Welcome to the Food Policy Debrief, where we shed much-needed light on how corporations and organizations can engage with progressive food policy. Join us once a month as we provide news updates, demystify policy, and provide opportunities for advocacy!
TL;DR
The Congressional fight against junk food marketing continues
DoorDash celebrated officially donating over 100 million meals
These two companies have made major progress toward their commitments during the White House Conference Hunger, Nutrition, and Health
This Month’s Standout Food Stories
Albertsons Companies Foundation and non-profits introduce first-of-its-kind initiative to tackle summer food insecurity among children in the U.S.
In Burlington, the flagship Ben & Jerry’s recognized the Scoopers United union after almost all workers voted in favor of it.
The new, expanded America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative will provide $60 million to eligible food retailers and suppliers.
The Congressional Hunger Center, Food Systems Collaborative (that’s us!), and Shipt partnered with Food Recovery Network, The Farmlink Project, Swipe Out Hunger, Bread for the World, and more to host a Gen Z Food & Hunger Summit to empower the next generation of food security advocates.
Don’t worry we made Will join us too :D
👀 Bills We’re Tracking
Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act: This month, the co-sponsors released an open letter to the Federal Trade Commission about the legislation.
Food Date Labeling Act: No federal regulation on food date labels → over 50 different varieties in use → consumer confusion → food waste. Sign the newly-launched petition here!
Social Impact Spotlight
Shedding light on companies leading by example and engaging in food policy in a meaningful way
DoorDash, the food delivery company, celebrated over 100 million meals delivered through their Project DASH program. Through this initiative, the company partners with food banks to provide home-delivered, dignified meals to folks in need. We love to see it!
Two Years After the White House Conference: How are Companies Tracking Toward their Commitments?
Remember September 2022? Beyoncé had just released Renaissance, Wordle was taking the world by storm, and the White House held the second White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Hosted for the first time in 50 years, the event brought together stakeholders from the private sector, advocacy community, and the government to discuss and reinvigorate the government and private sector’s response to the intertwined issues of food insecurity and public health in America.
As a part of the Conference, the White House announced that $8 billion in commitments to address these issues had been made by health systems, insurers, companies, non-profits, philanthropic groups, academia, and local elected officials.
In this issue, we’ll start with some basic history of this conference, why it’s important, then check in on some of those private sector folks who made commitments as part of the White House’s Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. Let’s get into it…
What is the Conference?
Everyone knows 1969 was a big year for one reason, and one reason only: the first-ever White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health. JK, but seriously, the conference was held to address growing interest in nutrition, food insecurity, and public health—and eventually resulted in 1,800 recommendations to improve nutritional outcomes and food access among Americans. The original White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health is widely cited as the catalyst for the WIC program, the modern day Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and vast improvements to the Food Stamp program (now known as SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, and more. I.e. it was a huge deal.
Hosted by President Richard Nixon and Dr. Jean Mayer, the conference is widely credited with significant reductions in food insecurity among Americans in the 1970s that lasted until the 1980s. Prior to this conference, nutrition assistance in this country remained piecemeal (as in, SNAP eligibility was set at the county level and its funding was inconsistent) plus the specter of racism shaped much of the policy around availability of benefits. Though the Reagan Administration began a trend of undoing some of this work, by and large food assistance is much more consistently and widely available to Americans because of the 1969 Conference.
Nearly fifty years after the first conference, with the prevalence of diet-related illnesses growing and with persistent food insecurity rates, Congressional advocates Representative Jim McGovern and Senator Cory Booker began pushing for a second iteration of this conference to address these interrelated issues once more and to create recommendations for the next half century.
What Did the Most Recent Conference Do?
Of course there were some rousing speeches, but the really important piece was the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health that the Biden Administration released in tandem with the conference.
The National Strategy has five main pillars:
1. Improve food access and affordability: End hunger by making it easier for everyone—including individuals in urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities, and territories—to access and afford food.
2. Integrate nutrition and health: Prioritize the role of nutrition and food security in overall health—including disease prevention and management—and ensure that our healthcare system addresses the nutrition needs of all people.
3. Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices: Foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed, healthy choices; increase access to healthy food; encourage healthy workplace and school policies; and invest in public culturally appropriate education campaigns.
4. Support physical activity for all: Make it easier for people to be more physically active—in part by ensuring that everyone has access to safe places to be active—increase awareness of the benefits of physical activity, and conduct research on and measure physical activity.
5. 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.
The White House also launched the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities, which includes another $1.7 billion in private sector commitments and renewed efforts to raise awareness about the campaign and spur further commitments.
One thing to note: While this is super exciting, we haven’t seen any tracking against or a comprehensive report of progress (beyond monthly update calls).
Private Sector Progress Report
We asked several companies that made significant commitments as part of the Challenge for their thoughts as we approach the second anniversary of the conference about the impact of their work. Before we get into their responses, we wanted to point out that the two responses we received happen to be from two companies seen as competitors in the grocery delivery space, Instacart and Shipt, but who are united in the cause of making healthy food more accessible. Maybe Washington can learn a lesson from these two competitors working together to solve this critical issue… Anyway. Here’s what they had to say:
Instacart:
“Since launching Instacart Health in 2022, we have delivered on several White House commitments to expand food access and support diverse communities across the country.
We believe essentials should be accessible and affordable so people can easily get what they need to live well. We’re building technology that ensures everyone can grocery shop online using any benefits they have – from SNAP to supplemental health benefits to Instacart Health Fresh Funds – with the added convenience of same-day delivery from the retailers they know, love and trust.
In 2023, we fulfilled one of our first White House commitments and became the first online grocery marketplace to accept SNAP payments in all 50 states and Washington D.C., reaching over 96% of SNAP households nationwide.
Within the last year, we’ve also launched new programs, including the Grocery Access Pilot (GAP) program through our partnership with Mayor Rickenmann and the City of Columbia, helping the city’s residents living in food deserts more easily access nutritious food through grocery delivery.
We launched a new public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support and scale food as medicine interventions.
And we’ve introduced new food as medicine programs with providers like Dispatch Health, allowing them to prescribe food interventions as easily as they do traditional medications.
Public-private partnerships are crucial to addressing hunger and nutrition challenges, and Instacart is proud to collaborate with government agencies, nonprofits, and healthcare organizations to make a meaningful impact on the health of our communities.”
– Dani Dudeck, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Instacart
Shipt:
“Shipt is proud to do its part in ending hunger, and through collaboration, outside-the-box thinking, and public advocacy, we continue to build on the ambitious goals our CEO Kamau Witherspoon outlined at the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger.
To date, we’ve provided over 12 million meals through our longtime partner Feeding America, launched Shipt’s LadderUp program to support 20 small grocers and businesses, and collaborated with the University of Michigan on innovative research projects that leverage Shipt's technology and trusted personalized shoppers to study the impact of healthy food delivery on low-income pregnant women and people with type 2 diabetes.
At Shipt, we know expanding access to food through grocery delivery can help underserved communities, especially those with mobility or transportation barriers. That’s why this June, we upgraded our platform to accept SNAP EBT payments and offer a discounted membership to SNAP recipients in addition to existing low-cost student memberships. This latest update allows us to help increase food access to 74% of food deserts and serve 86 million Americans living in communities where over 1 in 10 households receive SNAP benefits.
As a people-centric company, tackling food insecurity is an issue we won’t ever shy away from. This is why we created our Community Impact & Innovation grant program, which has helped supply nearly 400,000 pounds of healthy foods, served nearly 225,000 food-insecure individuals, and supported nearly $1M in locally grown produce to strengthen local food systems.
Every action – big or small – is one step closer to an America where no one is hungry, and we look forward to expanding our mission and partnering with even more leaders, innovators, and changemakers in the fight to end hunger.”
– Shipt Team
If your company made a commitment as part of the Challenge, we want to hear from you about your progress, email newsletter@foodsystemscollaborative.com and we’ll share in future editions!
But wait, there’s more (commitments)
In our next edition, we’ll dive into the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, which the White House officially released last month.
Talk to Us
Have something food policy-related you want to share? Email us directly, or message us on LinkedIn. We welcome all tips and story ideas, so please keep ‘em coming!
See you next month!
Niyeti Shah is the founder of the Food Systems Collaborative, a consultancy offering services at the intersection of social impact, food systems, and food policy.
Will Thomas is the Principal of Patelana Group, LLC, a consultancy offering research, grant-writing, and consulting services at the intersection of food security, nutrition, and public health.
Lucy Shanker is the communications lead at Food Systems Collaborative. A former journalist, she specializes in the intersection of social impact, story-telling, consumer communications, and food systems.
