White House to address nationwide hunger, nutrition with 1st food insecurity conference in 50 years

White House.
(Image credit: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The White House has announced it will host a special conference in September focused on ending hunger and improving nutrition nationwide, CNN reports Wednesday.

The last president to convene such an event was former President Richard Nixon, who hosted the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health in 1969. That gathering over 50 years ago brought about many notable policies, including the school lunch program, food stamp expansion, and improved nutrition labeling.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The White House hopes this year's event will result in a plan that lowers nationwide rates of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, and helps with efforts to end hunger.

Advocates as well as a representatives from food companies, the health care world, and local and state governments are all exepcted to attend.

"Too many families don't know where they're going to get their next meal," President Biden said while announcing the meeting. The pandemic served as a "a stark reminder of the need for urgent, sustained action. As more Americans experienced hunger we saw diet-related diseases heighten the risk of severe COVID. It's time we make real change."

Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.