2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. A brief overview
Yesterday marked an extremely important time in history for the United States. We are beginning/refining the process of taking steps to reduce hunger, diet related diseases, and gaps in opportunities for people to feed themselves. The goal of this program is to increase the health of Americans by 2030, but everyone will need to do their part. As an industry professional with a background in nutrition, I have been glued to what is coming out in these smaller reports. We are at a point in history where we have an influx of data and research to begin to make positive changes. The national strategy is going to be broken down into 5 pillars. Let’s get into them.
All data related to this newsletter was collected from whitehouse.gov resources. If you would like to access the report, please follow the link below. The full report has an incredible amount of educational information, and sources.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/White-House-National-Strategy-on-Hunger-Nutrition-and-Health-FINAL.pdf
The National Strategy:
Pillar 1 – Improve Food Access and Affordability: End hunger by making it easier for everyone-including individuals in urban, suburban, rural, and tribal communities to access and afford food.
- The administration is working towards expanding the Child Tax Credit which helped cut child poverty in half in 2021
- Food insecurity will look to be reduced with the rise of the minimum wage, closing the Medicaid gap, investing in affordable childcare that comes at a reasonable price, and expanding the Housing Choice Voucher program. This program helps ensure low-income families/families with disabilities, and the elderly have access to safe and sanitary housing.
- SNAP and WIC benefits look to be increased. The last SNAP increase lifted 2.3 million individuals out of poverty in the United States
- Pillar 1 also looks to advance a pathway to free healthy school meals for all
o School lunch is so incredibly important in the development of the United States. Access to nutritious foods helps develop individuals mentally, and reduces hunger
- This is also an opportunity to invest in the community and economic development to increase access to food.
o Leveraging housing, improving transportation options to grocery stores, and enforcing antitrust laws with special attention to transactions and conduct that might lead to higher prices and reduced food access in vulnerable communities are benefits of this investment
Pillar 2 – Integrate Nutrition and Health: Prioritize the role of nutrition and food security in overall health including disease prevention and management-and ensure that our health care system address the nutrition needs of all people
- Pillar 2 looks to provide greater access to nutrition services to better prevent, manage, and treat diet-related diseases. Expanding Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to “food is medicine” is an integral part of this pillar
- Social determinants of health are a strong predictor of health outcomes. Screenings will be done more regularly to recognize root causes that affect health or identify the need to tailor care to unique individual needs.
Pillar 3- Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices: foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed, healthy choices, increase access to healthy food, encourage healthy workplace and school policies, and invest in public education campaigns that are culturally appropriate and resonate with specific communities
- “Empower consumers with update and more accessible food labeling”
o We will see new front of package labeling systems inputted to easily communicate nutrition information.
o Updated current sciences. Are current “healthy items” still healthy? Or has there been research to show that that claim is no longer accurate?
- “Create healthier food environments and a healthier food supply so the healthier choice is the easier choice”
o This will be done with expanding incentives for fruits and vegetables in SNAP
o Pillar 3 facilitates the lowering of sodium content in food
- “Support robust and tailored nutrition education”
o Updates will be made more regularly to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- It is of incredible importance that we increase the availability of food that is low in sodium and low in added sugars.
- Proposals are also being made for online grocery companies to redesign their search algorithms to have healthier items show up first
Pillar 4-Support physical activity for all: Make it easier for people to be more physically active-in part by ensuring that everyone has access to safe places to be active-increased awareness of the benefits of physical activity and conduct research on and measure physical activity
- Build environments that promote physical activity
o Connect more people to parks, especially in places with little to no nature
o Create commuter friendly cities. Make it more accessible to walk and bike to promote physical exercise
- Support robust and tailored physical activity education and promotion
o New media messages being aimed at specific age-related markets
o Increasing awareness about physical activity through improving education programs
Pillar 5-Enhance Nutrition and Food security research: Improve nutrition metrics, data collection and research to inform nutrition and food security policy, particularly on issues of equity, access and disparities
- Improve nutrition research funding
- Implement a coordinated federal vision for advancing nutrition science
- Invest in creative new approaches to advance research regarding the prevention and treatment of diet related diseases
- Research the intersection of climate change, food security, and nutrition
The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health is an incredibly important milestone in our nation’s history. Its impact will not be seen immediately, but in 5-10 years at best. These issues go hand in hand with sustainability and what we are currently trying to solve with climate crisis. Eating nutritiously, rotating crops throughout the season, and improving traceability are great ways to put the climate back on track, and to continue to ensure a robust supply chain. I’m incredibly excited to see where the future goes with food education in schools, corporate offices, and everything in between. Big changes are on the horizon!
Have a great weekend,
Stephen
