Get Involved|April: Food is Medicine
“If you’ve ever grown a garden, even in your backyard, you know any time you connect to your food, it’s a sacred experience. Food is medicine.”
– Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Tewa sculptor and Indigenous food activist
This story is part of The Meaning of Food, Northwest Harvest’s yearlong exploration of food’s meaning in our lives and communities.
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Food has been used for centuries across cultures for its medicinal properties, long before mainstream Western medicine or the pharmaceutical industry existed. Where Western medicine often treats symptoms with medications that may have significant side effects, traditional approaches often address health holistically through the foods we consume. Indigenous knowledge tells us that the gifts already bestowed upon us through the living, wild, abundant natural world can treat many ailments.
The ingredients to support physical and spiritual health have always been around us – in plants, herbs, trees, and fungi – an apothecary as varied and accessible as any we could desire.
Our earliest ancestors found plants to heal wounds, cure diseases, and ease troubled minds. People on all continents have long used hundreds, if not thousands, of indigenous plants for treatment of various ailments dating back to prehistory.
What many don’t realize is that 40% of the drugs behind the pharmacist’s counter in the Western world are derived from plants that people have used for centuries, including the top 20 best-selling prescription drugs in the United States today. Our current reliance on pharmaceuticals stands in stark contrast to the traditional medicinal practices that laid the groundwork for many of these medications.
Meanwhile, everyday foods provide the micro and macro-nutrients we need to support a healthy body and mind. Vegetables and fruits deliver essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, proteins, and antioxidants that can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. But experiencing these benefits requires access to healthy, safe, and affordable food – access that remains inequitable in many communities.
Food is also medicine for the spirit. As described in the Lower Elwha Tribe’s story of “How Nettles Saved the People,” traditional plant gathering creates reciprocal relationships with the earth:
“While the man slept, he had a dream and a plant came to him. It was the Nettle plant. Nettle spoke to him and said, ‘When I am growing in the springtime, I want you to have your people gather my leaves and dry them, then make them into a tea. I want all of your people to drink that tea together. And as you all drink that tea, I want the people to say in one voice ‘I will be strong for my ancestors, I will be strong for my people, I will be strong for the ones to come.’'”
Getting our hands in rich soil cultivates gratitude. Preparing plant-based medicines affirms our participation in natural cycles. Community health becomes as significant as individual wellness – we heal together.
As Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatomi botanist, explains: “The move toward a local food economy is not just about freshness and food miles and carbon footprints and soil organic matter. It is all of those things, but it’s also about the deeply human desire for connection, to be in reciprocity with the gifts that are given you.”
Archaeological sites around Puget Sound have found more than 280 plants, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, shellfish and other marine life used as traditional Coast Salish cuisine. This rich diversity of foods supported health for generations.
However, settler-colonialism, land theft, and the reservation system severely limited access to hunting, fishing, and gathering for Tribal communities, disrupting traditional food systems. Many treaties required the U.S. government to supply Native nations with food – obligations often ignored or fulfilled with nutritionally poor, culturally irrelevant options.
The health consequences have been severe. Diabetes was rare among Native peoples before the 1940s but exploded in the wake of commodity distribution. Today, Native adults contend with diabetes at nearly four times the rate of the non-Hispanic white population and are more than twice as likely to die from the disease. From 2010 to 2020, food insecurity among Native communities was roughly double, sometimes triple, the rate experienced by white Americans.
Today, Native peoples are overcoming barriers to revitalize their relationship to traditional foods despite numerous challenges – polluted shellfish beds, depleted fish runs, loss of access to land, forgotten recipes, the lure of fast food, and lifestyles that leave little time for food preparation and community feasts.
In light of accelerating climate disruption, access to traditional medicines and foodways, and the protection of natural resources that support our health is more important than ever.
Consider nettle – a plant that Skokomish elder Bruce Miller taught is an important traditional spring food and medicine. Nettles assist the kidneys in eliminating excess fluid, balance blood pH, filter waste including uric acid, and support liver function. They’re a traditional remedy for arthritis, gout, eczema and skin rashes, and many find they help alleviate allergies.
Nutritionally, nettles are over 8 times higher in magnesium than spinach and 22 times higher than kale. They contain more than 3 times the daily recommended amount of calcium and 333mg of vitamin C per 100g – more than 6 times as much as in oranges or lemons.
As modern research increasingly validates what traditional knowledge has always understood – that food profoundly affects our physical, mental, and community health – we have an opportunity to reclaim food as medicine.
By honoring diverse food traditions, expanding access to nutritious foods, and recognizing the healing potential in what we eat, we begin to restore not just individual wellness, but our collective relationship with the earth that sustains us.
Gifts From the Heart Food Bank (Coupeville, WA): “In a small community such as ours, we get to know our customers well and they feel comfortable getting in touch with us for advice or help. One woman, a single mother of three who has multiple health problems that don’t allow her to work, called to tell us she had received a “pay or vacate” notice by 4/1 from her landlord. She told us how she had not received some back child support she was expecting, did not yet have her tax forms, and did not know what she would do or where she would go. We advised her to call the Island County Human Services Dept and speak to someone in their Housing Assistance office. Now we’re waiting to see how quickly they can help her negotiate something with her landlord or find suitable other housing.”
Eagle’s Nest Community Kitchen (Kent, WA): “One of the veterans we serve in Kent expressed how he had been living alone with limited resources and often went without fresh food due to his physical limitations. Through our food delivery program, we provided him with nutritious meals and groceries. Over time, he shared that the regular food assistance significantly improved his health, and he no longer felt isolated. The emotional support of receiving food from a community service also helped him feel more connected and valued as a part of the community.”
“A family in South King County, with both parents working long hours at minimum wage jobs, struggled to find time and resources for healthy food. They shared how the pandemic had worsened their situation, with both parents losing hours at work and struggling to buy nutritious food. Our program’s delivery of culturally appropriate meals helped them maintain a healthy diet while saving them time and stress. Additionally, receiving food from our pantry helped them redirect their limited financial resources to other critical needs, such as housing and transportation.”
“A senior couple in Des Moines reached out to our organization when they became unable to get to a food bank due to mobility challenges. They had been living on limited resources and had trouble accessing healthy food due to transportation barriers. Our mobile pantry not only brought them nutritious meals but also provided a sense of connection. They shared that receiving food was just as much about the community support and social interaction as it was about nourishment, and they felt far less isolated after being connected with our services.”
How does food provide healing in your life? Whether it’s a family recipe that brings comfort during illness, ingredients that boost your energy, or traditional dishes that connect you to your heritage, your story matters in this essential conversation.
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Follow along at @NWHarvest on Instagram and Facebook, and join the conversation using #MeaningOfFood. Together, we’re weaving a deeper understanding of food’s role in creating a more equitable future.
