The White House Strategy on Food, Nutrition, and Health
This week the Biden Administration released the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health and we are very encouraged by the Administration's aggressive commitment to prioritizing the role of nutrition and food insecurity in overall health. The Administration's strategy calls to: “expand Medicare and Medicaid access to “food is medicine” interventions”, a much needed catalyst for our mission at Bento of improving the health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable populations, starting with those experiencing food insecurity.
In the US, there are over 34 million people who experience food insecurity, 9 million of whom are children. The consequences of food insecurity are a contributing risk factors that leads to increased rates of nutrition-related chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The White House Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health emphasized:
“New data show that 19 states and two territories have an obesity prevalence at or above 35%, more than double the number of states from 2018. One in 10 Americans have diabetes. And, more than 4 in 10 Americans have hypertension (high blood pressure), which is linked to the leading causes of death for Americans: heart disease and stroke. The toll of hunger and diet-related diseases is not distributed equally; these challenges disproportionately impact communities of color, people living in rural areas, people living in territories, people with disabilities, older adults, LGBTQI+ people, military families, and Veterans.”
Food insecurity is a preventable upstream risk factor for these downstream nutrition related chronic conditions and therefore needs to be treated as a medical condition, supported by evidence-based treatment protocols, personalized interventions, and continuous engagement and monitoring. However, many of the solutions designed to support the management of these chronic conditions were never designed or optimized for low income populations and often fail to address the basic human need for nutritious food.
At Bento, we support the needs of at-risk, low income populations by bringing the traditionally siloed solutions for food insecurity and chronic disease management together on one platform. We establish high levels of trust with Bento members by connecting them to nutritious food when they need it most in a way that is convenient, stigma-free, and dignified. Our food-first strategy then enables Bento case managers to more effectively engage with members and remove barriers to access the healthcare resources and services available to them to improve their overall health and well-being.
The Biden Administration’s strategy set the tone for yesterday’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health where there was call to action sent to a diverse collection of public and private organizations to eliminate hunger and to become an integral part of a collective effort to build equitable futures for us all. Our hope is that this conference infuses our country’s policy makers with a sense of urgency to go beyond the status-quo.