Food Insecurity and Social Determinants of Health

October 5, 2022

I attended the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health last week, the first such conference in over 50 years. The conference focused on ways to end hunger where today over 10% of the U.S. population is food insecure, and where 80% of a person’s health is influenced by social determinants of health such as access to food, housing, transportation, equitable economic opportunities, and more.

Lutheran Services in America is a network where members provide a wide range of services so people can be healthy and lead their best lives. The ways we meet those needs vary widely from digital food pantries to connecting older adults in their homes, affordable housing and independent living to services they need to remain independent, connecting families in crisis to supports they need to remain together, empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to reach their goals, providing healthcare and so much more.

Join us on October 7, 2022 at 2 pm ET, for a Strength & Service Series webinar on “Bridging the Great Health Divide:  Nutrition Security and Health Equity,” led by Dr. Sara Bleich, the first Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. On leave from her position as Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. Bleich will share USDA’s work to end hunger, reduce diet-related diseases, and advance health equity.

Dr. Bleich will be joined by a panel of Lutheran Services in America members—from Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio, Lutheran Social Services of Nevada, and Lutheran Social Services of Southern California—who will describe how they are strengthening food security and meeting the social determinant of health needs in their communities.

Join us to learn more about efforts at the federal level and in communities across the country.