Note from the Executive Director | |
|
Dear friends,
We share ambitious collective goals to end food, nutrition, and health inequities both internationally and nationally by 2030. On the global stage, the United Nations established 17 sustainable development goals to transform our world. Goal 2, in particular, is focused on ending hunger and achieving food security and improved nutrition.
Nationally, many of us are working toward the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to end hunger, again by 2030. As our national Public Health Emergency ends in May, states are beginning to unenroll people of all ages from Medicaid coverage (see below). Our collective work to address the enrollment gaps in SNAP, WIC, and other federal nutrition programs is now more important than ever.
As we continue the important work of convening thought leaders and catalyzing new connections and approaches to these pressing challenges, I hope that you will join us.
Warmly,
| |
|
Nicolene Hengen
Executive Director
| |
|
National Focus:
Millions to Lose Medicaid Coverage This Year
| |
Learnings from the H2HC Fall Summit | |
New Report: The Way Forward
On November 17, 2022, H2HC convened a broad coalition of thought leaders to share expertise, experiences, and innovative models of success around the challenges of identifying and implementing integrated solutions to food, nutrition, and health inequities.
The Summit offered an important opportunity to consider questions raised at the September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health with an eye toward implementable and effective national, regional, and local solutions
H2HC's new report summarizes the group’s insights and recommendations.
| |
|
|
We Need a Whole-of-Society Approach
During the H2HC Summit, the conversation returned to the core idea that moving from hunger to health requires a whole-of-society approach—with involvement and leadership from the private and public sectors along with those with lived experience. Presenters and participants identified several pressing national goals:
- Engage critical stakeholders, including the corporate and healthcare sectors
- Remove barriers to collaboration and shared learning
- Transform the health system
- Prioritize equity
- Demonstrate cost savings, including return on investment
- Convene and collaborate
- Build a repository of innovative examples
Learn more on page 16 of the report.
| |
|
|
|
“What do we each have to bring to the table? If you have the right people around the table and they are willing to share their assets, then you can cause and effect enormous change. That is what the Collaboratory is doing here today.”
Catherine D'Amato, The Greater Boston Food Bank
H2HC Leadership Council Co-Chair
| | | |
|
H2HC Member Spotlight:
Corporate Impact and Innovation
| |
|
A Program with Impact: Stop & Shop
Stop & Shop, an H2HC Leadership Council member, founded its School Food Pantry Program in 2019 to address a critical need among students: consistent access to healthy food and personal care products. With 170 in-school pantries and counting, the program helps ensure no child has to go to school hungry—and that students are fueled for success in the classroom and beyond. The program is currently assisting an estimated 40,000 students and families in the Northeast, from pre-K to postgraduate. Stop & Shop’s goal is to expand the program to 400 pantries by 2027.
Innovative Collaboration: Keurig Dr Pepper and Stop & Shop
H2HC Leadership Council members Keurig Dr Pepper and Stop & Shop conducted a healthy beverage pilot at the Stop & Shop Grove Hall location in Boston. The pilot gave priority placement to healthier products on end caps and in drop bins located near registers.
| |
|
“Keurig Dr Pepper’s partnership with Stop & Shop is a good example of how no one owns the entire story. We as a brand sell our products to Stop & Shop, so we don’t have total control over where they show up in the store, and Stop & Shop doesn’t have total control of the products we’re making. But we all decided together that we wanted to try different ways in-store to promote our 'Better-For-You' beverages front-and-center in an under-resourced community. Showing that this pilot works means that we can be armed with that knowledge and take it to other retailers across the country to work together to provide meaningful impact.”
Melanie Condon, Keurig Dr Pepper
H2HC Leadership Council member
| | | |
H2HC Adds Its Voice to the National Conversation | |
|
Deputy Under Secretary for USDA's Food and Nutrition Service Stacy Dean recently spoke to the Federal Nutrition Advisory Coalition (FNAC), a group that H2HC participates in as a member. She highlighted USDA's new proposal to update school meal nutrition standards and enable schools to source local food more easily. This proposal has the potential to improve the health of millions of children and boost local economies.
Add Your Voice
The USDA wants to hear from you and invites stakeholders to submit comments by May 10.
Learn more
| |
Food Is Medicine Map Promotes Collaboration | |
|
The Food Is Medicine (FIM) Map was created to foster information sharing, education, and collaboration between domestic and international Food Is Medicine programs. The map identifies programs in the following areas: teaching kitchens, medically tailored meals, fresh food 'farmacy' programs, produce prescription programs, and nutrition incentives.
The FIM Map was developed by Food at Google, the Lexicon of Sustainability, and thought leaders from the Food Is Medicine Community. It is hosted by the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC) and operated in partnership with Geisinger, God’s Love We Deliver, The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, and Wholesome Wave.
Learn more
| |
|
About H2HC
The Hunger to Health Collaboratory (H2HC) catalyzes integrated solutions to food, nutrition, and health inequities by engaging cross-sector leaders, uplifting innovative models, and educating stakeholders, all through a focus on the social drivers of health.
| | | | |
