Rooted Santa Barbara, a relatively new and very important organization focused on plant-based nutrition education, hosted its second annual Plantsgiving event on January 21. The nonprofit, which has attracted prominent advocates and partnered with key community organizations, is playing a crucial role in improving health by providing free and low-cost bilingual education and tools for individuals and organizations.
The focus, according to Chair and Executive Lead Beth Skidmore, is on serving community members with the greatest barriers to good health. In this early phase, it is working principally through healthcare workers and other direct service providers who support them — training the trainers — who each have their own broad reach in the community. Rooted’s team includes community health workers, nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, physicians, college students and professors.
About 60 supporters gathered at the Foodbank of SB County’s Nutrition Resource Center to enjoy the Plantsgiving reception and dinner and learn more about Rooted. J.D. Roth, the creator of the TV shows The Biggest Loser, MasterChef, and Extreme Weight Loss, shared insight on the challenges confronting plant-based diet advocates. Television shows are filler around commercials, not the other way around, according to Roth, and the commercials are about getting viewers to consume their food and beverages. He recounted battling the head of the network on The Biggest Loser, a show about eating better and moving more, when the network, in search of sponsorship dollars, wanted to re-name the scale the Coca Cola Scale.
In light of commercial pressures, Roth emphasized the need to create a whole movement focused on plant-based diets. He noted the great medical advances that enable us to live longer, but stressed the importance of plant-based nutrition as a determinant of the quality of that life. He lauded Rooted SB for assuming its educational role.
Skidmore paid tribute to event honorees Yvette Birch Giller and the Mosher Foundation for their support. Skidmore related how she encountered serious challenges over the past ten years in garnering local interest in plant-based diets and how Giller, president and COO of the Mosher Foundation, from the start made her feel that her mission was possible. The Foundation has provided advisory and financial support, including a $50,000 grant.
Giller eloquently shared with guests that
“What makes Rooted truly special to me and the Mosher Foundation is its commitment and investment in supporting people with the greatest barriers to good health. Rooted is pioneering nutrition education in Santa Barbara. The commitment to preventing, arresting, reversing, or delaying approximately 80% of chronic diseases through a focus on plant-based eating patterns is not only commendable, but aligns seamlessly with our shared vision for a healthier tomorrow for all.
This forward thinking approach acknowledges the critical role that education plays in fostering a community-wide shift towards healthier choices. We believe that by equipping healthcare professionals with the tools and knowledge to advocate for plant based eating, Rooted is making a lasting impact on the future of healthcare.”
Skidmore announced the launch of a $500,000 capital campaign. So far, the organization, which has the SB Foundation as its fiscal sponsor, has been a volunteer-driven effort, with contracts providing revenue to staff specific projects. Now it needs an executive director and staff for its expanding and crucially important work in our community.
Rooted has collaborated with some key local organizations. With Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI), Rooted formed the Santa Barbara Nutrition Health Coalition comprising local businesses and organizations. Upon meeting with Skidmore, SDRI’s new Director of Science Dr. Sam Klein proposed that the Coalition’s first project be plant-forward research at SDRI.
SDRI then contracted with Rooted to write the dietary curriculum and train the community health workers who will guide participants in three plant-forward, culturally-focused pilot studies in the Santa Barbara Hispanic community.
In the trainings, according to Skidmore, the community health workers leaped into the plant-based nutrition. Feedback from the workers on the benefits abounded, from losing weight to feeling better overall to saving money.
With a masters in applied clinical nutrition (MSACN) and a husband with Type 1 diabetes, Skidmore has deep knowledge and passion about the benefits of a plant-based diet for those with diabetes — lowering risk, improving, and potentially reversing Type 2 diabetes, as well as other conditions. It changed the trajectory of her husband’s life. Skidmore doesn’t proselytize; rather she softly but persuasively speaks with deep knowledge, kindness, and passion.
With the Foodbank of SB County, Rooted developed a series of two 10-day Spanish language programs for the Foodbank’s Spanish Facebook page, which reached 4,800 community members in 2022, and is still available, in English and Spanish, on Rooted’s website.
Last year, Rooted partnered with the SB Neighborhood Clinics (SBNC) to train its team on plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine. With SBNC nurse practitioner Vanessa Atyabi, it designed a nutrition education hand-out and posters with links to Rooted’s online resources. The Breast Cancer Resource Center retained Rooted to produce a ten-part series of virtual plant-based nutrition and food skills classes, which continue to be available online. Next up is trainings for Savie Health’s clinical team in Lompoc.
Set to pilot this spring and launch later in the year is a bilingual plant-based nutrition educator certification program to provide in-person training to professionals on plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine. More educators are needed, according to Skidmore, to recommend and support plant-centered eating patterns in culturally relevant ways.
Rooted is also partnering with the Foodbank and Route One Farmers Market to develop a bilingual food skills and food literacy video library targeted at food access organizations. The goal is to create a culturally relevant, bilingual online resource with background and simple tips for preparing everyday meals.
For more info or to make an online donation, go to http://rootedsantabarbara.org.
