Nutritional security: building on our work to date and accelerating progress

July 20, 2023

About a year and a half ago, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack focused the USDA’s attention on food security, emphasizing food security and nutrition-related diseases and disparities. Simply put, nutrition security means consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable foods that are essential for health and well-being. It is an honor and a privilege to join this effort as the second director of food security and health equity in the Food and Nutrition Service at USDA and to lead the department’s efforts to advance food and nutrition security.

In this role, I will work to enhance the management of USDA’s 16 nutrition assistance programs. These programs reach one in four Americans a year, and are some of the most far-reaching and powerful tools in the federal government to help everyone. all of them Demographic Groups and Life Stages – Practice Nutritional Security. Every day, USDA works hard to connect nutritious foods to those who need them most (PDF, 792 KB). Part of this work includes leveraging the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and the accompanying National Strategy Initiative (PDF, 10.0 MB) to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce nutrition-related diseases and disparities. We are also working to better integrate nutrition and health. Since hosting a national conference last fall, USDA has participated in three regional conferences organized by ProMedica and The Root Cause Coalition. We look forward to participating in their remaining four conferences. We learned a lot about integrating nutrition and health and the power of our healthcare partners.

I am excited to work with our department and partners in government, non-governmental organizations and communities across America to continue to build awareness of our efforts and identify opportunities for collaboration. This work includes developing new and collaborative initiatives with our national MyPlate strategic partners, SNAP-Ed implementing agencies, and all others committed to advancing food and nutrition security. I know these programs are key ingredients to our continued work. In my experience as a community engagement researcher, I know a parent who told me that their child asked for broccoli and kiwi after participating in SNAP-Ed-supported programming. That’s the power of USDA programs!

Building on the momentum of the past year and a half, we’re excited to release a new video that explains USDA’s efforts to advance food safety. Please share this video to help us spread the word about the ways we can partner with food to support the good health and well-being of individuals, families and communities across this country. Everyone in this country deserves a chance to thrive. Let’s work together to achieve the goals in our national strategy and provide meaningful nutrition support for all.