dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. >> watch our ten part series speeches that defined a presidency saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and p.m. history on american history tv on c-span2. >> remarks now from the agriculture secretaries from the bush and clinton administrations as well as chef jose andres. they talk about food security and federal nutrition programs during an event hosted by the bipartisan policy center. >> welcome to the bipartisan policy center's release of the report entitled making food and nutrition security as snap, its recommendations for the 2023 farm bill. the full reportt and summary can be downloaded from our bpc website. i'm bill hoagland senior vice president here with us in an avid had the honor of working with the task force. it's cochairs and the bpc staff on this final report along with the two previous ones. the task force has been led by four cochairs come formerse secretaries of agriculture dan glickman from the clinton administrationn and secretary an veneman from george w. bush administration, very bipartisan. they were joined by leslie sarasin, president and ceo of the foodd industry association and chef jose andres, founder of world central kitchen. you will shortly hear from all four cochairs, all very committed to ensuring food and nutrition security for everyone. in the interest of time i'm not going to be able to name all other 13 outstanding members of the task. they are listed prominently on a first page of the report except to say they represent a broad spectrum of stakeholders including both food advocacy organizations, medical profession, business, the military and academics. my sincere thanks to all them for their dedication a contribution to the work of 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 thisel project. now the farm bill is considered every five years and is up for reauthorization this year in 2023. every title of the farm bill affects millions of agricultural producers, supplies, manufactures, food retailers come real communities but realistic every person who consume food, and that of course is all off us, historically the farm bill hasar been a bipartisn bill and indeedd i believe chairwoman of the senate agriculture community senator stabenow recently stated her intention to pass the farm bill in 2023 with bipartisan support. further, the new chairman of house agriculture committee, congressman jt thompson, has stated he hopes it will be a a bipartisan package. so there's no surprise that the task force and we here at the bipartisan policy center are encouraged by the statements, but we also realize with a divided congress that there are 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 farm bills expenditures are devoted to the nutrition title. so we're pleased to begin our discussion today with staff from the patrician subcommittees, both the senate and house agriculture committee and partly from both majority and minority. delete this discussion we're fortunate to have helena bottemiller such, editor and chief of food fix, an online publication about food policy in washington and beyond, and former senior reporter at "politico" where she covered the intersection of food policy and politics. before i turn this over, as a former congressional staffer myself, i want to be clear to our audience that we have not asked the congressional staff to take a position on any of its recommendations inmm a report of course unless they want to. the policies may be input by staff but their bosses, the ones with the election certificates hanging on the wall, are the one to make the final decisions. so with that, helena i'm turning it over to you. >> thank you so much bill. really delighted to be here to talk with such an important topic. thanks to the bipartisan policy center for having me. as bill mention i'm the phone editor in chief of food fix which is a weekly newsletter about food policy, tracking all of this. we have a really fantastic lineup today of staff that represent the four corners of the farm bill. so what that means in washington is the four key posts that make decisions, the majority of the minority in both the house and senate agriculture community so when hear thatr term four cornes that's what we mean. we have claire borzner who works at majority inh the senate, so for chair debbie stabenow to quit kathy thompson works for and minority in the senate, so rankingn member bluesman. we have jennifer tiller who works for the majority in the house so ranking member, sorry, chair thompson. with katherine stewart the works for the minority in the house so ranking member david scott. i want to emphasize we are really early inn the farm bill process. so the committee's areo still forming. we do not even have full lineups for both of the committee's. it's very early. however, i think there's a lot of momentum and sort of excitement to get the farm bill process started. so with that copy it of it is still really early and hard to predict where things are headed, we're going tohe try to keep ths conversation forward-looking and pretty high level. we know we havee a lot of people tuning in today who might be interested in the farm bill but might not know a lot about that big piece of legislation, might not know how the process usually works and so we're 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 not going to go into the specific recommendationsns at al but we're really going to talk about the process of sort of what to expect, what it takes to get a farm bill done. i think we will start with kind of a basic one, right, which is when you hear the word farm bill you don't necessarily think about nutrition, and yet it is more than 80%t of the spending, of this bill. that made would start with you claire from the senatehe side. what are some of the programs you are looking at undernutrition side and can held orient the audience to why we would talk about nutrition in the context of this bill? >> yeah, absolutely. when we talk about nutrition in congress, nutrition is broken up between child nutrition programs and school meal summer meals, the wic program, meals and childcare which are handled through a reauthorization versus all the farm bill which include snap and all the programs and snap, snap employment and training as well as programs related to food banks, supporting nutrition incidents, healthy food financing initiatives, supporting farmers markets, really a broad range of nutrition assistance as well as procuring food and ensuring folks have the food that they need. also programs like food distribution program on indian reservations, supplemental food program scope really kind of programs aimed at reaching different populations and reaching people where they are. obviously this is a really big component of the farm bill, and we do think there is a direct impact on farming is low because when folks were able to buy food thatd benefits ag so there's a lot of connections across the board for these programs. >> i don't know if anyone else wants to jump in here in terms of the gaphe between may be the public's understanding of what's in the farm bill and what's actually in the farm bill. a lot of this is nutrition. what other piecest of nutrition do you find come up in your conversations with constituents or different interest groups that may be summoned just come to the farm bill might not be aware of? i don't know d if maybe katharie thomas wants to jump in? >> sure. thanks for having me. i will comment on something not included in farm bill, we have the fda and that is overseen in the senate and in house by different committees. so since they c do all the regulation of what food is safe and when there's recalls kind of standards for dietary intake, so added sugar, something that has been in the conversation. we are not 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'sa talk about process at a high level. i mentioned we are really early in the process. it's 2023. we just kicked off into a new congress. the goal is to tryhe to get a fm bill done this year. there's a lot of things that need tot happen. there have been some press coverage suggesting that maybe thebe house agriculture communiy will go first in this process which is something that has happened in the past. it's something maybe jennifer tiller we will start with you. lay out where we're going next come sort of a what you see happening in the next six months from the perspective of the house side and what can folks expect as this process gets started? >> absolutely. and thanks for hosting, and look forward to further conversation with my colleagues. chairman thompson has been very clear that he wants to hit the ground running this congress. many of you know that's been reported he has visited well over 30 states over the past two years, and sohe that will contie as well as a rigorous d.c. centric hearing schedule, other listening sessions and then aggressive oversight. i think that there are perhaps areas that have not been focused on over the past few years that do deserve ouras attention, how the 2018 farm bill impacted natalie producers but consumers and particularly recipients of many of the benefits that title iv has to offer. mr. thompson is a healthcare guy. he talks about this all the time. he really believes in assessments of assessment is necessary to producing a product that has impact on producers and consumers that help change their lot in life and their outcomes. i will posit there but i can promise that the would be multiple hearings, multiple listening sessions, and different types of oversight initiatives. >> that's certainly a lot of work to get off here in a short amount of time. i don't know if maybe the senate side wants to jump in or maybe katherine stewart if you want to opt in to just talk about what we can expect in the next six months to a year in terms of process.he for example, i think we have a date for nutrition hearing on the senate side inn mid februar. like, what's coming next? i don't know who wants to jump in. how about claire? you have a hearing coming up. >> sure, yeah. i can say in terms of process, in the senate we're doing title by title during process right now. we have done a couple drinks in the last congress and were continuing those now. we announced a few of her upcoming harry including a nutrition hearing people expect or subcommittees will be doing farm bill related hearings as well to bring stakeholders to the table. once we go through all hearing process that we go through the process of writing and ultimately negotiating both of her counterparts in the senate and then with her counterparts in theth house. right now i would say we're very much in kind of our information gathering phase. for the senate we have a portal that is open the folks can submit comments. we do a number of stakeholder meetings at the right now it's a lot of getting feedback from folks on what is working, what's not working, what we need to change 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 or catherine to want to jump in on the senate side terms of getting involved? >> yeah, i think that really covers the crux of it. we also have portal on agriculture community website, love to hear from folks on comets are also accepting letters from organizations. that's helpful bras to put in the record as we're doing hearings and things like that. if you represent an organization or are part of a coalition that kind of outreach is really helpful as we gather recommendations. an absolutely, reach out to your member of congress, senate and house pick even members who are not on the agriculture community often it engaged and share their priorities and what's important to their statepr with us, so ensuring that your reaching out to your members is really helpful as well. >> great. and so folks can find those portals by literally googling house agriculture committee or senate agriculture community, should be taken right to those websites. where one man overscheduled some going to come back to bill. thank you all so much for tuning in. >> thank you very much. thank you, helena. thank you the two catherine and claireai and jennifer, very helpful, early stages, setting the stage for what could be a very lengthy but important discussion about food nutrition, agriculture going forward. at this time were going to turn to two of our cochairs further comments, secretary glickman and leslie sarasin who i mentioned earlier is a president of the food manufacturing institute and will listen to their comments and then we'll turn the chef andres. so with that we'll turn it now to our friends, secretary glickman. >> good afternoon. and i thank everyone for joining today's event for the release of the third and final brief from the bipartisan policy center's food and nutrition security task force. and today marks the culmination of our work of art 16 member task force but it doesn't in the work the bpc is going to be doing on nutrition research and nutrition and publication of federal programs. i have been pleased to cochair this diverse bipartisan task force with secretary ann veneman, with chef jose andres and with leslie sarasin. i think you're going to hear from all of them later in the webinar. so since our launch in may 2021 this task force has issued three detailed policy briefs to advise the congress, the administration, and those outside of governmentt and even in the private sector to address food and nutrition security. theon early reports dealt with public health emergencies, covid, dealt with trying to ensure we have a white house conference on food nutrition and health, which we did. and the second report dealt multi-with issues involving strengthening child nutrition programs like the school meal programs, summer feeding and wick. today we are making our final set of recommendations on federal programs and as i said will be dealing with other issues involving nutrition in the future. but the programs today have to do with reauthorization largely of the s.n.a.p. program and we strongly believe that the second letter of snap, nutrition, is one of the focuses of our report today. we talked in this report in our 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 through expanded investment programs like the guest schumacher program. we talk about snap pilot programs that encourage or incentivize eating fruits and vegetables or other healthy foods. and we also talk about increasing our datak collection on the program itself, who take advantage of it, what kinds of foods do they eat? so we further improve our collection efforts on snap and implement a 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 a begin deliberations on the next farm bill, which i believe will take place, those deliberations come this year and possibly next year as well. we believe the s.n.a.p. program has been extraordinarily important in making this country probably the leading country in the world and providing food security assistance for the poor, the needy, the hungry, and particularly families with small children. and so many of these recommendations will hopefully strengthenwi the program so it will continue to operate as effectively as possible. we have a divided government in america, and our role in the bpc is to try to improve the delivery of bipartisan solutions to our nation's problems, a bipartisan path forward is the only way that a farm bill will get done this year. and i think our recommendation will help facilitate that. so with that i thank you very much for listening to me, and also hope that you enjoy the words of my fellow cochairs as well. >> hello. i am leslie sarasin, president and ceo of fmi, the food industry association. i'm half of fmi and the entire food industry i would like to express my sincere gratitude for the time and effort of my fellow cochairs, as well as the members of this task force in working together to develop the set of recommendations being released by bpc 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 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 the policymakers as well as to the public that we are serious about preserving and strengthening our safety net so that all americans can live without the fear of going hungry. as we all know, dressing food and nutrition insecurity is oppressing nationals concern not only from a public health standpoint it also for improving individuals mental and emotional well-being. when families don't know where their next meal is coming from, it's not just the physical health that suffers. countless scientific studies have proven that more frequent family meals are associate with better nutrition and improve family dynamics. unfortunately, families can't reap these benefits ifieie they don't have access to nutritious, affordable foods. as the organization that represents the food manufacturer and retailer community, fmi is proud to play an important role in addressing these problems. our grocery store associates are the faces of families receiving s.n.a.p. benefits to see every day when they purchase their groceries. we can best meet these customers needs. we take that responsibility very seriously. the food industry has made great progress in implementing online s.n.a.p. programs throughout the country over the course of the pandemic. we are now able to offer customersnd flexibility through in-store purchases, curbside pickup, and at p home delivery o 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 low calorie and no calorie options and beverage aisle so they can better manage their own health and that of their families. but even though we've made great strides on these fronts we still have more work to do. last october fmi hosted an event in washington to bring together industry, nonprofits, 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 has committed to donate 2 billion meals to charitable organizationsil in 2023. and we also committed to reach at least 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 said comment from the state at our event, food,, food policy, and other related issues are of central importance in the present and the future for all of us. we appreciate our continued partnership with bpc as we work to identify solutions that provide all americans with the foods they need to thrive. as bbc's bill hoagland is fond of saying, food is not a partisan issue. that's why we're pleased to have a seat at the table in developing the recommendations in report released today. we look forward to working with our fellow industry stakeholders, the advocacy community, and government partners 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. appreciate that very much, and thank you for y your efforts, ad secretary glickman. at this time of going to turn it over to another cochair, chef jose andres. thank you, chef, for taking the time and your travel to join us on this as we release of this report today, and thank you and your organization for the support of this work. chef, over to you. >> yeah, so yeah, thank you bill, thank you leslie and secretary glickman and secretary veneman. it's's been amazing spending all these months working with you and learning from all of you. so you know, i will say that we are going to be listening from more people, great people, experts that are also passionate on this amazing responsibility we all have in our shoulders about making sure that food is not a problem, that food is solution to the many issues we may face in america. so you know, for many years we talk about food as the problem that we needst solving, but sees every five years we come together with a farm bill or the child nutrition authorization and attempt to solve times sometimes barely scratching the surface for what's happened this id every 50 years we hold a big white house comfort and make amendments to how come so we can be ending hunger and improving nutrition. then once in a century we are all together on this, it forces all of us to adapt and respond quicker and with more urgency that sometimes any piece of legislation. we learn how to think outside the box, and that's what we need. big, ambitious ideas with pragmatic ways to get what we all want to be. and that's why i'm so proud to be part of the work and bpc that does too great these recommendations for the 2023 conference. when i see, when we see the hunger and nutrition security are still problems in america today. so i'm very proud we can be recommending -- as well as flexibility that will allow families to spend their benefits in more locations and on healthier foods. that's the american way. in this direction, it's not only becoming a short-term solution forso hunger, but a long-term strategy to empower and bridge communities as we make a healthier america. and i'm also proud to be recommending that congress, puerto rico and other u.s. territories from s.n.a.p. to s.n.a.p. pics of those americans living in other parts of the hemisphere are able to keep themselves the same dignity as their fellow citizens living in the 50 u.s. states. whatever times of crisis or normal times, because food has the potential to bring dignity and hope to be part of the solution, not the problem. we can make practical recommendations today and work in a bipartisan way to pass this farm bill that improves nutrition security all across. while at the same time we're looking at the future where food is not an afterthought, not an issue to address as i said before, every five years. people, i know you know it but i'm going to repeat it. food is at the core of how we make a smart policy that becomes a smart politics. so today's announcement is all the proof we need. putting food at the center. we know, i know, we all share that that is the best way to create a healthy, equitable and a prosperous future for our country. thank you very much, and really thank you for letting me be part of this amazing group that i'm not only happy to see what you guys will be able to recommend in the 2023, but this is something like it's going to be having an impact in many years ahead. so in ten, 20 years we look back at this moment and i think all of you should feel so very proud of yourselves. thank you, bill. >> thank you. thank you, chef, and thank you for your contributions, and we are very proud and happy to have you asnd a contributor to this particular report and the strong recommendations as it relates to our territories and puerto rico. at this time our final commentor, and not the least, the most important secretary conformer sect of agriculture ann veneman, culture also. so secretary veneman, your final comments for today. >> thank you very much, bill. and many thanks to my fellow cochairs who you all just herd from, and also to the hill staff, a really excellent panel today. and thanks to all of you who have joined us today and 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 theed supplemental nutrition assistance program. but the program itself has not really been altered to focus on nutrition. the average american has poor diet quality with only w about % of diets aligning with the evidence-based dietary guidelines for americans. poor diets are increasing the risk for aed host of health problems in both children and adults. things likend obesity, type two diabetes, prediabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and more. if diet quality across the population improves evene modestly, the u.s. could save billions of dollars a year in health care costs. that's's why this report, along with others that we supported, that we supported with the bpc over the years, not only focuses on food security but on nutrition security. bpc's policy recommendations are designed to improve nutrition instep and of the programs in the farm bill, including nutrition pilots. and promoting the nutrition in s.n.a.p. the on what is already being discussed by other cochairs, we recommend improving education with -- efforts, nutrition education and integrating new better nutrition programs. enhanced data collection to measure diet quality status and progress for all americans, and for program participants. we've herd a lot about that the today. we think that's a very important part of really learning how to improve people's diets. perhaps most importantly we have recommended developing additional demonstration projects, or pilot projects, that evaluate innovative approaches to reduce hunger and improve nutrition. these pilot projects are demonstrations should consider the added challenges that's not participants and families face in achieving at nutrient rich diet as compared to the overall population. we encourage usda to use their existing authority to improve nutrition instep and for the population as a whole. the recommendations in our briefs are common sense and bipartisan, and should be useful in informing this year's farm bill reauthorization. as are other reports have been in past congresses. we hope that these recommendations are will jumpstart a discussion about the need to further emphasize and to prove nutrition in our federal food programs. it's been a pleasure working with the bpc, bipartisan food security task force as we work to improve diets for americans. as we work to improve the diets for americans, their health and quality of life should improve as well. thank you again to all of you for being with us today. >> thank you. thank you, secretary veneman. let me close by once again thanking helena and the congressional staff and our wonderful cochairs for sharing their thoughts with us today. i highly recommend that those of you who are interested in following up to call up and go to our website and review the executive summary. it's a long report by the executive summary will crystallize the major recommendations that we have n some of been discussed here today. of course i i also want to thk all members of the task force and their staffs for the dedication in bringing this final product to conclusion. but most importantly, a huge thank you andti appreciation to the bpc staff and its consultants. our chief medical officer, our public health director who joined us late but help bring the final product toec completi, our policy analyst, , our two rededicated consultants melissa martin sheppard and stephanie hodges, are bpc action team, andrew and michael, and our communications, and finally a very big shout out to the project coordinator who kept us on schedule and was so instrument in bringing this project to conclusion. food and nutrition security and the health of the public are so inextricablyar linked. it is such that is so that the bpc health team will continue as has been suggestedus to focus or resources on them. indeed it ison been mentioned we will be launching a new work stream in in a month at focun food as medicine. finally, as i think secretary glickman mentioned, this is not an easy report. not everyone on the task force was pleased with the final product, but 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 hopeie the task force's recommendations will be considered and acted upon in a bipartisan 2023 farm bill. thank you again for all for joining us today. have a good day. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies, and more, including comcast. >> are you thinking this is just a community center? it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create lift zones so students can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast 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