Nutrition Security

Summer is a beautiful time to travel the country and visit with partners, and I am delighted, humbled and honored to have visited the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe last month. It was inspiring and impressive to see how the tribes are dreaming big in terms of food sovereignty - delivering healthy, fresh, locally sourced, and traditional foods to their members in their communities through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Almost a year and a half ago, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack outlined USDA’s focus on nutrition security, which builds on food security by emphasizing the co-existence of food insecurity and diet-related diseases and disparities. Put simply, nutrition security means having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being. It’s my honor and privilege to join this effort as the second director of nutrition security and health equity at the Food and Nutrition Service within USDA and lead the department’s approach to advancing food and nutrition security.

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s work continues! The committee will hold its third meeting September 12-13, 2023. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) invite the public to participate in this important event via live webcast. Registration is required and will open on Thursday, August 10, 2023, at DietaryGuidelines.gov.

Bringing together local producers and schools was the objective of the “Bringing the Farm to School” producer training in Hardin, Montana. The training sought to build relationships between schools and producers to increase the availability of local foods served to children. USDA Farm to School Specialists Andrea Alma and Alli Bell were on hand to demonstrate the many ways USDA’s Farm to School Program is connecting with schools and communities.

Connecting Kids to Meals, known as CKM, is a nonprofit agency in Toledo, Ohio that provides healthy meals at no cost to at-risk kids in low-income and underserved areas of Northwest Ohio. With a nearly 20-year history of feeding hungry kids, the critical work of CKM becomes more important every day.

One of my favorite activities is to see FNS programs in action. Therefore, as often as I can, I try to visit schools that know how to have fun while feeding kids healthy meals. Recently, I had the chance to visit Rialto Unified School District (RUSD) and learn about their success in doing just that. They just earned USDA’s 2022 Turnip the Beet Gold Award, two years in a row!

Can you imagine a day when healthcare is mostly proactive as opposed to reactive? Imagine if everyone has access to the vital conditions for health and wellbeing: the factors that people depend on to reach their full potential. What does that future look like?

WIC is one of the most powerful, evidence-based public health programs, setting moms, babies, and young kids up to be healthy and thrive. The program is associated with incredible outcomes like improved diet quality, birth weights, and cognitive development, and reduced infant deaths, premature births, and health care costs. It’s no wonder more than six million women, infants, and children across America participate in the program.

How you start your day sets the tone for the rest of your day! School breakfast programs are critical in building a healthier future for America’s children.

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s work is under way, and we welcome your involvement in the process to update the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) encourage public participation in the committee’s review process. You can get involved by: