Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
Newark, N.J. — More than 60 New Jersey anti-hunger advocates, state and local officials, medical professionals, direct service providers, family farmers, agricultural stakeholders, and people who have personally experienced the impact of hunger, food insecurity, or diet-related illness submitted comments to U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) office on the critical need to make healthy food accessible to all.
The comments came in response to Booker’s call for feedback ahead of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health in September and have been forwarded to the White House. They underscored the disproportionate harm hunger and diet-related diseases inflict on Black and Brown and low-income communities across the state, and proposed ideas that touched on improving access to fresh fruits and vegetables, expanding federal assistance programs, supporting locally grown produce, eliminating food waste, and more.
“I’m grateful to everyone who wrote in for highlighting the urgency of these issues and for their work every day to remove barriers to accessing healthy, affordable food,” Booker said. “I look forward to working with the White House to develop comprehensive solutions so that all people — from rural communities to cities like the one I call home — have equitable access to nutritious food options.”
Booker secured funding to convene the conference in the Fiscal Year 2022 government funding bill. The conference aims to create a national strategy to improve access to affordable, nutritious food for all Americans.
The comments will inform Booker’s work as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research.
As Mayor of Newark, Booker witnessed firsthand how lack of access to healthy foods harmed local residents. He was instrumental in bringing several supermarkets to the area and also spearheaded the creation of community gardens and urban farms.