The Biden-Harris administration is inviting interested stakeholders to virtually attend the Sept. 28 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.
The conference aims to bring together Americans from all walks of life to help accelerate progress to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce disparities, according to a news release.
Interested persons can watch the event online and learn about the soon-to-be-released National Strategy for ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities, the release said.
Find the link to the event here.
The International Fresh Produce Association earlier submitted an 8-point plan of recommendations illustrating how fresh fruits and vegetables must be an integral part of the new national nutrition strategy to be unveiled at the White House conference.
“IFPA and its Board of Directors believe our nation’s overweight and obesity epidemic cannot be reversed without a bold, targeted, systemic approach – a ‘fruit and vegetable nutrition moonshot’ by 2030 - to increase Americans’ fruit and vegetable consumption,” IFPA CEO Cathy Burns said in a news release.
Specifically, IFPA’s recommendations call for:
- Embedding Produce Prescriptions as a covered benefit within the health system;
- Embedding a dedicated fruit and vegetable benefit within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program;
- Expanding the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program to all elementary schools that qualify under the Community Eligibility Provision, and work toward expanding program to all low-income middle and high schools;
- Recalibrating and modernizing USDA purchasing programs to address nutrition insecurity and reach additional communities and nonprofit entities;
- Promoting nutrition clarity in food labeling of fruits and vegetables at U.S. Food and Drug Administration;
- Financially incentivizing fruit and vegetables for all Americans;
- Establishing a cabinet-level national director of food and nutrition to coordinate food and nutrition security research across governmental departments; and
- Collecting and analyzing purchasing data from all federal feeding and nutrition programs as a mechanism to measure alignment with, and progress towards, achieving nutrition security
