Food security advocates from around the region participated in an online program on March 17 that summarized the recent White House Conference on Hunger and listened to the reports of three local people who attended the conference.

The Western Massachusetts Progress Report on the White House Conference on Hunger Nutrition and Health was sponsored by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) also participated.

The online program was part summary of the White House Conference and part call-to-arms to support a wide number of related bills in the Massachusetts Legislature.

Hosted by state Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton), she said the goal is to eliminate hunger issues in Massachusetts by 2030.

McGovern noted the last White House Conference on Hunger was in 1969, and was the forum from which many hunger legislation emerged including the creation of the Women, Infants and Children Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and food labeling.

McGovern said the recent conference presented “an ambitious but achievable roadmap to end hunger by 2030.”

He added, “There is finally momentum at the national level to end hunger.”

A statement from the White House read, “According to The National Strategy outlines actions the federal government will take and includes calls on other sectors to drive solutions to achieve the president’s goal. This includes creating a pathway for free, healthy school meals for all; expanding coverage of nutrition and obesity counseling in Medicare and Medicaid; extending the Child Tax Credit — which the president called on Congress to do during his State of the Union address — and ending the federal prohibition on SNAP benefits for formerly incarcerated individuals, which disproportionately impacts Black Americans. It also includes strategies to diversify the nutrition workforce, such as Health and Human Services partnering with [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] to recruit and train more Black nutrition professionals. The White House Conference galvanized stakeholders around the National Strategy and spurred over $8 billion in commitments from the public- and private-sectors.”

McGovern said that Project Bread has organized the effort in the Bay State to end hunger. He added, “We need to make sure we are closing all the gaps that exists in the anti-hunger safety net.”

Speaking of the politics involved on the national level, McGovern said, “Time is of the essence.” Federal legislation that would support state and local hunger efforts needs to be passed in the next year and a half.

“We’re going to do this. Failure is not an option,” he asserted.

The local representatives who attended the event included state Rep. Mindy Domb (D-Amherst), Springfield Food Policy Council Director Liz Wills-O’Gilvie and Kirsten Levitt, the executive chef and co-director of Stone Soup Café in Greenfield.

Domb said her impressions of the conference included the importance of making universal free school meals permanent in Massachusetts. “We need to insure it continues,” she said.

She said the Massachusetts Healthy Incentives Program in the commonwealth needs to increase. The program puts money back onto a recipients EBT card when they use SNAP to buy healthy locally grown produce from HIP farm vendors.

Domb noted that college student hunger issues must be addressed and she has introduced a bill to help solve this issue.

Another point from the conference that impressed Domb was the relationship that could exist from local farmers with school systems. She noted it’s not enough to have a school budget to include funds for purchasing food items directly from farmers but to have staff members who can build a relationship between the schools and the farmers.

Domb also stressed the need for food literacy education for nutrition and advocacy and the conference, which is addressed in Massachusetts by a new bill in the Legislature.

Wills-O’Gilvie said her take-aways included the call for racial justice by President Joe Biden and Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack.

“The only way we’re going to eradicate hunger and improve health is by centering our work with a racial equity lens,” she said.

She said at the conference she spoke with many people about the importance of HIP, a program with its roots in Springfield and Holyoke.

Wills-O’Gilvie seconded the importance of making universal free school meals permanent in Massachusetts. She said that effort was “critical.”

Levitt called for greater collaboration from “all sectors of the nation” to eliminate hunger and added “it’s not just the government or nonprofits.”

Erin McAleer of Project Bread noted the broad goals for the Massachusetts effort: increasing access and improving quality of child nutrition programs; increasing access and affordability of food for all; integrating food access into health care; strengthening and integrating the local food system; and ensure economic stability and promote economic opportunities to address the root causes of hunger.

She noted that 21% of all families in the state are food insecure and that 33% of families of color are food insecure. She described food insecurity as “systemic” which deserves a systemic solution.
McAleer said Gov. Maura Healey has filed in her supplemental budget money to fund universal school meals through 2024 and wants to make it a permanent part of the budget.

The participants in the online event were urged to call or email their state representative and senator in support of a number of bills pending in the Legislature that would help address hunger.