The Annemarie Colbin Center
for the Study of Food and Healing
and because we are a complex system interconnected with each of the above – what we eat has a profound effect on everything from the health of our unborn children to the livelihood of our local farmers to the quality of our streams and bays. With this as the context, we are excited to share that we have partnered with the goal of establishing The Annemarie Colbin Center for the Study of Food and Healing at the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland.
The Colbin Center will be the premier resource for learning about the physical, psychological, spiritual, medicinal, social, and environmental impact food has on each of us, on all of us.
The Annemarie Colbin Center for the Study of Food and Healing will:
- establish an international academic home and center for the study, research, and teaching of multidisciplinary approaches related to food and healing.
- offer undergraduate and graduate programs in health, nourishment, wellness and healing,
- prepare students to enter the work force in careers related to food and wellness,
- conduct scholarly research related to food, wellness and healing, and
- offer programs in health, nutrition and wellness to the local communities.
A Powerful Blending of Forces
Dr. Annemarie Colbin and Tai Sophia Institute recognize that now is the critical time to expand their visionary work and influence the future of food and its role in healing and wellness. Policy makers, health-care practitioners, business owners, and families are actively seeking guidance on how to follow the path Dr. Colbin and Tai Sophia Institute have taken for decades. They want – and need – to understand the role of whole, fresh and natural food for health and wellness, the medicinal uses of food, the power of self care, and the importance of nature in our lives.
Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., is a pioneer and spiritual leader in the field of food and healing. She is Founder and CEO of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City. Established in 1977, it was the first natural foods cooking school in the United States. It currently is the only cooking school licensed by the New York State Education Department and accredited to offer a Chef’s Training Program in natural foods cooking. The associated Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health offers avocational classes on healthful cooking and lectures in a variety of dietary approaches to health. Dr. Colbin is a recognized lecturer and author. Her best known book, Food and Healing, is used as a textbook in many schools of natural healing and has been translated into six languages. Her other books include The Book of Whole Meals, The Natural Gourmet, and The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones.
For more than three decades, Tai Sophia Institute, a leading, accredited graduate school for wellness studies, has been educating leaders and practitioners to become powerful healing presences and catalysts for change. The Institute’s 12-acre campus includes a teaching facility, a bookstore, a library, herbal dispensary, and the Natural Care Center. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Tai Sophia offers master’s degrees in acupuncture, herbal medicine, and transformative leadership and social change. Tai Sophia Institute also offers graduate certificates in health coaching, herbal studies, medical herbalism, transformative leadership, and wellness coaching, as well as continuing professional education and community wellness programs.
This unique partnership of Tai Sophia Institute and Dr. Colbin brings together their 70-plus years of insightful study, provocative writings and influential teaching about the role of food, health, nature and the seasons. The strength of their combined knowledge and experience will be a powerful force, promoting a more systems-oriented approach to health care and overall wellness.
A Healthier System
The Annemarie Colbin Center for the Study of Food and Healing will be an international resource for students, health-care practitioners, researchers, academicians, health policy experts, and all those who believe food can be a powerful source of healing.
The Colbin Center will ensure that Dr. Colbin’s groundbreaking and life-affirming philosophy of wholistic nutrition will benefit generations to come and further establish her legacy as a teacher and practitioner of the whole food philosophy. Tai Sophia Institute’s reputation as a leading source for wellness education makes it the natural choice to collaborate with Dr. Colbin.
We envision a campus with a faculty of experts who teach a wholistic approach to healing, a place where there are peaceful treatment areas, state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories, a café and bookstore, and an established herb garden. This underscores the understanding that our physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual selves all are connected, just as we all are connected to one another.
At The Annemarie Colbin Center for the Study of Food and Healing:
- Students will attain the education necessary to continue the vital work of Dr. Annemarie Colbin, spreading her life’s knowledge and wisdom to communities throughout the world.
- Individuals will attend classes to learn how to improve their health naturally as they enrich their understanding of what constitutes health. They will explore novel and creative approaches to food and healing, and learn how to share knowledge with their families and friends and as professionals in the greater community.
- Health-care professionals of all disciplines will learn how to supplement the care they provide by diagnosing dietary imbalances and prescribing a variety of treatments based on an individual’s unique system.
- National and international researchers will conduct studies to further our understanding of how systems – our bodies, our societies, our planet – can use food to maintain a healthy balance and ameliorate disease.
Bringing It to Fruition
Over the next 12 months our goal is to raise $5 million to launch The Colbin Center in order for academic classes to begin in September 2011. While we eventually intend to raise $16 million, early leadership gifts will fund The Colbin Center’s curriculum development, establish The Colbin Center at Tai Sophia Institute, and market its introductory programs. Of equal importance, these gifts will encourage others to contribute.
Your gift will help lead us to a future where “health care” emphasizes wellness and is far more about developing healthy populations than about treating the sick. With your support, our world will be better informed and more capable in understanding and valuing the important role food plays in our daily health and wellness.
The Annemarie Colbin Center for the Study of Food and Healing will ensure that future generations will be empowered to take responsibility for their own health, to discover the wisdom and information that their bodies provide, and to sustain themselves while sustaining the planet. We believe that those who know this in their hearts, and who have witnessed in their own lives the benefits of this approach, will want to see this become a reality in their lifetimes for the benefit of all those who follow.
Food is a source of nourishment –
- for ourselves,
- our families,
- our community,
- our country,
- our planet –
we invite you to join us in supporting the establishment of The Annemarie Colbin
Center for the Study of Food and Healing.
For further information and to learn more about opportunities to support the development of the Colbin Center, contact Advancement.