nutrition security

Several studies consistently link poor access to food to poor health outcomes, including heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Project Bread, a Massachusetts’ nonprofit focused on permanently solving food insecurity, teamed up with MassHealth to pilot the Flexible Services Program, or FSP, to bolster food security and meet nutritional needs from birth throughout childhood and beyond, improving health outcomes at every stage of life. Since April 2020, over 7,000 MassHealth members (ranging in age from 0 months to 64 years) with complex health issues were given an array of food resources, including gift cards for groceries, cooking supplies, refrigerators, cooking classes, transportation assistance, and nutrition education.

On Jan. 19, 2023, USDA participated in the first of seven regional summits focused on strengthening the intersections between healthcare and nutrition security hosted by ProMedica and The Root Cause Coalition at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Soon, many SNAP households will experience a change to their benefit amounts. That’s because the temporary pandemic-related boost to SNAP benefits, known as emergency allotments (EA), is coming to an end.

From the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, Secretary Vilsack has challenged our team to rethink USDA initiatives from an indigenous perspective. One of the most important things we do at USDA is publish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) with our partners at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These evidence-based nutrition guidelines are informed by recommendations from a committee of nutrition science experts and updated every five years.

33.8 million – that’s the number of people in the U.S. who lived in food-insecure households in 2021, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service. Fortunately, USDA and leaders like Tambra Raye Stevenson are working to tackle nutrition insecurity – especially in underserved communities.

Weeks ago, partners gathered at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to forge a future without hunger, diet-related diseases, and health disparities. Building on the momentum, USDA recently hosted Come to the Table: USDA’s National Nutrition Security and Healthcare Summit. More than 200 healthcare, federal, and community leaders came together to advance the conference goals of ensuring all Americans have the resources necessary to eat nutritious foods that support good health.

October is more than a time for crisp temperatures and vibrant autumn leaves. It’s also Farm to School Month, when USDA joins schools, farms, and community organizations across the country to celebrate the role of farm to school programs in getting healthy, locally grown foods onto children’s trays through child nutrition programs, including school breakfast and lunch.

School lunch sometimes gets a bad rap. But I am here to tell you that school lunch is amazing and looks a lot different than what you may remember if you’re a kid of the 90s, like me.

It’s an exciting day in the country as we kickoff the second, historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. It’s been more than 50 years since the last conference, which produced impactful, meaningful changes to improve USDA nutrition assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC, and school meals – all programs from which my family and I personally benefitted from when I was a child. Today, we are coming together to work towards ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities in the U.S. by 2030. Meeting this challenge will take the whole country. I hope you join this effort.

It’s official! The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health will be on September 28^th – the first of its kind in over 50 years.