From Congress to the Cafeteria: Healthy Food is a Priority

The Commission recognized the importance of nutritious food for improving the health of Americans when it released its recommendations in April.  It saw communities without any access to grocery stores and fresh produce, school meals for children containing chicken nuggets, pizza and fries, and a country disconnected from the food system it relies on for its nutritional wellbeing.  But recently, the tide has begun to turn and leaders from all sectors are starting to understand the connection between nutritious food and America’s health.  Here’s a selection of recent progress:

New stores in food deserts

• Food desert awareness month
  September marked the first National Food Desert Awareness Month.  As researcher Mari Gallagher recalls in a piece for The Huffington Post, just finding a fresh banana can be a challenge in a food desert. 
  “Go Bananas During National Food Desert Awareness Month”
  
• New grocery stores in New York
  New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s administration continued its push to help residents eat more nutritious food with a plan to establish new grocery stores in the city’s food deserts.
  

• Obama increases school nutrition funding by $1.9 billion
  President Obama signed 2010 budget legislation this week that increases funding for the school nutrition program to $17 billion – $1.9 billion above 2009.  The annual agriculture appropriations bill also includes a $4 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and $400 million more for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
  
• IOM recommends healthier meals
  We’ve learned a lot about children’s nutritional needs and the relationship between diet and chronic disease – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. – since the last update to school meal nutrition standards in 1995.  A new IOM report recommends new targets that rein in sodium and calories and encourage children to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
  
• Child Nutrition Act reauthorization
  With the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, The Washington Post was encouraged by the growing momentum to change the outdated school meal guidelines to improve the nutrition, and ultimately, the health of children in schools.
  
• Healthier school meal ideas
  How can we provide healthy school meals at a reasonable cost?  The Washington Post explored one solution that eschews tater tots and pizza for made-from-scratch meals that don’t break school budgets.
  

• First Lady Michelle Obama: healthy eating advocate
  First Lady Michelle Obama cut the ribbon on the White House Farmers’ Market in downtown D.C. in September.  The market, along with the White House garden, her work with Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to expand the Healthier U.S. School Challenge, and her upcoming appearance on Sesame Street to promote physical activity and healthy eating (video promo with Elmo is below), solidify her place as a leading advocate for healthier U.S. diets.
  
• Surgeons General speak out on obesity
  In an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Surgeons General Dr. David Satcher and Dr. Richard Carmona warn against political inaction in the fight against obesity.  The epidemic has put America’s health in peril, they write, and helping Americans make healthier choices and live healthier lives must be a national priority.
  
• Obesity prevention forum
  Healthy kids, healthy future.  A Nemours conference (with accompanying Liveblog) covered the connection between early child care and obesity later in life.  Highlights included Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack’s first directive from President Obama, “I want our children to have more nutritious food,” and a call for innovation from Undersecretary Concannon to feed America’s hungry and combat the obesity epidemic.
  

• Healthier food for WIC participants
  On Oct. 1, new guidelines for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental food packages went into effect that give participants healthier options.  The guidelines to states expand the food package to include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and soy products – the first time many of these healthy food options have been offered.

• From farm to table movement
  USDA launched “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food,” to start a national conversation about where our food comes from and how it gets to our plate.  The site is a wealth of information on the health, economic and environmental benefits of reviving the link between farmer and consumer.
  

• The RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America held a webinar on its recommendations for improving access to healthy foods and received a large number of questions from participants.  The Commission answered all the healthy food questions – and provided a recording of the webinar – on its Leadership Blog.  The Commission’s recommendations for nutrition and healthy places are available at commissiononhealth.org.
• USDA has produced several useful reports around food deserts.  The most recent report (June 2009) is available here.  Key finding: 23.5 million people live in low-income areas (areas where more than 40 percent of the population has income at or below 200 percent of Federal poverty thresholds) that are more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.
• PolicyLink is another useful source of data on access to healthy food access.  Their 2008 report, Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes, demonstrates that people who live near an abundance of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, compared to grocery stores and fresh produce vendors, have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes.
• The Food Trust and its Fresh Food Financing Initiative are working to improve access to healthy food in urban areas.  They’ve done significant work in Philadelphia (ShopRite store that Obama visited) and are the model that the Bloomberg administration is following in New York City.  Their recent surveyprovides useful data on the issues facing the Philadelphia.  Key finding: One in three poor adults in Philadelphia, representing 66,700 residents, report having fair or poor quality of groceries in their neighborhoods compared to 17.8% of non-poor adults.