Fresh focus is a podcast delivering bites of nutrition information to veterans and their family between visits. Whether you are busy with a family, retired, or more isolated, you can stay connected for you. Dietitians from the Marion VA Health Care System will deliver evidenced based, consistent information to take on today's hot topics while promoting positive health outcomes.
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.
Fresh Focus #100: Where Health Meets Healthcare at the Marion, Illinois VA
Fresh Focus Episode #100
It’s hard to believe it, but we’ve made it to our 100th episode! This milestone wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible Veterans and their family members who listen to our episodes and support Fresh Focus. As we look back, we are filled with gratitude and amazement at our episodes that have been full of insightful conversations and inspiring stories. To celebrate our 100th episode, we have invited a special guest to join us that you won’t want to miss. Listen to the Marion VA Health Care System Executive Director, Mr. Zach Sage, as he shares his love of working with Veterans and his history with the VA. He discusses how Marion, IL VA is committed to providing Veterans with safe, high-quality care they have earned and deserve. He shares his story of working his way up to becoming an Executive Director and how he has made personal lifestyle changes to focus on his own health and well-being, so he feels healthier, is able to be there for his family and do the job he needs to do to support our Veterans. He is looking forward to embracing technology and improving standard of care for staff to be able to serve Veterans to the best of his ability. Thank you to everyone who has been part of and supported the Fresh Focus Podcast (https://freshfocus.transistor.fm/episodes). Your support means the world to us. Our journey doesn’t stop here though, stay tuned for future episodes.
1 Sept 2025
Fresh Focus #99: REWIND Episode #1 Keeping it simple
For today’s rewind episode, lets take it all the way back to episode one. This episode was titled “Keeping it Simple,” and it was our kickoff episode into the healthy plate method. Anyone that has worked with knows that I am a big proponent of simplifying nutrition, removing the unnecessary complications and confusing misinformation, and getting back to basics. We know that if we build a good foundation based upon getting a consistent, balanced intake of real food, then everything else becomes so much easier. So let’s take this trip back in time and listen to Beth as she helps us to keep it simple.
4 Aug 2025
Fresh Focus #98: What is Food Security?
The Fresh Focus Podcast (https://freshfocus.transistor.fm/episodes) offers Veterans, their families, and caregivers' credible nutritional advice from VA dietitians. On this episode listen in as Victoria discusses food security and insecurity. Food insecurity in the Veteran population is an important issue that affects millions of Veterans, impacting many factors of their health and well-being. If you are facing food insecurity, grocery shopping may be extremely challenging. Tune in to find out ways to eat healthfully with many great shelf stable options and find out tips that can help with shopping on a limited budget. Your local Registered Dietitians are eager to answer any questions, assist with shopping lists, and help you reach your nutrition goals. Give us a call, connect us with your Veterans, and check out more episodes on the Fresh Focus Podcast!
Inside a recent episode
Fresh Focus #100: Where Health Meets Healthcare at the Marion, Illinois VA
Published 27 Feb 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] And so I want to do my best to have a happy and engaged team here because when that happens, I think our veterans get better health care. Consistently what I've seen is an intense interest in our organization stepping up to meet my ask about veterans experience and safety and employee experience. You know, on the veterans experience front, I think we've really made great strides to make sure we're serving our veterans in a way that they want to be treated. In fact, we have veterans that drive hundreds of miles to come to this hospital or to our clinics. driving right by some other VAs and other non-VAs because of how they feel when they're getting their care from us. […]
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