Today, I am excited to announce National Dairy Council (NDC) in partnership with Feeding America and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is launching the Healthy Food Bank Hub. Through this innovative microsite, NDC, Feeding America and partners are working to equip hunger experts and volunteers and nutrition professionals with tools and resources that not only address food insecurity but also promote good nutrition, health and wellness in communities across the country.
As I’ve mentioned before, food insecurity and health are interconnected public health issues. While the threat of obesity and type-2 diabetes is at epidemic levels for many Americans, our food insecure populations are being disproportionately impacted. Fortunately, this is a battle that no individual group has to fight alone. Now more than ever before, we are seeing unprecedented collaboration between food banks and health professionals to address poor nutrition, hunger and health.
While the fight against obesity and other chronic diseases is ongoing, I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made so far. Our country has a strong network of food banks that distribute many healthful foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and low-fat and fat-free dairy items to families who are low income and food insecure. In fact, 67 percent of the food the Feeding America network distributes annually is classified as Foods to Encourage, foods that closely align with the food groups promoted through USDA’s MyPlate.
Through our work with Feeding America, we’ve found that milk is among the top five most requested items from food banks, yet dairy foods only account for 5.3 percent of the food distributed by food banks, meaning that a lot of essential nutrients are left off the plate and out of the glass. In particular, nutrient-rich dairy foods– low-fat and fat-free milk, cheese and yogurt – can play an important role in ensuring the food insecure are getting the nutrients they need such as calcium, protein, vitamin D, potassium and protein to help improve their health. Choosing dairy foods is an easy way to increase consumption of nutrients like potassium, calcium and vitamin D, three of four nutrients classified by the 2010 DGAs as ‘nutrients of concern’ because of low intake levels. And At about 25 cents per serving, the dairy group (milk, cheese, yogurt) is among the best values available.
NDC will continue to work with our trusted partners Feeding America and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to ideate and implement new innovations like the Healthy Food Bank Hub to ensure that health professionals have a one-stop-shop for nutrition education materials related to hunger and food insecurity. Our mission is not only to educate about the role that dairy plays in feeding those in need, but also to help improve access to milk and milk products for food banks and the clients they feed. I encourage you to visit the Healthy Food Bank Hub and share these resources with your patients and clients who are food insecure. We have the potential to overcome chronic disease and food insecurity, but only if we do it together.