On Tuesday, Mayor Sylvester Turner will join City Council Member Edward Pollard, the Houston Food Insecurity Board, Whirlpool Corporation and the Houston Food Bank to announce the launch of the 100 Pantries in 100 Days initiative to address food deserts.
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This comes a day before President Joe Biden is scheduled to participate in a White House Conference on food and nutrition and health. The conference is focused on a bold plan to end hunger and diet-related illnesses by 2030.
Some of the most notable proposals in the strategy include:
- Creating permanent free healthy school meals for all, starting with expanding the current free school meal program to cover 9 million children by 2032
- Summer grocery funding for families via EBT/SNAP benefits
- Improving availability and access to healthy food options, including building more grocery stores in food deserts
- Covering medically-tailored meals for Medicare recipients
- Developing a labeling system for the front of food packages to communicate nutrition information
Some of these initiatives, like expanding free school lunches, would require congressional cooperation, and seem unlikely to happen any time in the near future.
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At the most recent UN General Assembly, the White House said the global food security funding includes $2 billion in direct humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for International Development.
The balance of money will go to global development projects meant to boost the efficiency and resilience of the global food supply.
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