For the whole nursing team
Community Support to Share with Patients
Lifestyle change lasts longer with company. These independent groups give patients and families somewhere to go after the visit ends, and they’re open to the nursing team, too.
🌱 Support is already here: meet Meryl and her communities
Find encouragement through Plant Based Support, explore the Plant Based Nutrition Movement’s nutrition education, and discover 6 Million SEEDS for families and schools. Choose the path that fits your next step.
🧭 Every option in one table (cost, online or local, how to join) is on our Find My Support hub. Buttons marked ↗ open independent organizations; 🏡 is our own.
One visit. One link. One small step.
Kitchen Monk™ is the free, public-facing companion to Flourishing Nursing: plain-language education patients can use at home between appointments, with no subscription, account, app, or book purchase. The nursing team can hand it off in under a minute.
- Offer one page, not the whole site. Ask what the person wants to work on, then share the single matching link.
- Use the ready-made wording. After-visit text, a portal message, a checkout script, a follow-up question, and QR links are on the Kitchen Monk healthcare-office page ↗. Run them past your organization’s compliance team before adding them to templates.
- Keep the boundary clear. It is general education, not a care plan, medical nutrition therapy, or monitored follow-up. The nurse is not the dietitian, and the website is not the clinician.
Cooking classes: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine keeps a current list of Food for Life nutrition and cooking classes, in person and online. Some are free; some charge a fee set by the instructor. Find a Food for Life class ↗
🖨️ Printable for your unit or clinic: a waiting-room poster (color and black-and-white) and take-home cards, each with a QR code to kitchenmonk.org/start-here. Download the PDF ↗ (opens in a new tab)
🔎 Patient lookup library: one free page where patients can look up 23 conditions (with free NutritionFacts.org science videos and condition-specific safety notes), recipes, the six pillars, and help for their situation, including people working on their health alone. kitchenmonk.org/look-it-up ↗ · Spanish: kitchenmonk.org/busque-ayuda ↗
🛡️ Proposed honorary Chief Medical Guardian, Spanish-Language Flourishing (pending acceptance): Dr. Eddie Ramírez, physician, researcher, and co-author of the Lifestyle Medicine textbook (3rd ed.). Profile and work →
🎬 Watch & Listen: playable videos and live podcast feeds from Dr. Ramírez, Dr. Greger (NutritionFacts.org), the Physicians Committee, PLANTSTRONG, and nurse leaders. Open Watch & Listen →
Share one link
The patient-friendly directory is on Kitchen Monk, in plain language: Find Your Plant-Powered Community ↗
- Building Healthy Communities (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine): a free worldwide network of local plant-based groups, which now includes the former PlantPure Pod Network. Some group activities may have costs. Find a community ↗
- Plant Powered Metro New York: starting Fall 2026, its online 21-Day Jumpstart is free for any adult, with a Spanish version, Reto Salud. Classes and potlucks run across the New York City metro area. Overview, events, and socials ↗
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine Find a Clinician: for patients who need individualized lifestyle medicine care. Directory ↗
Ask, match, connect, follow up
Ask what the person wants: a local group, an online option, cooking skills, or Spanish-language support. Match them to one option that fits their time, language, cost, and access. Connect by sharing the link they choose. Follow up only through your organization’s approved workflow. A shared link is not a completed referral, enrollment, or health outcome.
Sharing safely, within your role
- Medications first. Patients on glucose-lowering or blood-pressure medicines can see rapid changes when diet changes. Make sure the prescribing clinician knows before a patient starts an intensive program.
- Community is support, not treatment. Groups offer education and belonging; they don’t diagnose, adjust medicines, or replace a care plan.
- Every role can help. Certified Nursing Assistants, Licensed Practical Nurses/Licensed Vocational Nurses, Registered Nurses, and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses can all help people find community, each within their own scope and employer policy. When in doubt, share the link and loop in the nurse or clinician responsible for the care plan.
- Protect privacy. Point patients to the groups; never send their health information to any group, form, or social platform on their behalf.
- For yourself, too. These groups welcome the nursing team. Joining is always optional, and it’s never a substitute for safe staffing or fair workloads.
All groups listed are independent and have not endorsed Flourishing Nursing or Kitchen Monk™. Flourishing Nursing earns nothing from any link here: no affiliate commissions and no payments. Details checked September 29, 2026. Know a group that should be added? ✉️ Email us.
Questions, corrections, or a group to suggest? Email rfjeep@gmail.com. Please don’t include patient information.
🏃 A patient story from Nathanael: how custom-molded orthotics and steady stretching coaching got him running again after years of knee pain. Personal experience; individual results vary.
🍞 Feeding, welcoming, visiting
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
…
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Matthew 25:35–36, 40 · KJV
Excerpt from Matthew 25:35–40. Verses 37–39 are omitted.
🌿 Nathanael’s reflection: Compassion asks us to notice the conditions surrounding a person’s choices. Teaching matters, and so do affordability, safety, access, and support. Flourishing depends partly on where people live and what they can reach: food, housing, safe surroundings, healthcare, transportation, supportive relationships, time and resources to rest, and information they can understand. Difficult health circumstances are never simply a matter of motivation or spiritual commitment.
🤝 A practical step: Share one local resource, such as a food bank, a ride program, a free clinic, or a support group, with someone who might need it. Community support to share with patients
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” 
