President Joe Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
“Too many families don’t know where they’re going to get their next meal,” Biden said in a video announcing the conference,” said Biden. “Too many empty chairs around the kitchen table because a loved one was taken by heart disease, diabetes or other diet-oriented diseases, which are some of the leading causes of death in our country.”
Millions of Dollars to Host the Event
Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, led an effort to get the White House to host the conference and pushed for $2.5 million to be allocated in a government funding package to host the event.
But this isn’t the first hunger event to be hosted at the White House.
Your Next Meal
The last time the White House hosted a conference focused on food insecurity was more than 50 years ago, when President Richard Nixon hosted the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health in 1969. That confab led to expansions of the food stamp program and the school lunch program, creation of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and improved nutrition labeling.
Conference speakers include President Joe Biden, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Chef Jose Andres.
Susan Rice, prefaced the event in a statement saying “no one should have to wonder where their next meal will come from.”
Details on the event can be found here.
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