Join unBox on August 17 for a featured presentation and Q&A:
Uprooting Institutionalized Racism as a Driving Force of Food Apartheid in America
with special guest
Jaleel Poole
Wednesday August 17 at 5:00 pm Pacific/8:00 pm Eastern
REGISTER HERE
Jaleel Poole is a recent graduate of Denison University and will be attending Columbia University in Fall 2022 to obtain his Masters’ of Public Health degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology. He is passionate about health disparities in cardiovascular diseases and their connection to food apartheid (a term emphasizing the role of racist and oppressive structures in creating nutrient-deprived food environments) in disinvested, disenfranchised Black communities. Jaleel’s interest for this subject emanates from having grown up in food apartheid and losing family members to diabetes and heart diseases who had a history of unhealthy eating because of limited, infrequent access to healthy, affordable, and culturally-appropriate food.
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unBox hosted two White House Conference Listening Sessions and submitted our insights to the WH.
Read what we had to say!
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In September, the Biden-Harris Administration is hosting a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. To elicit feedback from diverse stakeholders, the WH called on organizations to convene their communities in Listening Sessions and document their insights on needed steps towards a just, sustainable US food system.
We saw this is an opportunity for us to elevate our youth voices to the halls of power. unBox organized two dialogues and submitted our insights. Explore notes from our discussions in our two blog posts: on June 27 and July 11!
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Check out our revamped unBox blog!
www.unboxproject.org/blog
We've loaded up tons of good stuff in the blog: it's now basically a living timeline of our past 2.5 years all together! Have a scroll to look back on unBox's greatest hits.
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FARM BILL ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT
Each unBox newsletter leading up to the 2023 Farm Bill will spotlight an organization pushing for a more just, sustainable Farm Bill, and list ways to support their work.
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- Increase funding for the Agricultural Land Conservation Easement Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program—prioritizing projects protecting farmland affordability and farmer ownership, and supporting BIPOC farmers.
- Raise funding for the Indian Tribal Land Acquisition and the Highly Fractionated Indian Land Loan Programs
- Use the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to improve young, beginning, and BIPOC farmers' access to credit
- Support BIPOC farmers in conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives, Conservation Stewardship, and Regional Conservation Partnership Programs
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unBox advisor Joel Berg to speak at the San Bernardino County Food Rescue Anti-Hunger Coalition meeting
Tomorrow at 10 am PST on Zoom
REGISTER HERE
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unBox member Charlie Hoffs to present in NOPREN's Student Speaker Series
On August 17 at 4:00 pm Eastern Time, Charlie will present a talk "SNAP online grocery delivery in California: Access gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic" exploring insights from unBox's paper in Health & Place! You can register here.
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unBox signed on to support these policies!
- CA SB 364 — "Pupil Meals" (Skinner): unBox joined 34 organizations to support CAFB's campaign: this two-year bill that builds upon California’s historic passage of School Meals for All. SB 364 would (1) reduce child hunger when schools are closed through the Better Out Of School Time (BOOST) program; (2) maximize Pandemic EBT federal benefits for families with children; and (3) modernize meal applications to make them reflect the new free-meals-for all reality and easily accessible online while also protecting family privacy.
- CA AB 1965 – "California Antihunger Response and Employment Training Act of 2022" (Wicks): unBox joined, again, 34 organizations to support CAFB's campaign: CA AB 1965 would protect unemployed and underemployed adults from losing their nutrition assistance through the establishment of California Anti-Hunger Response and Employment Training (CARET) benefits.
- SB 641 – "CalFresh for College Students Act" (Skinner): unBox joined 62 orgs in supporting CAFB's letter to support SB 641, which seeks to codify the recommendations of the College Hunger Working Group and add data reporting requirements for the DSS and county human services agencies so that the state may better track progress in participation among CalFresh eligible college students and determine how better to serve these students in the future.
- H.R. 8450 — "Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act" (Scott): unBox supported FRAC's campaign to support the introduction of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill. Due for renewable every five years, the CNR is critical for supporting and improving school meals and other child food security and nutrition programs.
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Great Reads
- On the Inflation Reduction Act: We're overjoyed and honestly, shocked, that Congress made such incredible progress on moving arguably climate-life-and-death legislation forward, empowered access to healthcare and affordable prescription drugs, and made steps to reform the tax system. However, as CBPP points out, it lacks key child poverty and nutrition provisions. As always, the fight continues!
- The Hill: What happens when a restaurant goes tip-free?
- The 19th: Free school meals helped families during the pandemic. This fall, those lunches won’t return.
- Talking Points Memo: GOP AGs Sue Over LGBTQ Anti-Discrimination Guidance For SNAP, Free School Lunches
- Civil Eats: 22 Solutions-Focused Stories on the Food System in 2022
- Civil Eats: This San Francisco Supper Club Gives Youth a Chance to Reinvent Themselves
- Civil Eats: Black Farmers in Arkansas Still Seek Justice a Century After the Elaine Massacre
- Civil Eats: Do Regulations Designed to Promote Nutrition Make WIC Food Lists Too Restrictive?
- Food Fix: Inside FDA’s big food reboot
- CBS Boston: Free school meals extended for 400,000 Massachusetts students
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New Research + Data
- Sylvetsky A, Hughes S, Moore H, Murphy J, Kuttampeor J, Sacheck J, Smith E. “Having a newborn is stressful enough:” Mothers’ experiences during the 2022 Infant Formula Shortage in Washington, DC. Preprint.
- Katz B, Soldavini J, Grover K, Pitts S, Martin S, Thayer L, Ammerman A, Lane H. “Let’s Use This Mess to Our Advantage”: Calls to Action to Optimize School Nutrition Program beyond the Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. June 2022.
- Anderson CE, Martinez CE, Ritchie LD, Paolicelli C, Reat A, Borger C, Whaley SE. Longer WIC participation duration is associated with higher diet quality at age 5 years. The Journal of Nutrition, June 2022.
- Duffy E, Vest D, Davis C, Hall M, De Marco M, Ng S, Taillie L. “I Think That’s the Most Beneficial Change That WIC Has Made in a Really Long Time”: Perceptions and Awareness of an Increase in the WIC Cash Value Benefit. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. July 2022.
- Marcus, M, Yewel, KG. The Effect of Free School Meals on Household Food Purchases: Evidence from the Community Eligibility Provision. Journal of Health Economics. July 2022.
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Want to learn more & get involved?
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