White House Conference Takes on Hunger, Nutrition and Health; Thanks to All Organizations Who Engaged around This Deep-rooted Challenge
In the United States, millions of Americans face food insecurity and diet-related diseases, such as heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes. These diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disability in the nation. To help galvanize a movement to end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030, the White House today is hosting a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.
The CDC Foundation has been pleased to work with the White House to identify cross-sector stakeholders interested in making transformative commitments in support of the initiative. In this work, our team at the CDC Foundation connected with hundreds of organizations who stepped forward to engage around this topic and support the conference’s key pillars.
Of course, the toll of hunger is not distributed equally. The challenges that accompany hunger disproportionately impact underserved communities—communities of color, people living in rural areas, people with a disability, older adults, LGBTQI+ people, military families and military veterans.
It’s been more than 50 years since the first and only White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health. That pivotal event helped bring about actions that included the creation of programs like school lunches, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and changes to how we label foods.
You can watch a livestream of the conference that begins at 9:00 a.m. ET today (Wednesday, September 28)—learn how to watch the conference. At the conference, the new White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health will be featured.
As a former family physician and someone who has led a state public health department, I can tell you that the impact from hunger and food insecurity is a very real and extremely challenging issue. Critically, like with other national health challenges, it will take all sectors working together to have the needed impact.
Details regarding stakeholder commitments are available here. These organizations and many more engaged with our team to discuss an interest in this topic and how they might help to address this challenge.
All of these types of engagements will make a difference. Today, the CDC Foundation thanks all of these organizations (see the Foundation’s listing) for their interest and engagement. Together our impact is greater.
