In December 1969, President Richard Nixon convened the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health to “put an end to hunger in America for all time” and improve the nutrition for all Americans at a time when malnutrition was of urgent national concern.
The actual conference work began in the summer of 1969 when 26 advisory panels were organized to draft sets of preliminary recommendations. Another eight community-action task forces reviewed the panel recommendations and made their own observations. The conference in December yielded over 2,500 participants organized into 20 working sessions that met simultaneously.
“We had a food stamp type program before but the conference vastly expanded and augmented it, and it created the Women, Infants and Children program,” former Ag Secretary Dan Glickman said in an interview with Agri-Pulse. “It created modern school feeding programs and a lot of other programs.”
Fast forward to 2022, and President Joe Biden is once again trying to tackle this ongoing problem by convening the second White House conference on Sept. 28. The overarching goal: “End hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030, so that fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.”
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 34 million people, including 9 million children, in the United States are still food insecure.
The pillars behind the most recent White House strategy are fairly straightforward: “Improve food access and affordability; integrate nutrition and health; empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices; foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed healthy choices; and support physical activity for all.”
However, many food and farm interest groups have been eagerly awaiting more details. Those were finally released as part of a comprehensive strategy document, just one day before the conference.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the release of the Biden-Harris National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health “a defining moment for our nation.
“I am particularly excited by the strategy’s pathway to provide healthy school meals to all students. This approach would reorient the school meal programs from an ancillary service to an integral component of the school day and allow schools to focus on providing the highest quality meals and engaging children around the importance of healthy food,” Vilsack said in a statement.
Overall, the strategy relies heavily on a mix of regulatory and legislative goals, along with private sector commitments, that may take years to achieve, such as front-of-pack food labeling and the use of food as medicine. The strategy was developed by the White House’s Domestic Policy Council in consultation with more than 20 federal agencies, particularly USDA and Health and Human Services, officials said.
Administration officials who briefed reporters on the plan said a “whole of society” approach is needed and called on the food industry to “increase the availability of and access to foods that are low in sodium and added sugars—including foods meeting or exceeding Food and Drug Administration’s voluntary sodium reduction targets—and high in whole grains, particularly for the K-12 market.”
Americans can’t always find healthy alternatives to what’s in the current U.S. food supply, which the strategy says, “contains an overabundance of sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat.”
“Diet-related diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S.,” the strategy says. “New data show that 19 states and two territories have an obesity prevalence at or above 35%, more than double the number of states from 2018.”
One in every 10 Americans has diabetes, and one in three will have cancer in their lifetime, the strategy says. “And, more than 4 in 10 Americans have hypertension (high blood pressure), which is linked to the leading causes of death for Americans: heart disease and stroke.”
To expand access to healthier foods, the strategy says the administration will work with Congress “to increase the reach and impact of incentives for fruits and vegetables” in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It also plans to work with Congress to extend SNAP eligibility to more underserved populations, including formerly incarcerated people.
The administration also plans to work with Congress “to pilot coverage of medically tailored meals in Medicare,” test Medicaid coverage of nutrition education and other nutrition supports using Medicaid section 1115 demonstration projects, and expand Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries’ access to nutrition and obesity counseling.
Here are some excerpts from the strategy, focused on USDA:
• “USDA will make investments to support local and regional food and farm businesses through grants and other financial assistance for food hubs, distribution, and processing as well as technical assistance particularly in support of underserved communities to provide nutritious food to schools, food banks, and other nutrition assistance programs.”
• “USDA, through support from (American Rescue Plan) funds, will expand online shopping” in the Women, Infants and Children program.
• “USDA will continue to expand the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations Self-Determination projects, partner with Tribes on enhancements to the food package, expand the number of Indigenous and traditional foods in the Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs, and provide training and resources to school meal program operators on incorporating more Indigenous and traditional foods into school meals.”
• “USDA will work with [HHS] to help states identify individuals enrolled in one program who appear eligible for others but are not yet enrolled. For example, states could work to inform pregnant women and parents of young children enrolled in Medicaid and/or SNAP but who are not participating in WIC about WIC services.”
• “USDA will advance the WIC Modernization strategy to invest in community-based outreach, streamline the participant experience, improve the in-store experience, expand access to farmers markets, and increase diversity and cultural competency in the WIC workforce.”
• “USDA will partner with the Department of Education Social Security Administration and other agencies to increase outreach and awareness of SNAP, including to eligible college students, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.”
• “USDA will pursue rulemaking to improve access and equity and simplify TEFAP requirements for state and local program operators.”
• “USDA will work to understand and address gaps in meeting the needs of low-income individuals and families seeking cultural foods such as identifying options and expanding access to foods suitable for kosher and halal-observant communities, to better address the foodways of individuals served.”
• “USDA will work with Land-Grant Universities to develop a national workforce strategy for WIC, which could help shape the integration of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles across the broader nutrition education workforce.”
• “USDA will advance a new Healthy Meals Incentive initiative … to support schools’ efforts to improve the nutritional quality of school meals.”
The release of the strategy is just the beginning and will require ongoing work, Vilsack says.
“The strategy lays out big goals, and we need everyone—local, state, and tribal governments, Congress, private companies, nonprofit organizations, and everyday citizens’—to work together to achieve them,” he adds.
Editor’s note: Sara Wyant is publisher of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc., www.Agri-Pulse.com.
