Nourish_Commons_Course_Catalogue

Course Catalogue July 2, 2026

Welcome Welcome to the Nourish Course Catalogue!

Nourish seeks to transform mindsets, norms, habits, resource flows, and power and policy dynamics, to create regenerative food and health systems that reconnect people with land, culture, and well-being.

Deepening people’s understanding of the importance of food for health is a key pathway for creating the changes we aspire to make. Learning - at individual, organizational, and collective scales - can transform how we see ourselves, others, and the systems in which we work every day.

Our goal with these learning opportunities is to enable people working in and across food and health systems to learn from and with each other, from the natural world, and from the unique histories of place and time in which we find ourselves.

All of our learning offerings are accessible on the Nourish Commons. Become a member, sign on, and start learning!

This catalogue will be updated on an ongoing basis as we continue to develop new offerings. Check back regularly!

Contents Join the Nourish Commons

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Self-Guided Courses

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Animated Learning Journeys

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Nourish is transforming how health care systems in Canada approach food.

Mutually reinforcing food and health systems are possible – when we understand that food is more than sustenance, more than a commodity we buy.

Food is culture. Food is connection. Food is care.

As an essential part of health and healing, food can prevent disease, send it into remission, advance health equity, be a pillar of climate strategy, and be a pathway to Truth and Reconciliation. Food is regenerative - life giving - especially when we value it as such.

Started in 2016 with the McConnell Foundation, Nourish is a national charity with a mission to build more regenerative food and health systems.

We work across institutional, community, and policy scales to support healthcare institutions to harness the power of food to advance health, equity, and climate action - or planetary health, for short.

With the support of dedicated funders, champions, and members of the Nourish Commons, our network now impacts over 20 million meals across Canada through our leadership programs, as well as through partnerships with global climate leaders like the World Resources Institute.

We are recognized by The Lancet as a critical ally to health care in facing the climate crisis, and we recommit ourselves to allyship on Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous communities as a fundamental part of our organizational principles.

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20% Nourish’s network reach of national hospital meals

20M Meals reached through the Anchor Cohort

10.8M Meals impacted by Coolfood

4000+ Food is Our Medicine participants on a Truth and Reconciliation jouney

60 Organizations engaged in three national cohorts

38 Coolfood Hospitals pledged

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Join the Nourish Commons The Nourish Commons is a national membership community for collective learning, collective impact, and collective leverage focused on the power of food for health and well-being. We’re on a mission to change the way food is served in health care settings and to show the power of food as medicine. The Nourish Commons enables this mission by providing an online gathering space for our network - a space where we can gather together for shared learning, connection, and action.

All of Nourish’s self-guided courses and animated learning journeys are accessible via the Commons. You or your organization must become a member of the Nourish Commons to access learning opportunities.

Become a member of the Nourish Commons and start your learning journey today!

Explore Membership

Membership Tiers Choose the membership option that’s right for you and what you want to accomplish.

Organization Membership Join as an organization or work team. A paid membership tier designed for hospitals and health facilities serious about achieving thier strategic goals and maximizing their food for health outcomes.

Individual Professional Membership Join as an individual professional. A paid membership tier designed for individuals taking bold steps in their food for health leadership and professional development who may not have the backing of an organization.

Network Membership Join as an individual network member. An open-access membership tier designed for individuals seeking a community of changemakers, a way to stay informed, and the flexibility to build their own food for health learning journey.

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Self-Guided Courses Virtual Participation

Self-Guided Courses Set your own pace with Nourish’s self-guided courses.

Self-Guided Courses are virtual courses that you work through at your own pace. Designed as a series of modules, quizzes, reflection activities, and downloadable resources, start anytime, any place. How long you spend completing the course is up to you.

Available to all Nourish Commons members, access these courses ondemand by signing on to the Commons and navigating to the course you want to take.

Organization Members: Self-guided courses are included in your membership.

Individual Members: Self-guided courses are included in your membership.

Network Members: Self-guided courses are available to you at Network Member pricing.

When you complete a self-guided course, you will be awarded the course badge, which will appear on your Commons profile.

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Food is Our Medicine: Self-Guided Journey Overview Nourish’s Food is Our Medicine Truth and Reconciliation learning journey guides health care leaders on the history and importance of Indigenous Foodways to the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. Learners reflect on the ways organizations can meaningfully support access to traditional foods in health care. For more information, visit the FIOM page on the Nourish website.

Format

Food Is Our Medicine is based on five modules with extensive resources and reflection questions. Learners move through the course at their own pace.

Learning Objectives Recognize and value the wisdom of Indigenous foodways and the diversity of practices.

Provide health care leaders with knowledge and tools to decolonize food in health care and use it as an organizational pathway to deepen conversations about systemic racism, and Truth and Reconciliation.

Inspire action, engagement, and responsibility around Indigenous Foodways in health care settings.

Audience Health care leaders seeking to deepen their understanding of the relationships between colonization, health, and Truth and Reconciliation.

Individuals seeking to understand the importance and role of food in health and wellbeing, and the connections among food, culture, and health - particularly in relation to Indigenous foodways in health care.

This course can benefit anyone at any stage of their Truth and Reconciliation journey Indigenous and others.

“By going through Food Is Our Medicine, it reinforced for me how much we have to learn from Indigenous communities about how they practice sustainable food practices as we try to tackle our planetary health challenges.”

Elaine Eppler, Clinical Dietitian Vancouver Coastal Health

Pre-requisites None.

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Commitment Allowing a few hours to complete the required reading and reflection of the five modules, expect to spend fifteen hours on this course. To explore the deeper dive resources, allow much longer to follow your curiosity -- or revisit the course a second or third time, as many learners do.

Take this Course This course is available on-demand on the Nourish Commons. Start anytime.

Organization Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to 'Take a Course' in your Commons left-hand menu.

Individual Professional Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to 'Take a Course' in your Commons left-hand menu.

Network Members: this course is available to you at Network Member pricing. Please click here to join this course.

“The Food is our Medicine course was a helpful introduction to the team to learn and understand about the importance of food as medicine and how it relates to the community. One dietitian reflected on her experience taking the course and they feel that they can connect differently with Indigenous patients compared to previous encounters. Other team members reflected on some of the teachings from Indigenous speakers and how food is preserved for the long winter months in Northern Ontario communities.”

Team London, Nourish Third Anchor Cohort

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Getting Started with Coolfood Overview

Nourish partners with the World Resources Institute to deliver Coolfood to health care in Canada. This course provides an overview of the Coolfood Pledge and supports Coolfooders to take their first steps in data collection and reporting.

To learn more about the Coolfood Pledge, visit the Coolfood Website.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to: Describe the goals and high-level structure of the Coolfood Pledge.

Explain at a basic level why health care is well-positioned to take delicious climate action.

Identify and take their first steps towards Coolfood data collection and reporting.

Be able to champion the goals of the Coolfood Pledge with their colleagues and situate Coolfood work in the context of their organization's broader planetary health or sustainability objectives.

Audiences Any staff of a health care organization that has taken the Coolfood Pledge and who is in the early stages of getting familiar with the program.

Individuals part of organizations interested in potentially taking the Coolfood Pledge, seeking a foundational understanding of the program.

Pre-requisites None.

Commitment This course takes approximately one hour to complete, excluding optional readings.

Take this Course This course is available on-demand on the Nourish Commons. Start anytime.

Organization Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to 'Take a Course' in your Commons left-hand menu.

This course is only available to Commons Organization Members who have taken the Coolfood Pledge.

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How to Use the Bite Tracker

100MBB

Bite Tracker

Overview This course is designed to help you map your menu’s sustainability, nutrition, and equity attributes, using Nourish’s Bite Tracker.

It supports our shared goal of 100 Million Better Bites to advance planetary health and improved meals in health care. Learn more about 100 Million Better Bites here.

Whether you are just beginning to explore food system change or are already well underway, this module will help you reflect on where your menus are today and identify opportunities for progress. This is a chance to take stock of what you've achieved to date and help your team identify what goals you want to set for action this year, then track progress year-over-year.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to: Explain the purpose and structure of the Bite Tracker.

Be able to use the Bite Tracker.

Be able to make informed, reflective selections about your menu.

Audience All staff members from organizations participating in 100 Million Better Bites.

Health care leaders seeking inspiration on ways to set objectives and track outcomes on improved food quality in health care.

Pre-requisites None.

Commitment This course takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Take this Course This course is available on-demand on the Nourish Commons. Start anytime.

Organization Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to '100M Better Bites' in your Commons left-hand menu.

This course is only available to Organization Members.

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Nourishing Planetary Health Through Food: Weaving Ways of Knowing Overview

Health care is being asked to respond to a new kind of challenge: one where human health, ecological stability, and food systems are inseparable.

This course introduces many of the core ideas that guide Nourish’s work: practicing systems leadership and planetary health leadership with cultural humility. This course guides learners to deepen their awareness of the impact of health care’s food choices on planetary health. It supports learners to navigate system transformation while drawing respectfully from the wisdom of both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems.

This is a foundational course for health care leaders who are ready to move beyond incremental improvements and step into meaningful change.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to: Explain planetary health in plain language and why it matters to food in health care.

Describe why Nourish weaves Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, and what working “in a good way” can mean in practice.

Recognize how power, positionality, and institutional patterns shapes possibility.

Identify practical entry points to advance planetary health through food in your work, including elements of a planetary health food strategy your organization could lead.

Audience Health care leaders who recognize that advancing planetary health requires more than technical solutions and who are ready to lead with awareness of greater complexity.

Those who understand that engaging with Indigenous knowledge systems is not optional, and who want to do so with cultural humility, respect, and attention to power and relationship.

Individuals seeking to strengthen their ability to navigate multiple ways of knowing: to develop the awareness, judgment, and relational skills that are essential for leading meaningful change.

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Pre-requisites None.

Commitment This course takes approximately three to four hours.

Take this Course This course is available on-demand on the Nourish Commons. Start anytime.

Organization Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to 'Take a Course' in your Commons left-hand menu.

Individual Professional Members: this course is included in your membership. Please go to 'Take a Course' in your Commons left-hand menu.

Network Members: this course is available to you at Network Member pricing. Please click here to join this course.

“What Western science has concluded with EAT-Lancet is also what we see in the traditional dietary patterns of Indigenous cultures. The challenge for Canadian health care is what knowledge we can create more space for when working in relationship with elders & knowledge holders.”

Hayley Lapalme Executive Director, Nourish

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Animated Learning Journeys Virtual Participation

Animated Learning Journeys Combining the best of self-directed learning with expert guidance.

Animated learning journeys are virtual learning offerings that combine selfguided modules, readings, and reflection with live learning circles hosted by practiced knowledge holders. Cohorts of learners travel together through individual, self-directed content. At key points in this journey, Cohort members come together in live, virtual learning circles. Live sessions are hosted by one or more individuals with knowledge and lived experience in the course content, with the support of a Nourish team member.

Registration, pricing, and frequency are on a course by course basis.

When you complete an animated learning journey, you will be awarded the course badge, which will appear on your Commons profile. Additional forms of recognition vary by course - see individual course descriptions for details.

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Food is Our Medicine: Animated Learning Journey Overview

Nourish’s Food is Our Medicine Truth and Reconciliation learning journey guides health care leaders on the history and importance of Indigenous Foodways to the health and well-being of Indigenous communities.

Learners reflect on the ways organizations can meaningfully support access to traditional foods in health care. For more information, visit the FIOM page on the Nourish website.

Learning Objectives Recognize and value the wisdom of Indigenous foodways and the diversity of practices.

Provide health care leaders with knowledge and tools to decolonize food in health care and use it as an organizational pathway to deepen conversations about systemic racism, and Truth and Reconciliation.

Inspire action, engagement, and responsibility around Indigenous Foodways in health care settings.

Audience Health care leaders and food busineses seeking to deepen their understanding of the relationships between colonization, health, and Indigenous Foodways.

Individuals seeking to understand the importance and role of food in health and wellbeing, and the connections among food, culture, and health - particularly in relation to Indigenous foodways in health care.

This course can benefit anyone at any stage of their Truth and Reconciliation journey Indigenous and others.

Pre-requisites None.

Format

A mix of live virtual sessions and self-directed, asynchronous course work in between.

Food Is Our Medicine is based on five seasonal modules with extensive resources and reflection questions.

There are six, 90-minute live virtual learning circles hosted on Zoom: Welcome, Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Closing.

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Course Guides

This course is animated by Kitty RLynn Lickers with support from Hayley Lapalme and Ngaire Leaf.

Kitty RLynn Lickers Food is Our Medicine Guide, Nourish

Kitty is a grandma, auntie, mother, and a storyteller. Kitty is Onondaga from Six Nations of the Grand River. She is engaged in every kind of food activity that leads toward access and sustainability. Running cooking classes and cooking on APTN programs with chefs, Kitty believes in cooking, growing, eating, preserving, and sharing good food. Kitty teaches part time at McMaster University and works with her granddaughter. She is always striving toward sovereignty. Kitty is a firm believer in the connections to each other, land, and everything we have.

Hayley Lapalme Co-founder and Executive Director, Nourish

Hayley is a nationally recognized leader in systems transformation at the intersection of food, health equity, and climate. With over fifteen years of experience advising public institutions and senior executives across Canada, she brings a strategic and relational approach to complex change grounded in systemic design, participatory governance, and a deep commitment to reconciling relationships with Indigenous peoples and the ecosystems that sustain us. Hayley holds a B.A. from McGill University and an M.Ed. in Leadership, Adult Education, and Community Development from the University of Toronto. An eleventhgeneration French Canadian settler, Hayley lives, works, and mothers on lək̓ʷəŋən territory.

Ngaire Leaf Manager of Events & Operations, Nourish Ngaire (Ny-ree) has a background in education planning, professional development, and nonprofit work, with a focus on food security. She has helped create programs that improve children’s access to nutritious food, aiming to address hunger and inequality while supporting community well-being. In her professional development role, Ngaire has designed training and workshops for educators and community leaders. Passionate about sustainability, Ngaire embraces plant-forward food and enjoys life with her family in beautiful B.C. on the traditional unceded and ancestral territories of the q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), q̓ʷɑ:n̓ƛ̓ən̓ (Kwantlen), Máthxwi (Matsqui) and Se’mya’me (Semiahmoo) First Nations.

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Recognition Graduates are awarded a certificate upon completion.

Participants are expected to keep pace with self-directed learning in-between live sessions, and to attend and actively participate in all live sessions in order to achieve course completion.

Graduates are awarded the Nourish Commons course badge.

Take this Course

Journey

Key Dates

Registration Link

All learning circles last 90 minutes and will take place from 3:00pm - 4:30pm ET.

2026-27 Kin

September 23 October 28* December 9 February 10 April 21 June 9

Click Here to Register

*Kin registering after the September Welcome Circle will be asked to join this day early at 2:30pm ET.

Bespoke Team or Organization Kin Groups

To join this course as part of your team or organization’s group registration, you will receive a private, dedicated registration link for your team’s use. Not sure if you’re part of your organization’s group registration or would like to organize a course for your group? Contact indigenousfoodways@nourishleadership.ca.

“As an Indigenous person, this experience has helped me reconnect with my culture through teachings and knowledge that I will carry into my personal and professional life. Before Nourish, I never considered food to be medicine, even though I turned to the land for ingredients that our ancestors used to cure common ailments. [...] I now recognize that my lived experiences are valid and can play a meaningful role in driving systems change.”

Dana Marshall, Regional Food Animator - Labrador, Food First NL (Cohort 3)

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Frequently Asked Questions Do I have to become a member of the Nourish Commons to access courses?

I am interested in organizing a learning journey for my own group. Is this possible?

Yes. Nourish uses the functionality offered by the Commons to support course registration and delivery. You must sign-on to the Commons and create a profile before starting a course.

Yes - depending on our team’s capacity and what you are hoping for, Nourish can deliver custom learning journeys for your group or organization. Please email us with details of what you are hoping for, including your budget and number of learners.

I am part of an organization membership.

Do I have to pay separately for courses?

Organization and Individual Professional membership includes access to all of Nourish’s virtual self-guided courses on the Commons. Registration for virtual animated learning journeys and in-person offerings is available on an à la carte basis. Where viable, Nourish may offer discounts on course registrations to paid members.

I prefer to pay via invoice.

Can you send me one?

I have an idea for a course!

Awesome! We’d love to hear about it. Please email us.

I’m having technical difficulties!

We’re sorry to hear that! If you’re already on the Commons, please visit the Help Desk.

Otherwise, please email us.

I have a question. Who can I talk to?

Contact us at info@nourishleadership.ca.

Nourish does not provide invoices for Individual Professional Membership or individual course registrations. Please use the payment portal on the Commons.

Organizations seeking to pay for their Organization Membership can request an invoice during their onboarding process.

Do I receive any recognition when I complete a course?

Yes! For all courses, you will receive a recognition badge that will display proudly on your Nourish Commons profile. Each Nourish course has its own badge - see how many you can collect!

Graduates of Food Is Our Medicine: Animated Learning Journey receive a PDF downloadable certificate with their name and completion date.

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Nourish Course Catalogue

July 2026