White House Makes Additional $1.7 Billion Investment In Health
By Tiffany Ferguson, LMSW, CMAC, ACM
The Biden-Harris Administration has unveiled 141 new commitments from diverse stakeholders nationwide as part of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities.
Such stakeholders include health systems, insurers, companies, nonprofits, philanthropic groups, academic institutions, and local elected officials. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff announced these commitments alongside key figures like White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and the Chairs of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition: chef José Andrés and basketball player Elena Delle Donne.
This Challenge is aligned with President Biden’s goal to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030, while also addressing health disparities. The $1.7 billion in new commitments announced build upon the $8 billion commitments made at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022. These efforts complement the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, with commitments cultivated in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation.
One significant aspect of the commitments is the partnership between major sports leagues, players’ associations, and the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, which aims to boost physical activity and increase nutrition programming across the country. Fourteen sports leagues and players’ associations have committed to expanding access to physical activity and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Various commitments were announced, ranging from the Harlem Globetrotters’ public awareness campaign on nutrition and physical activity in cities like Cleveland, Baton Rouge, and Seattle, which also includes the launches of task forces to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases. Companies such as Ahold Delhaize USA have committed almost $1 million for nutrition education for children, while health systems like Ascension are focusing on addressing the social determinants of health (SDoH) through a closed-loop referral process and providing hospital-based produce markets in 100 percent of their sites of care (that is, 139 hospitals across 19 states).
Other commitments include Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina expanding nutrition coaching and healthy food delivery, Food Forward providing access to 290 million pounds of fresh produce to distribute to those facing food insecurity, and the Gaples Institute offering nutrition education resources to 100 additional U.S. medical schools.
Highmark Health and Allegheny Health Network will mobilize over $30 million through 2030 to conduct assessments, expand Healthy Food Centers, and address non-medical barriers to health. Homeplate Solutions, through an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technology platform, aims to provide greater affordability and accessibility to food for community-based nutrition providers.
The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has committed $2 million to improve physical activity and nutrition, and to reduce chronic and diet-related diseases, through various programs across states and school districts.
The National Strategy underscores the Administration’s whole-of-government approach, with actions including U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) investments in school meal programs, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) study on a front-of-package system for food packages, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) initiatives to address the SDoH under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This initiative directly compliments the SDoH food insecurity domain for questions in the outpatient and inpatient settings. These commitments collectively contribute to demonstrate comprehensive efforts and offer tangible solutions to tackle hunger, improve nutrition, and reduce health disparities.