On September 28, 2022 the Biden-Harris Administration will host the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in 50 years. The last conference to address this topic, in 1969, resulted in policy changes that expanded programs like SNAP, WIC, and school food programming. The White House has outlined five key pillars to guide its work on the 28th, and they include: Improve food access and affordability, Integrate nutrition and health, Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices, Support physical activity for all, and Enhance nutrition and food security research.
Here are the ways in which Pilot Light supports these pillars:
- Improve food access and affordability: Pilot Light tailors lessons to the specific needs of each school, student, and teacher they support. We aim to increase access by bridging lessons learned in the classroom to the food in their communities.
- Integrate nutrition and health: We integrate food education into the core curriculum across all subjects and utilize experiential learning to engage K-12 students in lessons emphasizing the importance of nutrition and health.
- Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices: We teach students with varying degrees of fresh food accessibility to make more informed choices given the resources available to them.
- Support physical activity for all: We teach students about the role of food and its impact on their bodies, so that they have the fuel they need to engage in physical activity.
- Enhance nutrition and food security research: Our data shows that our Food Education Standards-aligned model creates shifts in thinking and doing in students and teachers.
Our hope is that this convening results in policy advancements that help build a more equitable food future. We know there needs to be tangible next steps in order to implement solutions in sustainable, effective ways. At Pilot Light we believe that Food Education is critical to shaping equitable food systems. In fact, our Food Education Standards provide the blueprint for practical implementation that impacts all stakeholders.
Join our Food Education Standards Community here. For more information on the conference agenda, check here. For details on how to live stream the event, check here or follow the conference hashtag at #WHconfhungerhealth.