At the end of September, a group of bipartisan representatives and leaders in the food movement convened in Washington D.C. for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. This Conference was the first time in over 50 years that the White House hosted a conference focusing on these critical and impactful issues.
The first Conference, which was held in 1969, was a historic gathering that created integral food support systems, such as SNAP. This year’s Conference also promised a wide-range of initiatives to improve Americans’ access to food and lead a healthier life with more nutritious options consistently available to them.
Specifically, the White House promised expanding access to free school meals to 9 million additional children within the next decade, conducting screenings for food insecurity, improving transportation for Americans who do not have easy access to grocery stores, reducing food waste and educating health-care providers on nutrition.
MANNA FoodBank is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to highlighting the issues affecting the people we serve in Western North Carolina.
