Martha Biddle and the Work to Strengthen Food & Nutrition Security
At the College of Nursing, the path to better health doesn’t begin and end in a clinic. Sometimes, it begins with something far more basic: access to nutritious food. In support of that idea, the college is strengthening its commitment to addressing food and nutrition insecurity through the Food & Nutrition Security (FNS) cluster hire, including the addition of Professor Martha Biddle, whose work connects nutrition science, chronic disease outcomes, and health equity.
Cardiovascular Health and Food Insecurity
Biddle’s research focuses on nutrition’s role in preventing and managing cardiovascular disease, particularly for people experiencing food insecurity and those living in rural communities. Her work examines how limited access to nutritious food and the broader structural barriers to health care and healthy eating contribute to cardiovascular disparities in underserved populations.
Importance to her research is the emerging Food Is Medicine framework, which recognizes nutritious food as an essential component of health care. Within that framework, Biddle is especially interested in evaluating interventions such as medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, and nutrition education-focused programs.
Her goal is to help identify solutions that are not only effective, but also accessible, sustainable, scalable, and equitable so that nutrition-based care can reach the individuals and communities most impacted by chronic disease.
From Clinical Experience to Research Impact
Biddle’s interest in this work grew directly from what she witnessed as a clinician: patients working hard to manage chronic cardiovascular conditions while facing barriers such as cost, geography, and limited resources. In rural communities in particular, she saw how difficult it can be to access affordable, high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, an obstacle that can make long-term health goals feel out of reach.
Those experiences shaped her commitment to developing and testing safe, sustainable, nonpharmacologic approaches to chronic disease prevention and management that account for what patients face outside the hospital walls.
Why Food and Nutrition Belong in Nursing
For nursing, the connection is clear. Food and nutrition influence disease prevention, health promotion, and chronic illness management. Nurses are often the professionals most consistently positioned to see those connections play out in real time.
“Nurses care for individuals across the continuum of health and illness and are often the health care professionals who spend the most time assessing patients’ nutritional status, identifying barriers to healthy eating, providing education, and connecting patients with appropriate resources,” shared Biddle.
The overlap between nursing and nutrition becomes especially critical in conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, where health outcomes are closely tied to dietary patterns, access to food, and social determinants of health.
What the Cluster Hire Makes Possible
The FNS cluster hire creates a foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration by bringing together expertise across fields to better integrate research into education, clinical practice, and community partnerships.
Biddle notes that this shared focus positions the university to become a national leader in food and nutrition security, leveraging the strength of a land-grant university to advance a more integrated, sustainable approach to food and health systems. The cluster’s work supports solutions that address both clinical needs and the socioeconomical conditions that shape health.
For students, the impact is both practical and transformative. Through this cluster, students can gain a broader understanding of how nutrition and food access shape chronic disease outcomes, and they can engage directly in interdisciplinary research, community-based scholarship, experiential learning.
The Development and Evaluation of Food Is Medicine Interventions
For communities across Tennessee, especially rural and underserved areas, the long-term impact is equally significant. Through the land-grant mission and established community partnerships, this work can support locally informed solutions that are evidence-based, culturally responsive, and sustainable.
Over time, the cluster hire has the potential to build something lasting: a pipeline of future nurses and health professionals who understand that improving health requires more than clinical excellence. It also requires addressing the conditions in which people live, work, and access food.
Contacts:
Kara Clark Cardwell ([email protected], 865-974-9498)
Lauren Bryant ([email protected], 865-974-8250)