On September 28th, the White House hosted the historic “White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.” This historic conference in our nation’s capital was the first of its kind in more than 50 years and saw the release of a new national strategy to end hunger in our country by 2030. Fortunately, the new national strategy incorporates many of the American Heart Association’s recommendations to help us build a world of longer, healthier lives!
hero_image_alt_text===Nancy Brown, Andre Scott and Bella Crowe
thumbnail===https://assets.nationbuilder.com/yourethecure/pages/29245/attachments/original/1666212066/Nancy,%20Andre%20&%20Bella%20cropped.jpg?1666212066
thumbnail_alt_text===Nancy Brown, Andre Scott and Bella Crowe
Pictured: Youth Advocates Bella Crowe and Andre Scott
American Heart Association leadership, including CEO Nancy Brown and several rockstar youth advocates attended the conference to meet with lawmakers, regulators and stakeholders to talk about how we can end hunger while improving nutrition and health in our country. Our teen advocates had a once in a lifetime opportunity to share their lived experience and highlight why investing in and improving child nutrition programs, specifically school meals are a recipe for success for future generations. They can truly say “they were in the room where it happened” when they witnessed the President unveil the new national strategy! You can also help support their efforts by contacting your Senators in support of healthier school meals by clicking this link or texting “lunch” to 46839.
Pictured: Andre Scott and Senator Cory Booker
At a high-level, the new national strategy seeks to:
- Expand healthy school meals for all and protect nutrition standards
- Expand access to Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) and SNAP to improve access to food
- Create legislation that would allow the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to test coverage of food as medicine and nutrition counseling
- Have the FDA introduce new packaging and standards to highlight healthy foods (more on that below)
- Update the voluntary sodium targets and create similar targets for added sugars
- Expand the CDC’s State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program to all U.S. states and territories and create parks and places where people can exercise
- Better coordinate and provide funding for nutrition science and research
If you want to see more from the conference please see the pictures below and be sure to follow us on Twitter!
Pictured: Andre Scott Jr and Sr with President Joe Biden
Pictured: Bella Crowe and Representative Jim McGovern
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