Panel, Conference Presentation
Living Healthy: Education, Access and Activity
Milken InstituteAlex Witt, Robert Egger, Sam Cass, Michel Nishan, Rachel Poplack, Larry Soler, Robert Blendon, Natasha, Harlan Weissman
- The LA Kitchen plans to open in Los Angeles to replicate a Washington, DC model employing individuals from addiction recovery or prison, with anticipation that a younger generation raised on different dietary habits will enter their purchasing prime in five to ten years and that an aging population will increasingly adopt "less meat, more green" strategies over the next 20 years.
- Wholesome Wave aims to shift the $80 billion annual market of food spent by 50 million Americans in poverty toward healthier choices via its Double-Up program, which secured $100 million in federal funding through the Farm Bill, and is launching fresh cart mobile produce vending initiatives in the next couple of weeks modeled after New York's Green Cart program.
- The Health Trust intends to shift consumption patterns in Silicon Valley low-income communities through urban agriculture, school gardens, and mobile produce funding, while anticipating local markets will increasingly align with national policies to accept CalFresh benefits, following a successful 2020 San Jose mandate.
- The Partnership for a Healthier America expects to expand its current portfolio of 70 agreements covering food, physical activity, and early childhood education, is building grocery stores primarily in the South and other regions, and plans to maintain an elite group representing one out of every 10 companies that achieve clear metrics and annual reporting.
- The White House "Let's Move" initiative has established "Let's Move Childcare" serving 14,000 centers, scheduled to remove junk food from school vending machines this fall, and launched a Sesame Street partnership providing characters for free to promote fruits and vegetables for two years.
- Mars Corporation joined the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation to reduce 6.42 trillion calories through reformulation and marketing, while soda companies made voluntary efforts to remove products from vending machines, a trend driven by consumer demand and the expectation of future regulatory tightening if the obesity crisis is not solved.
- Economic projections suggest that reversing the obesity growth rate to 1998 levels by 2023 could reduce health care spending by $60 billion and increase productivity by $254 billion, though risks include potential government regulatory actions if market solutions fail to materialize.
- The USDA plans to launch an education effort over the next three years targeting SNAP-Ed populations with peer health educators, while the First Lady and PHA launched the "Drink Up" campaign with evidence of increasing water sales expected soon.
- Industry stakeholders anticipate a massive uptick in demand for SNAP and Meals On Wheels services due to the financial instability of workers aged 45 to 60, who lack $10,000 in retirement savings, prompting a focus on plant-based meals for the older population.
- Future outlooks indicate that local communities will become more aggressive in addressing health issues impacting their budgets, potentially trickling up to the national level, while the financial industry is expected to begin scrutinizing CEO business strategies regarding health to enable long-term risk-taking.