A task force of leaders—including the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy—is preparing to bring together stakeholders and storytellers to inform this critical work
Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it will hold a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this September. The conference will be only the second of its kind. The first conference was held in 1969 and organized by Dr. Jean Mayer, the founder of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, under the leadership of President Nixon and Sens. George McGovern and Bob Dole. Fifty-three years later, this second Conference comes at a crucial time: we face new challenges in our food system—including food and nutrition insecurity, chronic hunger, high rates of diet-related chronic diseases, and related nutrition and health inequities—together harming Americans and costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars in preventable health care spending every year. The mission is clear: reimagining our nation’s food system to end hunger, improve nutrition, and reduce diet-related chronic diseases.
Thanks to the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration and bipartisan congressional champions, this new White House Conference has expansive goals. This will require bringing together diverse stakeholders, and raising the voices of people with lived experiences in food and nutrition insecurity, hunger, and diet-related disease. To inform and help achieve these goals, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Food Systems for the Future, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and World Central Kitchen are announcing the formation of the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health (Task Force), along with an accompanying Strategy Group on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to advise the Task Force. The Task Force brings together a diverse, non-partisan group of stakeholders to inform the goals of the White House Conference. This effort is not organized or endorsed by the White House, but represents an independent effort to convene voices from across the nation to help solve the issues at the heart of the Conference’s focus.
The Task Force is co-chaired by:
- Chef José Andrés, Founder and Chief Feeding Officer, World Central Kitchen; CEO, ThinkFoodGroup
- Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Food Systems for the Future; Former Executive Director, World Food Programme
- Senator Bill Frist, Vice-Chair, The Nature Conservancy; Former Majority Leader of the United States Senate; Adjunct Professor of Surgery, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Department of Cardiac Surgery
- Secretary Dan Glickman, Distinguished Fellow of Global Food and Agriculture, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Senior Fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center; Former United States Secretary of Agriculture
- Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine and Division of Cardiology, Tufts Medical Center
The Task Force Co-chairs thank Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) for highlighting these issues in their work and for their tireless advocacy for this Conference. The co-chairs also thank the Biden-Harris administration for centering the need to end systemic health inequities, and for leading this historic conference.