The Alliance to End Hunger praises the release of the Biden-Harris Administration National Strategy at today’s historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The strategy lays out a whole-of-government, multi-sectoral approach to address the root causes of poverty-related hunger, improve nutrition, increase physical activity, reduce diet-related diseases, and close disparities in the United States. Significantly, the plan is intended to end hunger for millions by reducing the number of households defined as having very low food security to less than 1% and by cutting the number of households defined as food insecure by 50% by 2030.
As President Biden said in his opening remarks at the conference, we must come together to meet “at this inflection point, by nourishing the soul of America – in America, no child should go to bed hungry. No parent should die of disease that can be prevented.”
The White House laudably built its strategy based on feedback from stakeholders, the general public and those with lived experience of poverty and hunger. The Alliance to End Hunger is pleased to see that many of the strategies put forth reflect the recommendations we provided to the White House based on the advocacy priorities of our membership and our own listening session. We were particularly gratified to see the plan calls for increasing access to free school meals, expanding Summer EBT, improving access to SNAP and modernizing WIC, as well as expanding food and nutrition interventions in health care settings and expanding access to culturally-appropriate foods. We now look forward to working with our diverse network to determine the action steps that will bring the plan to fruition.
More than 38 million Americans, including 11.7 million children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Food insecurity negatively impacts health, educational access, workforce readiness and business productivity. In addition, the COVID pandemic has driven food security into all corners of America, while simultaneously widening the disparities in food insecurity among individuals who are Black, Indigenous, Latino and other people of color. Now more than ever, a coordinated government effort is needed to build greater equity in the United States.
“This strategy is a beacon lighting the road we must now take,” said Eric Mitchell, Executive Director of the Alliance to End Hunger. “We look forward to discussing these ideas and recommendations with the White House and Congress to promote greater equity, improve access to nutritious foods, and ultimately ensure that every American has food on the table every day.”
