About Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute

Mission Statement

The mission of the University of Minnesota Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives (HFHL) Institute is to increase and sustain the University’s impact in the interdisciplinary arena of food, agriculture and health by building the University’s capacity in research, learning and community engagement. The priority areas for focus are food safety, prevention of obesity and chronic disease, and food policy. Within these priority areas, of special importance is the integration of agriculture and medicine.

The major goal of the HFHL Institute is to utilize and help build the strengths of the University of Minnesota in the area of food and health to advance scientific and public knowledge and influence public policy. This will be done by:

• Funding interdisciplinary research teams whose goal is the development and implementation of cutting edge extramurally funded research and training programs;

• Increasing connections and communication among researchers within the University;

• Developing cross-college programs to expand and coordinate teaching in these areas and to provide innovative training and mentoring opportunities for junior faculty, graduate and professional students and high-performing undergraduate students;

• Encouraging transdisciplinary learning, discussion, and problem solving;

• Promoting community/University partnerships to enhance community-based research and to translate University research for the benefit of Minnesota communities and to share knowledge for collaborative problem-solving; and

• Communicating University findings and their impact to the public, lawmakers and members of the agricultural, food industry and health sectors.