Key Points
- Veterans Affairs (VA) across the country offer Healthy Teaching Kitchen (HTK) programs, which teach VA-enrolled Veterans and their support persons about food, nutrition, and how to prepare and store balanced, healthy dishes.
- HTK classes are taught in person at a local VA and online via the VA Video Connect platform and range from demonstration style to hands-on and cook-along participation.
- Classes include:
- Nutrition education and discussion on different nutrients
- Meal balancing
- Grocery shopping
- Meal planning
- Cooking skills and more
- Many HTKs also include disease-specific options, such as:
- Carbohydrate-controlled cooking for diabetes
- Support for heart health
- Anti-inflammatory cooking
FIM Opportunities
Teaching kitchens are part of the broader Food Is Medicine landscape and can offer individuals an important opportunity to gain nutrition knowledge, cooking skills, and guided practice to build confidence in cooking at home.
The VA Healthy Teaching Kitchen can serve as a model for other health centers looking to expand Food Is Medicine approaches.
