Washington, D.C.—Church World Service today commended the Biden Administration on convening the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The conference, which was held again for the first time in 53 years, shows that food and hunger are receiving the attention they deserve during a period wrought with global and domestic food insecurity, and health and climate-related livelihood impacts. Church World Service applauds this bipartisan initiative, as it comes at a time when the world faces polarization, climate shocks, unrest, and a period with the most displaced people than ever before.
“As Chef Jose Andres said in his keynote address closing the conference, ‘The most important source of energy is the food we eat.’ We must take these words as gospel and direct our actions to address the growing needs of our global community,” said Maurice Bloem of CWS. “We also need to make sure that any action we take to address these needs are sustainable, equitable, and in the best interests of humanity as a whole. This is not a temporary issue, but an everlasting one, and we should treat it as such.”
At the conference, the Administration announced a strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-based diseases, detailed with goals to close food desert gaps and ensure fair wages— farmers, growers and producers. Biden also called on Congress to indefinitely expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and encouraged public-private partnerships to create incentives for healthy eating. CWS is especially pleased with the alignment to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda, specifically SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 17 (partnerships).
CWS, working directly to address food insecurity in the United States through domestic programs and humanitarian assistance, has seen firsthand how hunger and poor health negatively—and disproportionately—affect people’s lives and their communities. The organization is pleased to see not only leadership from the administration and a call to action for elected officials, but also a priority on school feeding and the crucial support it provides for children of poor and vulnerable families. CWS further encourages the priority on the first 1,000 days of life, as well. This is a period for critical brain growth to be able to do well in school and then have a better chance at earning a good living. Ultimately, poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days can create irreversible damage to a child’s health and promulgate a poverty cycle in which it is harder for a child and their future family to rise out of poverty.
CWS also calls upon leaders to pave policy pathways that give farmers more sustainable choices when accessing needed capital. Food security is not just about food, but also people’s dignity and choices over the role that food and access plays toward overall health. The Conference also addressed the racial and geographic discrimination promulgating food insecurity. This requires the elimination of barriers for all people—in all their diversities—to food security, increasing wages, fighting the stigma of social safety benefits, early health and nutrition education, and scaling programs, including expansion to native territories.
CWS further acknowledges that hunger, nutrition and health problems are not inevitable. The eradication of these concerns is inarguably to the benefit of everyone. We must invest in people themselves—both domestically and globally – just as much as is invested in initiatives and partnerships and those responsible for them.
Last year CWS provided more than $1.6 million in funding to front line food banks, shelters and meal programs addressing hunger in more than 600 counties across the United States.
For more information, or to speak with Bloem, contact media@cwsglobal.org.