“We applaud the White House for its commitment to ending hunger by 2030,” says Davis. “Hunger is a solvable problem, but requires political will, leadership and urgency. We look forward to a productive conference that will lead to meaningful recommendations to end hunger in our nation.”
Contact: Meredith Jorss, mjorss@strength.org
WASHINGTON, DC — The White House announced today it will hold a historic Conference on Food, Nutrition, Hunger and Health this September. This is only the second conference of its kind, with the first taking place in 1969. The following is a statement from Share Our Strength Senior Vice President Lisa Davis:
“We applaud the White House and Congress, including House Rules Committee Chair James McGovern, who long championed this convening, for this important step toward creating the political will and national commitment toward ending hunger and improving health.
“Share Our Strength supports a comprehensive approach that engages federal agencies, Members of Congress, state, local and Tribal officials, anti-hunger, health and private sectors, and people with lived experience. The following are our priorities for the conference:
- Center the conversation on addressing hunger and its root causes and on how federal nutrition programs can be leveraged and strengthened.
- Engage people with lived experience and expertise in hunger, poverty and nutrition program participation in meaningful ways.
- Focus on populations and geographies most at risk of hunger and who face the greatest barriers to accessing federal nutrition programs, including Tribal and rural communities, immigrant families and communities of color.
- Be bipartisan and inclusive of cross-sector stakeholders as well as state and local government officials who are closest to the community.
- Leverage lessons learned from the successful policies and flexibilities implemented to allow the federal nutrition programs to respond to the COVID crisis.
- 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. This should serve as a framework for the Farm Bill, Child Nutrition Reauthorization and the President’s Budget/Appropriations.
“We look forward to working with the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture to ensure a productive conference that will lead to meaningful recommendations to end hunger in our nation.”
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, 1 in 6 kids could face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.
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