company” includes any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
In support of improving patient care, Great Valley Publishing Company is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
This activity will also award credit for dietetics (CDR CPEU).
Dietitians:
This activity will also award 1.5 CDR CPEU credits for dietetics. Completion of this RD/DTR profession specific or IPCE activity awards CPEUs (One IPCE credit = One CPEU). If the activity is dietetics-related but not targeted to RDs or DTRs, CPEUs may be claimed which are commensurate with participation in contact hours (One 60-minute hour = 1 CPEU).
RDs and DTRs are to select activity type 102 in their Activity Log. Sphere and Competency selection is at the learner's discretion.
Social Workers:
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Great Valley Publishing Company is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course will receive 1.5 general type of continuing education credits.
Interprofessional:
This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 1.5 IPCE credits for learning and change.
Available Credit
- 1.00 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE)This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change.