White House Invites Code for America to Participate in Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

This Wednesday, September 28, the White House will host a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. It is the first such convening in 50 years, and Code for America CEO Amanda Renteria has been invited to participate. The previous—and only—1969 Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health helped galvanize actions that led to the creation of critical safety net programs, including the food stamp (SNAP) program we know today and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

This year, the Administration’s goal is to “catalyze the public and private sectors around a coordinated strategy to accelerate progress and drive transformative change in the US to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and close the disparities surrounding them.”  

The conference is organized around five pillars of a national strategy, three of which overlap directly with our Safety Net Innovation Lab’s goals to build a truly human-centered safety net: 

• Improve food access and affordability: End hunger by making it easier for everyone — including urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities — to access and afford food. For example, expand eligibility for and increase participation in food assistance programs and improve transportation to places where food is available.
• Integrate nutrition and health: Prioritize the role of nutrition and food security in overall health, including disease prevention and management, and ensure that our health care system addresses the nutrition needs of all people.
• Enhance nutrition and food security research: Improve nutrition metrics, data collection, and research to inform nutrition and food security policy, particularly on issues of equity, access, and disparities.

You can read more about our efforts to advance human-centered benefits delivery in our recently published blog post on the Lab’s efforts thus far. To learn more about the White House conference, including how to live stream the event, click here.