Produce at a grocery store in Fairfax, Virginia, on March 3, 2011. ( Lance Cheung/USDA)
This story originally appeared on Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Biden-Harris administration officials celebrated work during the past four years to advance nutrition programs, expand local food markets and healthy diets Thursday at a White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack attended the virtual conference and shared the work done in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to advance food and nutrition, including a reevaluation of the Thrifty Food plan.
The Thrifty Food plan sets the purchasing power for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, based on an evaluation of food cost for nutrient-dense foods for a family of four.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Vilsack said the department recalculated the Thrifty Food plan to increase SNAP benefits by 21%. The reevaluation was a mandate of the 2018 Farm Bill, and will have to be completed again in 2026.
“I think it’s been clear that some in Congress are interested in constricting the ability to increase SNAP benefits as prices increase or as families make different choices in the grocery store,” Vilsack said.
He said the 2021 reevaluation was the first time in 45 years that the plan had been reevaluated to look at what families actually buy, which is why ceiling was raised so substantially.
“If we’re going to make the SNAP benefit meaningful … we’re going to have to evaluate it periodically, and we have to evaluate it for what’s really happening on the ground,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack noted other accomplishments by the department, like modernizing the Women Infants and Children, or WIC, program, making programs that incentivize SNAP purchases of fruits and vegetables permanent, the creation of a summer EBT program and efforts to reduce sugar in school lunches.
Vilsack stressed the importance of protecting the Thrifty Food evaluation from “some who would like to essentially make it budget neutral.” He also said he hoped all states would participate in the SUN Bucks summer nutrition program, an effort Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has opted out of in the past and plans to do again.
Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, said the upcoming administration has an opportunity to push for expanding and maintaining these programs. Though he also expressed a level of apprehension for programs like WIC, which is technically a discretionary program, being able to expand in an administration that has proposed “cutting the discretionary budget” by “billions or trillions” of dollars.
“It puts, on all of us, a responsibility to try to protect what’s been done, to make sure it’s not two steps forward and one step back, and also to recognize that there are similar opportunities at the state and local level for us to advocate for food security and nutrition security,” Vilsack said.
USDA to invest in ‘nutrition hubs’
Vilsack also announced Thursday that USDA was investing $4.5 million to establish four nutrition hubs to research and advance food and nutrition practices to reduce diet-related diseases.
This effort started as a pilot project at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Thursday announcement establishes additional hubs at Texas A&M, University of Hawaii and Utah State University. Vilsack said it’s another investment in the “Food is Medicine” effort.
Each university will focus increasing healthy programs across various communities, disparities and languages.
Vilsack additionally highlighted work to improve purchasing power of local food, to increase local food infrastructure and to invest in more competitive markets.
“It’s been an exciting four years in this space,” Vilsack said. “Now, as I leave you, I leave you with a challenge, and that is that there’s still work to be done.”
Across government work
Andrea Palm, deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said work to advance the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, set by President Biden in September 2022, showed “how we as a government do this work better together.”
“He really outlined a vision, a transformational vision for ending hunger and reducing diet related diseases by 2030, calling on all of us to do our part,” Palm said.
She said HHS “took that call very seriously” and she outlined efforts like a Medicaid waiver allowing nutrition counseling or nutrition prescriptions as part of the Food is Medicine effort.
On Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule that updated the definition of “healthy,” which Palm said will help to “empower consumers” to make healthy choices regardless of their nutritional literacy.
Under the new rule, foods with the nutrient content claim “healthy” must include a certain amount of fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy, or grains, and be within certain limits for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
According to a press release, the department is developing a “healthy” symbol to put on the front of food packages to help consumers identify the food that meets the criteria.
Palm echoed sentiments of Vilsack, and said she hopes the “tools” and a “record of progress” from this administration will “continue to drive this work forward.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.