Rachel Roller joined the Milwaukee-based Dohmen Company Foundation in September, around the same time its new vision of “life without diet-related disease” was announced. Since then, DCF has unveiled two major investments toward its goal. One is a pledge of $75 million over seven years to launch Food For Health, a charitable program providing medically tailored meals to low-income individuals in southeastern Wisconsin; The Food Benefit Co., which contracts with companies to offer a food- and lifestyle-focused health benefit to employees; and a national public awareness campaign to promote healthier food choices. The other investment is a $60 million impact investment fund to support social enterprises developing food-related solutions to health outcomes. The efforts have been spotlighted by the White House as the Biden administration advances a national strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-related disease by 2030. BizTimes associate editor Maredithe Meyer recently sat down with Roller to discuss DCF’s current objectives. The following portions of their conversation are edited for length and clarity.
Promoting ‘food as medicine’
“The levers that we’re looking to pull are in support of expanding awareness about the role that food plays in optimal health, while also insuring equitable access to healthy, nutritious offerings. If you have education and you’re informed, but you don’t have a convenient solution to making those behavioral or life changes, it will not advance a healthy eating movement, which is the intent of everything we’re doing today.”
Teaming up with the White House
“Before starting with the foundation in August, I had been leading a health equity consulting practice and Dohmen was a client of mine. During that time, (President Joe Biden) had made a declaration to pull together the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health (in September 2022), with the bipartisan support of Congress. Recognizing the historic opportunity though the Biden administration – both in assembling and mobilizing this food and nutrition ecosystem across the nation and advancing these bold goals as well as policy objectives – the foundation recognized we needed a seat at that table. … It’s been a legacy opportunity for me as a leader, and for the foundation to be positioned as a lead advocate in this work within that national movement has been phenomenal. … We continue to be actively engaged with the administration and meet with them on a regular basis and provide updates on our work.”
Building public awareness
“When you’re talking about a social movement that results in a change in social norms and a change in behavior, we’ve reflected quite a bit on history and other successful movements. Tobacco is the most recent example of a success, where at one time most Americans were smoking. Today, we have that movement to thank for the fresh air we’re breathing. Taking that mental model, one of the most effective chapters in that movement was a bold public awareness strategy that really exposes the truth of the fact that our system is broken, so that’s really what we intend to do, is inform and enlighten consumers about how they need to navigate to reclaim their health and hopefully prevent these diseases from occurring. We want to serve as an advocate for the consumer and become a trusted resource. And we’re doing that by highlighting data and evidence of the proliferation of diet-related disease.”
