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>> welcome to the bipartisan polling center to release the report from title making food nutritionists and food security snap as recommendations for the 2023 farm bill. the full report and summary can be downloaded from our rep site. i'm bill hoagland senior vice president at the center and have had the honor with working with its co-chairs and the staff on his final report along with the two previous ones. the task force has been led by four co-chairs former secretary of agriculture dan glickman from the clinton administration and secretary ann veneman from the george w. bush administration, very bipartisan. they were joined by leslie sarasin president and ceo of the food industry association and chef jose andres founder of world central kitchen. you will hear from all four co-chairs all committed to ensuring food and nutrition is security for everyone. in the interest of time i'm not going to be able to name all the 13 outstanding members of a task listed prominently on the first page of the report except to say they represent a broad spectrum of stakeholders including food advocacy organizations, medical professionals business military and academics. my sincere thanks to all of them were their dedication and contributions to work on the task force over the last two years. i also want to thank the world central kitchen and the rockefeller foundation for their support of this project. the farm bill is considered every five years and it's up for reauthorization this year of 2023. every title in the farm bill includes millions of producer suppliers and food retailers in rural communities that every person who consumes food and that of course is all of us. historically the farm bill has been a bipartisan bill and indeed i believe chairwoman of the agriculture committee stabenow stated we are attempting to pass the farm bill with bipartisan support. the new chairman of the house agriculture committee congressman thompson has stated he hopes it will be a bipartisan package so it's no surprise the task force at the bipartisan policy center are encouraged by the statements but we also realize that divided congress challenges will lie ahead. the challenge may be made more difficult when we note that on the spending side of the equation nearly 80% of the farm bill's expenditures are devoted to the nutrition title so we are pleased to begin our discussion today with staff from the nutrition subcommittees from the senate and house agriculture committee and both majority and minority or delete this discussion we are fortunate to have the editor-in-chief of food fix an on line publication. food policy in washington and beyond and senior reporter and "politico" brushy covered the intersection of food policy and politics. before you turn this over to helena is a former staffer myself and want to be clear to her audience that we have not asked for congressional staff to take a position on any of the recommendations in the report unless they want to the policies may be influenced by staff that their boss is the one with the election certificates that hang on the wall are the ones to make the final decision so with that he'll lean i'm turning it over to you. >> thank you so much bill. i'm delighted to be here to talk about such an important topic and thank you for the present of a policy center for having me. has no mention i'm the founder and editor-in-chief of food fix which is a newsletter about the policy. we have a fantastic line up today of staff to represent the four corners of the farm bill. what that means in washington is a poor post to make decisions the majority and the minority of the house and senate agriculture committee. when we hear that term four corners after we mean. we have sara who works with the senate with chairs stabenow and kathleen thomas who works in the minority in the senate and john boozman jennifer who works the majority in the house the ranking member and chair. catherine stewart works with the minority in the house and ranking member david scott. i want to emphasize their early in the farm bill process so the committees are still forming. we do not even have full lineups. it's very early however i think there's a lot of momentum and excitement to get the farm bill process started so with that caveat is hard to predict where things are headed. we will try to keep this conversation forward-looking and high-level. we know we have a lot of people today who might be interested in the farm bill but might not know a lot about that big piece of legislation might not know so we are going to talk about what to expect. as bill mentioned staff here are not authorized to comment on the specifics of this report so we are going to go into the specific recommendations but we will really talk about the process with respect to what it takes to get the farm bill done. i think we will start with the basic one which is when you hurt -- hear the word farm bill you don't necessarily think about nutrition and yet it's more than 80% funding of this bill. that would start with the senate side. what are some of the programs you are looking at on the nutrition site and can you help orient the audience as to why we need to talk about nutrition in the context of this bill? >> absolutely. we talk about nutrition in congress nutrition is broken into the child attrition program the wic program handled through the childhood reauthorization and formal nutritional program things like the financing initiative the farmers market through a broad range nutrition assistance as well as peer group death row currying food so folks have the food that they need and programs like nutrition programs on the reservations in food programs, programs aimed at reaching different populations in reaching people where they are. it's a big big component of the farm bill and we do see a direct impact on farming as well because folks are able to buy food and that benefits ag and there are a lot of connections across-the-board. this program. >> i'm of anyone else wants to jump in terms of the gap between the public's understanding of what's in the farm bill and what's actually in the farm barrel. a lot of it is nutrition that what other instances of attrition come up in your conversations with constituents or interest groups that maybe someone just coming to the farm bill might not be aware of? i don't thomas if you want the jump in? c sure. thanks for having me. something that's not included in the farm bill is the food and drug administration and has overseen in the senate and the house by different committees. since they do all the regulation what would you say when there are recalls standards for dietary and sugar is something that has been in the conversation. we are we are really talking as much about food regulation. it's more about making sure that folks have enough to eat. >> that's a very good point. let's talk about the process. i mention we are really early in this process but it's 2023 me just kicked off a new congress. the goal is to try to get the farm bill passed this year. there's a lot of a lot of things that need to happen. there have been some press coverage suggesting maybe the house agriculture committee will go first in this process which is something that has happened in the past and that something jennifer we will start with you. lay out where we are going next and what you see happening in the next six months from the perspective of the house side and what can folks expect is as the process gets started? >> absolutely and thanks for holding is that the bipartisan policy center and having a conversation with my colleagues. chairman thompson has been very clear he wants to give money to congress. many of you know he has visited well over 30 states in the past two years so that will continue as well as the rigorous schedule and aggressive oversight. i think there are perhaps areas that have not been focused on over the past few years including the 20 teen farm bill impacted consumers and particularly precipitant of the benefits that title iv has to offer and rich thompson talks about this all the time. he believes an assessment of assessment is necessary to produce the impact on consumers that helped change their lot in life and their outcomes. i will post there but i can promise there'll be multiple hearings, multiple listening sessions in different types of initiatives. >> that's certainly a lot of work in a short amount of time. maybe the senate side wants to jump in or maybe catherine stewart if you want to hop in just to talk about what we can expect in the next six months to year in terms of process. i know you have a nutrition hearing on the senate side in february. what's coming next? about claire? you have a hearing coming up. >> sure, yale. in terms of process we are doing title by title hearing process right now and in the last congress we announced a few of her upcoming grants including nutrition and other subcommittees will be doing farm related hearings as well to bring stakeholders to the table. then we go through the process of writing and negotiating with their counterparts in the senate and their counterparts in the house. right now we are in the information gathering stage. for the senate where the portal to make comments and we do stakeholder meetings. right now is getting feedback from folks on what is working and what's not working and what we need to change and to keep that in mind as we move forward. c i can talk about the house side. we will get underway. last congress were held in 19 farm bill related hearings and a number of working sessions across the country and we have similarly thin and that information gathering stage and i think that will help as we go through with additional hearings this year as well. c i want to talk about the dynamics in the house and senate ag committees in particular. one of the more bipartisan committees and as bill mentioned in the beginning leaders on both sides emphasized the need for this to be a bipartisan process. i was hoping you could comment on that and how you see that dynamic being important in getting this to the finish line. >> i'm happy to jump into that think the chairman has been very clear yes nutrition will be roughly 84 to 86% of the total farm bill spending however there are opportunities to collaborate with the other three corridors. i don't think there's any hesitation they are in the big picture the politics in the house are indicative of bipartisanship across any arena. we look forward to having this conversation with their counterparts in figuring out where we can align but also where necessary conversations take place. it's helpful at this point and i do think in this goes wider than congress that help us craft policies. the process is something that unfolds itself in the four corners and the time that it takes to put together this bill. we want to engage with one another just as much as we want to gauge with you. again bipartisanship is always the goal so we look forward to continuing that engagement and continuing that history that helena mentioned. into hop in with a bit of context for those who may not be as familiar. we are talking about titles and sections of the farm bill. i think at one point agriculture secretary tom vilsack called the farm bill a swiss army knife which indicated how many pieces and how many tools were involved. we'll talk about titles and what jennifer is alluding to is a tight margin that helps republican control of when you have a tight margin you can't lose any members. if you have people protesting a piece of the bill it has to be bipartisan so to give context for those outside of washington or who may not be familiar with the process. that love to hear your thoughts on the bipartisan dynamic and how it's different than the other committees on the hill. i don't know who wants to weigh in. c catherine and i are keeping it up. for agriculture one of my former bosses said and everyone agrees that we want to support you. there's different kinds of agriculture across the country. nutrition is handled in a similar way but it's those ag divisions that determine why someone votes for the farm bill or not. as jennifer mentioned it's a tight margin and in the senate to pass a bill you need 60 votes. there are 60 votes on either side of the aisle. they have always relied on passing it with bipartisan support. agriculture is something not many people pay attention to. nutrition you hear about in every district but that's why there can be a short attention for members on the committee. people who are on the committee tend to stick together and people off the hill stick together to make sure there is continuing support in this area and even from a smaller committee. >> i don't know if anyone has anything to add. definitely the bipartisan theme is certainly stronger on the agriculture side just because of the nature of this bill and how it comes together. it's certainly a different issue to cover and some of my friends in politics or covering different knife fights in different committees. i know it's still really early in the process that i was hoping to get a sense from each of you a what kinds of things you are hearing groups raise in terms of nutrition and healthy eating and anything in that rain with regard to the farm bill. we know the vast majority of resources in the farm bill go to programs like snap which a lot of people know as food stamps but in terms of incentives or food as medicine are these lovers that are being discussed in terms of using inserting nutrition more to the farm bill what are you hearing from groups at this early stage and what kinds of topics are coming up next maybe we will start with you claire. what are you hearing and again i know it's early. we aren't saying we are going in one direction or another. i'm curious what kinds of meetings you are having. >> a lot of meetings. hearing so many perspectives what's really interesting about the nutrition and is busily talk about snap is there such a broad coalition of folks with broad interests. there's the traditional nutrition and then there's retailers and grocers in food banks faith-based and medical communities and agriculture. it's very interesting to pot talk about the different programs from many angles. there's a lot of focus and effort on what has changed since the last farm bill. things like we have seen -- expand and what is needed and what are the investments we need to make to modernize the programs and to improve technology. how do we ensure that families prevent their benefits from being stolen. these are discussions we may not have had a couple of years ago. we need to make these programs easier to access and work better for not only this people who are playing but the states administering the program so a lot of questions on those aspects. we have seen it successful in michigan with their program. we are seeing more of a conversation around access to food but also healthy and affordable food and nutrition education can play a role here. >> and for folks who may not be aware it's an incentive program to give snap purchasers extra funds to buy things like fresh fruits and vegetables and there are different incentives that have been tried but it is one of the in the last 10 years there has been more of a movement towards testing incentives and allowing it to be part of the program. although it's not part of the programmer at large. anyone else want to weigh in on what they are hearing in terms of topics that are being raised at this nexus of petition and healthy eating in the farm bill? again i know it's early and we are not committing it to anything but what are you hearing jennifer? everything spans across to the other side of the capitol. there's not much emphasis on technology that i'd personally like to see and how we advance benefits and how we can address data capture issues, some the things we touched on in the 2018 farm bill which are slow to move forward. also a lot of what i considered more typical ask whether the cold storage for food banks is a systems and whether prescription still fit into the incentive structure and restrictions in the ongoing debate related to snap choice and for those who are new to the conversation whether or not folks are going to use snap and day congress is very public they will not restrict. and how does it work for families? consumer education is one of those things that is not works whether you you're saving s.n.a.p. benefits are not so making sure they continue to hear from as we have thus far from land rent universities and nonprofit partners and private sector partners so it's more impactful. i think bringing that full circle in the chairman's focus on assessing what's been working and what hasn't been working and where we as a congress can do better. >> nutrition is one of those hard things where in washington i think we have seen over the years several things being tried and whether or not they are at the scale as you mentioned in education at the truth is diet related diseases have worsened. we now have a majority of americans that are overweight or have obesity. it is one of those interesting questions about which of our policies are working or not working and it's particularly hard on the nutrition front to look at that because there are so many pieces involved. catherine and thomas want to weigh in on what kinds of meetings you are having and what are you hearing from groups at this stage? >> sure. a lot of the programs that others occurred about. on our side of the aisle a lot of folks are looking at returning to normal practices after the pandemic. claire mentioned the on line pilot and i think that was a silver lining. it was something that was a pilot during the 2014 farm bill tested on a smaller scale and in 2018 when we were writing the farm bill those pilots had not begun so this was an exciting opportunity roll that out. we are not actually completed items we have one to test in the last farm bill because it's tied up with a lot of other items. i think on our side we want to do some oversight and get information on how some of those programs work and where whether there are integrity issues or other issues. and book back back as we are trying to write policy moving forward. >> the on line move to allow snap on line nationwide is a really interesting and underappreciated thing that happened during the pandemic. for folks who aren't aware of think in all 50 states you can -- and thousands of retailers you can use s.n.a.p. benefits to purchase groceries on line really allowing lower income families to have the same delivery or pickup options as other families and it's been really popular. i can't remember off the top of my head with the numbers are but a think it's rapidly adopted by households and will be interesting to hear more about that. on the technology side though you mentioned skimming. it might be good to explain a little more what that is. folks have maybe seen a bit of news coverage of this but but ts is essentially when a scammer, a criminal steals ebt benefits off of the card and a lot of times, i think that's what it's called skimming and someone should correct me. taking the information when they are using their card and stealing it and draining the accounts. i don't know if jennifer you want to talk about what we know about this and how you see it coming up. we don't quite have the full picture of how much it's happening but we are seeing more of it and i know something is going to come up a lot in the farm bill. >> a lot of the text originated through our colleagues in the office. you'll all remember couple of years ago when those devices were -- you put your credit card into the gas pump and a criminal with stealing your information and using your credit card information elsewhere so that's the same thing we are seeing or hearing happening to s.n.a.p. comes -- consumers. the data is lacking and if you go back to the omnibus bill passed in december there's a request for more information plus court nation. this is impacting folks who for example are receiving temporary assistance from the cash welfare benefit. we want to make sure their strong court nation responsible for assuring benefits using the electronic method transit system to make sure we do understand what's actually happening at the state level and where it's happening and make an important part of the conversation and we move forward. that data piece is significantly lacking in we hope to get more information on the depth and breadth of the issue in the future. i'll turn it over to my colleagues to talk more about that. >> out talk a little bit about it. i'm a champion of including it in the omnibus issue. had bipartisan support from all of us. one of the heartbreaking problems is there is not a way for the federal government to reimburse such as broadly a credible issue of benefits being stolen. there is that additional piece on top of it to help anyone without the funding. we are focusing on the short-term or maybe midterm few years worth of reimbursement from the federal government as well as a dual-track ebt securities to help address ensuring ebt cards are more secure and keep up a little bit better with commercial credit cards which are generally more secure unfortunately been ebt cards and to jennifer's point is something we are looking at in trying to learn more about an upcoming farm bill and if there are additional options needed. >> and just to put a finer point on that for anyone who is unfamiliar with how this works if your credit card is stolen and someone buys something you will probably be made whole at that same type of system doesn't exist for ebt so families who knew that their benefits were stolen didn't have any recourse to get those benefits back. in some cases we are talking about hundreds of dollars for very low-income families so the omnibus language is interesting to the u.s. and midterm solution in terms of until he figure out how to deal with this issue. needs to be away to help these families out when they are struggling to provide food for their families. that's the gist they are. claire do you want the jump in terms of how we are thinking about addressing this. i know you are part of the omnibus language. >> absolutely. and to build off of what jennifer and catherine were saying we heard stories about families who had a month's worth of groceries and didn't realize their benefits were gone until they were in the checkout line to buy all of their groceries. for these families it was really heartbreaking to hear these cases. i think what is hard and as was mentioned we are thinking about staying one step ahead. modernizing ebt technology and we know that actors will continue so as we think about technology keeping up with credit card technology we need to further anticipate other threats or breaches which can oftentimes be tricky for congress who are super flexible and forward-looking. that's something we are concerned about as well. >> it's a hard one because it's a little bit different than you hear concerns about fraud and a participant doing something illegal but but this is really criminal targeting which is the problem we are seeing in a lot of places cropping up. we only have a couple more minutes and i was hoping and advice you have for anyone tuning in who wants to get involved in this processor who wants to follow along with the farm bill and nutrition. what are ways that people can get involved or follow along and what is helpful for u.s. staff in terms of hearing ideas and those types of things? maybe jennifer do you want to start and we have a couple more minutes. >> like others are web site has a portal of information on what's working and what's not working so feel free to login and login to the comments in their opportunities for staff level meetings to take a step on those. there's one bit of advice to be strategic and don't duplicate efforts for examples don't ask the chairman for a meeting as well as staff. think about the meeting and discuss your parties. have a listening section in going back to i said earlier have policy discussions and there are so many ways to do that like portal or formal meetings with staff. catherine stewart you want to hop in direct any advice you have for folks who want to get involved? >> jennifer really covered it. the only thing i would say in addition to that is made with your member of congress. they are always interested in what their constituents want and in the farm bill at want to know what the priorities are. so i highly recommend that to and agriculture committee even better. all the members will be heard on the floor so it's important. if you have many specifics you'd like to sing the bill let them know. >> that's great advice. claire catherine do you want the jump in on the senate side in terms of getting involved? >> yeah i think that covers the crux of it. we have a portal on the agriculture committee web site for comments and accepting letters for organizations and that helps us. if you represent organization or part of the coalition that kind of outreach is really helpful to gather recommendations and absolutely reach out to your congress senate and house. even members who were not on the agriculture committee they can share their priorities and what's important to their state and ensuring that you are reaching out to your members is really helpful as well. >> great so folks can find those portals by literally googling house agriculture committee and you should be taken to their web site. we are over schedule so i'm going to turn it back to bill. thank you all so much for joining us. >> thank you very much. thank you helena and the two catherine's and claire and jennifer. very helpful early stages and setting the stage for what could be a very lengthy. important discussion about food nutrition agriculture going forward. at this time we are going to return to two of our co-chairs for their comments secretary dan glickman and leslie sarasin who i mentioned earlier who is the present of the food institute and we will listen to their comments and then we will turn to chef jose andres. without who'll turn it over to our friends secretary glickman. >> good afternoon. i think everyone to -- perjury today's event for the rulers of the by a policy person center food nutrition passwords. today marks the culmination of our work over 16 member task force but it doesn't and the work. there'll be research research and at the flotation of programs. and please do cochair this diverse bipartisan task force to secretary ann veneman chef jose andres and leslie sarasin but i think you hear from all of them later in the webinar. since our launch in may of 2021 this task force has issued three detailed policy briefs to advise the congress the administration and those outside of government and the private sector to it or is food and nutrition security. the early reports on health emergencies covid and dealt with trying to ensure we have a white house conference on food nutrition and health which we did in the second report dealt with issues involving child nutrition programs at the school meal programs, summer feeding and wake and today we are making our final set of recommendations on the federal programs and as programs and as i said we will be dealing with other issues involving nutrition in the future. the programs today have to do with reauthorization largely at the s.n.a.p. program and we strongly believe the second letter of snap nutrition is the n and snap is one of the focuses of our report today. we talk in this report and a recommendations about the need to ensure the benefits provided are adequate and in some cases they are not. we talk about the need to increase nutrition security and investment programs like the schumacher attrition and senate program. we talk about snap pilot programs that encourage or incentivize eating fruits and vegetables or other healthy foods and we talk about increasing our data collection on the program itself and who takes advantage of it? what kinds of foods to the eat so we was further up improve our collection efforts on snap and implementing and evaluating the impact of the national accuracy clearinghouse but also evaluating the impact on food consumption and health which is the most important thing to do. we have a lot of other recommendations in this report and i think it will prove hopefully very valuable for congress as they begin deliberations on the next farm bill which i believe will take place, those deliberations this year and possibly next year as well. we believe the s.n.a.p. program is an extraordinarily important one in making this country probably the leading country in the world for providing food security assistance or the poor, the needy the hungry and particularly families with small children. many of these recommendations will hopefully strengthen the program so we will continue to operate as effectively as possible. we have a divided government in america and our world in the ptc is to try to improve the delivery of bipartisan solutions to our nation's problems a bipartisan path forward and it's only way a farm bill will get done this year but i think our recommendations will help facilitate that. with that i thank you very much for listening to me and i also hope you enjoy the work of my fellow -- >> hello i am leslie sarasin ceo of the food administration. of the half of the entire food industry and like to express my sincere gratitude for the time and effort of my fellow co-chairs and members of this task force and working together to develop a set of recommendations released today. we all know how important it is to ensure the s.n.a.p. program continues to serve our fellow americans in a meaningful way. the members of this task force come from the diverse organizations and backgrounds but we are all united in the strong belief that we must address the hardship of hunger in this country. by coming together as one our efforts to develop these recommendations demonstrate to policymakers as well as to the public that we are serious about preserving and strengthening our safety net so that all americans can live with out the fear of going hungry. as we all know addressing food and nutrition insecurity is a pressing national concern not only from a public health standpoint but also for improving individual mental and emotional well-being pigment families don't know where their next meal is coming from it's not just their physical health that suffers, countless scientific studies have proven more frequent family meals are associated with better nutrition and improve family dynamics. unfortunately families can't reach these benefits if they don't have access to nutritious affordable food. as the organization that represents the food manufacturer and retailer community we are proud to play an important role in addressing these problems. our grocery store associates are the faces that families receiving s.n.a.p. benefits see every day when they purchase their groceries. we have a great responsibility to make sure the program is efficiently designed and effectively implemented so that we can best meet the customer's needs. we take that responsibility very seriously. the food industry has made great progress in implementing on line snap programs throughout the country over the course of the pandemic. we are now able to offer customers flexibility through in-store purchases, curbside pickup and at-home delivery so they can obtain the food they need for their families in whichever way is most convenient for them. we are also providing customers with more healthier options throughout the stores including no calorie and low caloric options in the beverage aisle so they can better manage their own health and that of their families. even though we have made great strides on these fronts we still have more work to do. last october we hosted an event in washington to bring together industry, nonprofit academia and government to collectively build on the momentum of the white house conference on hunger, nutrition and health held a month earlier. the goal was to foster conversations around and find solutions for addressing food and nutrition insecurity. as an example the food industry is committed to donate 2 billion meals to charitable organizations and 2023 and we also committed to 100 million consumers with evidence-based messages and educational tools that support healthy eating patterns. to paraphrase my colleague and friend former usda secretary dan glickman's comments from our account food policy and hunger related issues are of central importance in the present and future for all of us. we appreciate our continued partnership with ebt as we work to identify solutions that provide all americans with the foods they need to thrive. as bill hoagland is fond of saying food is not a person a shipper that's why we are pleased to have a seat at the table and developing the recommendations that the report released today. we look forward to working with our fellow industry stakeholders, the advocacy community and government partners to strengthen the s.n.a.p. program. by working together collectively we can have a significant and positive impact in making sure all americans have access to food that is safe, nutritious and affordable. thank you. >> thank you leslie. i appreciate that very much and thank you for your efforts and secretary glickman. this time i'm going to turn it over to another cochair chef jose andres and thank you chef for taking the time out of your travels to join us as we release this report today and thank you and your organization for the support. chef, over to you. >> thank you bill and thank you leslie. and secretaries ann veneman it's been amazing working with you and learning from all of you. i would say we are going to be listening to experts that are also passionate about making sure food is not a problem. food is a solution to the many issues we may face in america. for many years we have looks past the problem seems every five years become together with the farm bill or the child nutrition authorization. and to solve it. sometimes we are just scratching the surface and every 50 years we hold amendment to how we can and hunger and improve the attrition. once in a century we are all together on this and it forces all of us to adapt and respond quicker and with more urgency than -- we learn how to think outside the box. and that's what we need. with pragmatic ways to get to where we all want to be. that's why i'm so proud to be part of what the task force has done. when we see hunger and attrition security some we can recommend the benefit and flexibility that will allow families to spend their benefits on healthier foods. that's the american way. in the right direction we can bring not only a short-term solution of hunger but a long-term to bridge communities as we make a healthier america. i'm also proud to be recommending that congress and other u.s. territories come to snap. those americans living in other parts of the atmosphere are able to give themselves the same dignity as their fellow citizens living in the 50 states. food has the potential to bring hope and be part of the solution not the problem. we can make practical recommendations and work in a bipartisan way to pass a farm bill that improves nutrition. at the same time looking at the future where food is not an afterthought and something that comes up every five years. food is at the core of how we make smart policies that become those smart policies. putting food at the center we no, i know we all share that but it's the best way to create a healthy equitable future for our country. thank you very much and thank you for letting me be part of this amazing group. i'm not only happy to see what you guys will be able to recommend and 2023. it's something that will have an impact for many years ahead. so when we look back at this moment i think all of you should feel so very proud of yourselves. thank you bill. >> thank you chef and thank you for your contributions and we are very proud and happy to have you as a contributed to this particular report and the strong recommendations as it relates to our territories and puerto rico. at this time our final commenter and not the least the most important former secretary of agriculture ann veneman cochair also so secretary your final comments for today. >> thank you very much bill and many thanks to my fellow co-chairs who you've all just heard from and also to the health staffer and their excellent panel today and thanks to all of you who have joined us today for taking an interest in the subject. as we talked about today several years ago the name of the food stamp program was changed to the supplemental nutrition assistance program. the program itself has not really been altered to focus on nutrition. the average american has bordallo qualities with only 60% of diets aligning with the evidence-based dietary guidelines for americans. poor diet increased the risk for host of health problems in both children and adults. things like obesity, type ii diabetes, pre-diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and more. if diet quality across the partition improves even modestly the u.s. can save billions of dollars a year. that's why this report along with others that we have supported with the bct over the years not only focuses on food security but on nutritional security. btc's policy are designed to improve nutrition in snap and other parts of the farm bill and including nutrition pilots. and providing beyond what is already being discussed i ever co-chairs, we recommend improving education efforts, nutrition education and integrating them better with federal nutrition programs. enhance data collection and measured diet quality status and progress for all americans and federal nutrition program participants. we heard a lot about that today and we think that's a very important part of learning how to improve people's diets. perhaps most importantly we have recommended developing additional demonstration projects for pilot projects that evaluating innovative approaches to reduce hunger and improve nutrition. these pilot projects or demonstrations to consider the added challenges that snap participants and family space in achieving a new trainer rich diet compared to the overall population. we encourage them to use their existing program to improve nutrition and the population as a whole. the recommendation and are priests or common sense and bipartisan and should be useful in informing this year's farm bill reauthorization as s. or other reports have been in past congress. we hope these recommendations will just start a discussion about the need to further emphasized in improve nutrition in our federal food program. it's been a pleasure working with a bipartisan food and nutrition security task force as we work to improve diets for americans. as we work to improve diets were americans there health and quality of life improved as well. thank you again to all of you for being with us today. >> thank you, thank you secretary. let me close by once again thinking helena and the congressional staff and their wonderful co-chairs for sharing your thoughts with us today. i highly recommend those of you who are interested in following up to call up and go to our web site and review the executive summary. it's a long report that the executive summary will crystallize the major recommendations we have been discussing here today. of course i also want to thank all members of the task force and their staff for their dedication bringing this final product to conclusion. most importantly a huge thank you and appreciation to the bpc staff and its consultants are medical officer shannon are public health director who joined us late to bring the final product to completion our policy analyst and her are too dedicated consultant melissa martin shepard and stephanie hodges. irv bbc action team andrew and michael and their communications and finally a big shout out to the project project coordinator who kept us on schedule and was so instrumental in bringing this project to conclusion. food and nutrition security and the health of the public are so inextricably linked. it is so that the bbc health team will continue as has been suggested to focus our resources on the back. we will be launching a new web stream in the month ahead focusing on food as medicine. finally a secretary glickman mentioned this was not an easy report. not everyone on the task force was pleased with the final product. compromise as we know is the essence of bipartisanship in the political world we live in today. as was mentioned i believe food should not be a partisan issue and we hope the task force's recommendations will be considered and acted upon in a bipartisan 2023 farm bill.

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