Greta Allen, MHA, RD, grew up hiking every weekend with family and running long distance on the cross county team. So, when she first pursued a career in dietetics, she imagined working with elite athletes, optimizing their nutrition for peak performance. But a single community nutrition class changed her trajectory — one that would ultimately lead her to the front lines of food policy advocacy.

“I would like to see policy and advocacy for food and nutrition be a more called out career pathway,” Allen said. “I think dietitians carry out a unique expertise. I wasn’t told in my classes, ‘Hey, you can work in policy.’ I’d like dietitians to be more present in policy and advocacy spaces.”

Now serving as the policy director at the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, Allen is a driving force behind initiatives that center food justice policy solutions that prioritize equity, inclusivity and community-driven change. Below is the full interview.

Q. Describe your role.

A. I’m the policy director, which means I guide any of the organization’s work related to policy and community justice. As a collective impact nonprofit, we try to make an impact by change driven by local communities in Colorado. I provide internal expertise on nutrition programming and work on our priorities in the regulatory and legislative space. I try to break down barriers in the food system for everyday Coloradoans.

Q. Why did you want to work in dietetics?

A. I was always interested in “healthy eating” as a kid. My family was low income, so we benefited from programs like SNAP and the National School Lunch Program. I remember insisting that I make a salad for everyone at dinner each night in middle school, and during high school, my senior yearbook superlative was “healthiest.” So, I think my natural tendency to want to eat healthy and my family’s income led me to being hyper-aware of grocery budgets and how to balance those. When I started my dietetics program, I wanted to work with athletes in sports performance, so I tailored my undergrad to that. All of my extracurriculars focused on sports and athletics, supporting student athletes and making their meal plans based on their goals.

Q. Why did you want to work in community dietetics?

A. During my last year of my dietetics program, I took a community nutrition course. I learned more about federal nutrition programs and the intersection of food access with housing insecurity and the disenfranchisement of certain communities. So then I said, I think I want to do public health nutrition instead. My dietetic internship was at Tri-County Health Department in Colorado. The focuses of rotations were on community nutrition and the WIC program. After my internship I stayed at the health department, working full-time for WIC, then in Medicaid program access. It’s those experiences that led me to where I am now, working in policy and advocacy for nutrition and food access.

The ability to work in a social impact space that’s really supporting folks has kept me here. It aligns well with my personal values. Yes, you can provide nutrition education, but if the person doesn’t have access to food, are we really providing life-changing nutrition care? Health is a basic human right, and so is food. We can’t separate those two out.

Q. How did you get the job at your organization?

A. I had been wanting to get an opportunity working in food policy and was having trouble. Yes, I had a community nutrition-focused background, but I didn’t have a degree in policy. What really helped me get this job was networking and showing up in spaces. I was already part of the network of the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger. I was able to make connections with the staff. After getting rejected for a couple other policy jobs, I had to pivot my approach. I don’t have direct policy experience, but how can I frame the experience I do have to fit the job description and be applicable? It’s not a one-for-one, but here’s how I would transfer my skills. It took a lot of practice, and I went through a few rejections until I landed at the Blueprint.

Q. What do you like about it?

A. What I love about this job is that it’s a very social role. I love convening folks and connecting people who have shared goals for food justice work in Colorado. I love being a part of a movement, movement building with different expertise and making more access for food and food justice for people in the state. It’s also different day to day; I never know where I’ll be or who I’ll be talking to, which I really like.

Q. What has been the biggest challenge for you as a dietitian working in the industry?

A. I’m not in a traditional dietitian role. You don’t have to be a dietitian to be a policy director. So sometimes I feel lonely or like I’m not a true dietitian, at least in the ways most people would think of the profession. I would like to see policy and advocacy for food and nutrition be a more called out career pathway. I think dietitians carry out a unique expertise that can be applied to food justice. I wasn’t told in my classes, “Hey, you can work in policy.” Sometimes I wonder if I should go back to a traditional dietitian role, or can I still use my dietitian experience in non-traditional ways? I plan on moving to Massachusetts this spring and am back on the job hunt.

Q. What is one thing you wish you had known before starting your career in dietetics?

A. Everyone has an opinion on food and nutrition. Everyone eats, has to buy food and interacts with our food systems. I used to think, “Cool, I’m becoming an expert in a field.” But it’s unlike engineering or science where engineers or scientists are seen as experts with respect to their fields. I wasn’t prepared for the dismissiveness that can occur, especially in today’s media and online environment. Because it’s like, “No, I worked really hard for this degree. I worked really hard to be an expert and be science-based.” To see that dismissed or considered “special interest” is really disheartening. I wish that wasn’t something our profession has to face.

Q. Has there been anything specific that helped you move forward in your role?

A. Having really great mentors and peers. I think when you see similar folks with similar experiences and backgrounds that you’re interested in, it’s great to have a role model or mentor to look toward. That’s something that has always helped move me forward. Ever since I started my internship, I’ve had a mentor for each phase of my career, whether they knew it or not. Their role was really cool to me, and being able to talk about it and see what pathways they took was really helpful. I think it’s really great to see people doing admirable work and being able to echo that in my own work.

Q. Is there a program or initiative that you are most proud of?

A. One thing I did in my role recently was helping to create a statewide shared vision for how the Medicaid program in Colorado supports food access for members of this state. I’m really proud of how my role allowed me to identify like-minded leaders and bring folks together, including state departments, folks on Medicaid and SNAP, and community organizations. I helped identify gaps and opportunities and found ways to create a shared narrative on Food as Medicine in this state that centers people — a perspective that addresses food access first and foremost. Even moving forward, we’re going to see Colorado doing some cool things programmatically and policy wise.

Q. Have any “hot topics” in the dietetics/nutrition industry impacted the way you do things?

A. I’m frustrated with the narrative of restrictions on purchasing choice from federal programs. I’m seeing that a lot from the medical community. They’re saying we need to restrict what foods people use their benefits for and make sure they only buy “healthy” foods. People in the nutrition and dietetics space would understand what someone needs for a “healthy” diet is going to vary, and you can’t do a one-size-fits-all approach. One, is it punishes poor people for having diet patterns that are the same as all Americans. Americans across all incomes have unhealthy eating patterns. Two, is it creates a lot of burden on these federal programs and creates inefficiencies for the participant, the program and the retailer.

How would we even go about what’s “healthy?” Are we going based on calories? Fiber? Micronutrient content? Are we taking into consideration if someone is able to chew? If they have the ability to cook a meal? The paternalistic policies really concern me. Instead, we need a conversation of how to change our food system and retail environments to make it so local, fresh foods are the most affordable and most accessible. It seems like a backwards way of thinking. I really don’t like it and I’m seeing it more and more, controlling what people can buy. I think it comes from a general concern for health, but it’s not solving the issue at hand. Why is it so cheap to eat unhealthy and expensive to eat healthy? Take that question to policy makers to see what foods they purchase and spend their money on to feed their families.

Bio:

Greta Allen, MHA, RD, serves as the policy director at the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, where she oversees the organization’s policy platform and supports the work of the Blueprint’s Policy and Community Justice Team, guiding initiatives for access to healthy, affordable food and food justice through principles of inclusivity and community leadership. Greta completed her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Chico. She then moved to Colorado to complete her dietetic internship with Tri-County Health Department and masters of healthcare administration at Colorado State University. Greta has a background in local public health, working for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for WIC. Outside of social impact work, Greta loves to spend hours in thrift stores, read fantasy and historical fiction books and go on long walks in the sunshine with her husband and west highland terrier named Harlow. While she currently lives near Denver, she’s preparing to move to Massachusetts later this spring and is looking forward to new adventures — and embracing what seems like a required Dunkin’ Donuts obsession.