Utah Legislature Enlists Local Nutrition Coalition in Fight Against Food Insecurity

Jul 27, 2022

My identify is Paul Birkbeck, and I’ve labored with SNAP for 26 years and have been honored to chair Utah’s State Nutrition Action Coalition (SNAC) for the previous eight years. Throughout the United States, SNACs are an modern, collaborative technique to enhance group well being via partnerships. I’m in awe of the fervour and dedication of our vitamin companions in Utah.

In 2020, Utah State Senator Luz Escamilla introduced a bill to create a Food Security Task Force to develop a plan for establishing meals safety throughout the state. The Task Force was fashioned in 2021. In July 2022, our SNAC was rebranded “The Food Security Council” and its membership expanded to incorporate the Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bureau, and representatives from refugee resettlement companies, Tribal governments, and better training. Utah’s SNAC already included representatives from SNAP-Ed, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), WIC, the Department of Health, Get Healthy Utah, Utahns Against Hunger and the SNAP State Agency.

The function of one of many Food Security Task Force’s three workgroups, Policy and Access to Healthy Food, is to establish coverage boundaries that forestall low-income people and households from collaborating in federal vitamin packages, and to establish alternatives to extend entry to recent and complete meals as a part of wholesome consuming patterns. Recent knowledge from USDA’s Economic Research Service present that one in 10 Utah households expertise meals insecurity. While total, Utah is near the nationwide common for poverty, the issue is concentrated in rural areas. Additionally, meals insecurity disproportionately impacts kids, feminine single-parent households, seniors, Blacks, Indigenous, and different communities of coloration.

The different members of the Food Security Task Force and I are excited to sort out this problem and to work collectively to get rid of meals insecurity throughout the Beehive State! Establishing our Task Force was simply the primary of many steps this broad group of companions will take to implement lasting coverage options that can enhance entry to meals for all Utahns.