US unveils plan to combat hunger by 2030

The Biden government has launched a new strategy to combat hunger in the US by the end of 2030 through the expansion of benefits such as free school meals and food stamps.

One in 10 households struggled to feed their families in 2021 due to poverty and the poverty level of food in the richest country in the world, which has barely budged in the past two decades due to the deepening economic inequalities and welfare cuts.

More than 35% of Americans in 19 states and two territories are obese, compared to the number of states in 2018 while one in 10 Americans have diabetes, according to a plan released on Tuesday. It includes proposals to change food packaging and voluntary salt and sugar reduction targets for the food industry, as well as expand Medicaid and Medicare access to obesity counseling and nutrition.

The national strategy comes a day before the White House hosts the first conference on hunger, nutrition and health in 53 years. Since then, food security has improved but remains stubbornly high, while the consumption of processed unhealthy foods and diet-related diseases has increased.

It includes several ambitious proposals but few concrete measures, as the plans depend on a polarised Congress, which has so far refused to extend the child tax credit and universal free school meals, both of which led to historic improvements in food security in the wake of the pandemic.

The administration said that it is committed to pushing for Congress to extend the expanded, fully refunded child tax credit and expand Earned Income Tax Credit. The minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour, close to the Medicaid coverage gap, invest in affordable, high-quality child care, and expand the Housing Choice Voucher Food inequalities because structural and systemic racial and economic inequalities. Access to affordable healthy food is harder for people of color, indigenous communities, rural dwellers, and low income households because of disparities in access to healthcare, decent housing, transportation, educational and economic opportunities, all of which increase the risk of hunger and diet-related diseases.

The last food conference hosted by President Richard Nixon in 1969 was a crucial moment in American food policy that led to the expansion of food stamps and gave rise to the Women, Infants and Children program that provides parenting advice, breastfeeding support and food assistance to the mothers of half of the babies born each year.