CDC Foundation to join White House hunger conference

The White House will hold its Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September 2022

Millions of Americans struggle with hunger including children. Millions more struggle with diet-related diseases — like heart disease and diabetes, some of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.

As part of the effort to combat this, the CDC Foundation has announced it is engaging in the White House’s initiative to end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 by working to identify cross-sector partners interested in making transformative commitments in support of the initiative.

The CDC Foundation coordinates the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with philanthropic partners, corporations and organisations to further the CDC’s campaigns and priorities.

In September 2022, the White House is hosting a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health to develop a coordinated strategy to accelerate progress and drive transformative change to end hunger in the United States, and improve nutrition and physical activity and close the disparities surrounding them.

“All Americans deserve access to affordable and nutritious foods. We need to understand and address the root causes of hunger and structural and systemic inequities,” said Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation.

“Achieving this goal will require collective action. We must come together as a nation to help our communities and neighbours and find solutions to put an end to hunger.”

Through the CDC Foundation’s extensive and proven experience working with cross sector partners, the Foundation will collaborate with businesses, foundations, academic institutions, associations, health systems, individuals and community organizations to engage partners around one or more of the five pillars outlined by the White House.

These pillars to end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity include:

• Improve food access and affordability: End hunger by making it easier for everyone—including urban, suburban, rural and Tribal communities—to access and afford food.
• Integrate nutrition and health: Prioritise the role of nutrition and food security in overall health, including disease prevention and management, and ensure our health care system addresses the nutrition needs of all people.
• Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices: Foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed healthy choices, increase access to healthy food, encourage healthy workplace and school policies, and invest in public messaging and culturally appropriate education campaigns that resonate with specific communities.
• Support physical activity for all: Make it easier for people to be more physically active (in part by ensuring everyone has access to safe places to be active), increase awareness of the benefits of physical activity, and conduct research on and measure physical activity.
• Enhance nutrition and food security research: Improve nutrition metrics, data collection and research to inform nutrition and food security policy, particularly on issues of equity, access and disparities.

It’s been more than 50 years since the first and only White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, which influenced the country’s food policy agenda for the past half century. Now, top food and beverage organisations are convening again to ensure that every American has access to safe and nutritious food.