FOOD EQUITY ROUNDTABLE NEWS

More than a dozen people stood in the rain last week before the gates at the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services distribution center had even opened. Parked cars wrapped around the block.

Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it will hold a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this September…This will require bringing together diverse stakeholders, and raising the voices of people with lived experiences in food and nutrition insecurity, hunger, and diet-related disease…

Fresh ideas for CalFresh details reasons why Angelenos who qualify for public assistance don’t apply. Locally known as CalFresh, this public food assistance program is federally known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program; formerly Food Stamps). The report uncovers challenges faced by food insecure Angelenos; provides community-informed solutions for government officials to improve access.

The White House announced Monday it will dedicate $1 billion to increase competition among meat processors, intending to curb soaring industry prices – a primary contributor to a four-decade inflation high – though the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the initiative could “push prices even higher.”

February 10, 2021 – (Sacramento, CA) – At a time when food insecurity has increased dramatically due to the ongoing global pandemic, proposed legislation to provide free school meals for all with increased access to freshly prepared, California-grown items would help to address health and wealth inequities among students, according to a coalition of school nutrition, anti-hunger, and child poverty advocates as well as California ranchers and growers

One in 3 Los Angeles County households experienced food insecurity — disruptions in eating because of a lack of money or resources — during April to December 2020. During the first half of 2021, the ratio fell to more than 1 in 10 Los Angeles County households, according to a new study directed by the Public Exchange at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences that analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on food insecurity.

LA County Board of Supervisors approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to address food insecurity in LA County through the creation of a Food Equity Roundtable, which would – among other things – strengthen the County’s capacity for food distribution programs and focus on a food justice agenda

Mozaffarian, D., Andrés, J.R., Cousin, E. et al. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health is an opportunity for transformational change. Nat Food (2022).

They range from supporting communities in exercising their right to grow and sell their own food, to promoting systemic structures that collectively support access to healthy food, to simply understanding food as a basic human right.

In 2020, the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic brought much-needed awareness of racial and other forms of inequity to the forefront. These inequities include wide disparities in health. Reducing or eliminating these disparities will require action across many sectors including health care, housing, education, transportation, criminal justice, finance, social support, and food access.

California’s food and farming system has been tested in unprecedented ways this past year, due in large part to both the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

State funds would allow California to support small farmers and ranchers who have been left out of publicly funded agriculture programs. This will help build resilience into our food system.