Our Top 10 Recommendations from the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

Eat Well Global’s Top 10 National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health Favorites: Good Nutrition is Good Business

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, the White House hosted the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in over 50 years. The Biden Administration also released their National Strategy on Hunger Nutrition and Health, which included a detailed plan of the actions the federal government will take to drive solutions to these challenges. As we anticipate the strategy to be implemented over the coming months and years, there's one thing we know for sure: the food industry can take concrete steps today. And while many of these steps outlined would benefit from new policies or Congressional action, forward-thinking companies shouldn't wait.  

Every one of the Task Force Report’s recommendations is worth serious attention. But here are our 10 favorites plus our insights into why these actions can boost business and well-being alike:                      

1. Become a Certified B Corporation to embed social and environmental priorities on diet and health into your business. Achieving B Corp certification is a journey but the B Impact Assessment is a tool any company can begin using today.
   
   
2. Engage with accountability benchmarks, such as Access to Nutrition Initiative, World Benchmarking Alliance, and INFORMAS Business Impact Initiative. These benchmarks aren’t just relevant for large companies. Smaller businesses can look to the methodologies to self-assess and understand areas of opportunity.
   
   
3. Focus on consumer and workforce food security, nutrition, health, as well as racial and health equity – and embed impact metrics (product healthfulness, distribution and equity, affordability and accessibility, marketing policies and governance) into your approaches.
   
   
4. Hire and collaborate with registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN) to build these initiatives and support customers in making healthier choices. Credibility and consumer-centric communication, make these go-to experts key partners in health-focused marketing.
   
   
5. Implement a comprehensive well-being initiative, with a focus on workforce nutrition, to increase nutrition literacy and accessibility from office to field, from factory to retailer. A healthy workforce is more productive, has lower absentee rates and drives lower health care costs, just to name a few benefits.
   
   
6. Support smaller businesses owned by historically underserved and marginalized communities – engaging with these businesses strengthens local and regional food systems.
   
   
7. Share behavior change insights and marketing expertise to help reshape regulatory requirements on consumer communication to ensure accurate and appealing claims can be used to drive healthier choices.
   
   
8. Shift marketing spend to encourage consumption of products focused on fruit, vegetables, whole grains and protein foods that more closely meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs).
   
   
9. Drive default restaurant menu choices toward healthier options by increasing appropriately sized nutritious menu offerings, reducing value-based pricing, and adhering to voluntary or mandatory industry targets.
   
   
10. Collaborate with government on sugar and salt reduction targets, illuminating the latest science and technical processes, substitutes and solutions to bring the food supply closer to the latest DGAs.

Adequate nutrition, food security and the health of the nation are large and complex issues. But with consumers demanding healthier foods and investors demanding Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG) action, forward-thinking companies can do what they do best: offer solutions for those demands. Because good nutrition can truly be good business. Eat Well Global supports organizations from opportunity identification all the way through implementation and engagement.

We’d love to hear from you - What conversations has your organization had following the White House Conference? Has your organization made any new commitments inspired by this movement? 

 Send us a note or schedule a coffee chat to talk about what will come next for your organization!