In a White House video, President Biden said on Wednesday that the administration would “lay out our plan to combat hunger and improve nutrition for every American” at the hunger, nutrition, and health conference set for September. More than 10 percent of Americans were food insecure and hunger rates spiked during the early months of the pandemic.
“As more Americans experienced hunger, we saw how diet-related diseases heighten the risk of severe Covid,” said Biden. “It’s time we make real change. I’m committed to taking bold steps that are going to end hunger and enable everyone — everyone — to have access to affordable, healthy food and safe places to be physically active.”
The White House said it would hold listening sessions ahead of the conference to gather ideas on how to meet its goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 to reduce the prevalence of such diet-related diseases as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Four out of 10 American adults and one in five children are obese, says the Centers for Disease Control.
“We know federal nutrition programs alone can’t solve hunger,” said Luis Guardia, president of the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger group. “We need broad-based solutions that address the root causes of hunger, such as inadequate wages and lack of affordable housing, among other barriers.”
The conference should “create a roadmap to end hunger and improve nutrition in America that includes both longer-term aspirational changes as well as shorter-term actionable ideas for government and public-private partnerships,” said Lisa Davis of the nonprofit Share Our Strength. Recommendations from the hunger conference could take root in provisions of the 2023 farm bill and the overdue reauthorization of federal child nutrition programs, said Davis, and could shape administration budget proposals.
“This is a historic moment in the fight against hunger,” said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, chairman of the House Rules Committee, who pressed for months for the conference. “I’m grateful to President Biden and his team for listening to us and understanding that a hunger-free future is within America’s reach.”
It will be the first presidential hunger conference since 1969, during the Nixon administration. The 1969 conference provided the impetus for launching the Women, Infants, and Children program and expanding the food stamp and school lunch programs, and “sowed the seeds” for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, said a 2020 review. “What are sometimes overlooked are the tremendous efforts that were needed to translate the [conference] recommendations into action.”
Some 41.2 million people received SNAP benefits averaging $234 per person, per month at latest count. Biden and congressional Democrats increased benefits temporarily as part of Covid relief programs. Republicans have accused the administration of a backdoor permanent increase in benefits through a 2021 reevaluation, the first since 1975, of the cost of a healthy diet. Republican lawmakers proposed large cuts in SNAP as part of the 2014 and 2018 farm bills.
The White House web page on the hunger conference is available here.