Food Equity
Ensuring every family, in every zip code, has affordable access to good food.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic brought much-needed awareness of racial and other forms of inequity to the forefront. These inequities include wide disparities in health. Reducing or eliminating these disparities will require action across many sectors including health care, housing, education, transportation, criminal justice, finance, social support, and food access. At Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), we recognize the opportunity to affect one area that contributes measurably to health equity — access to good food.
“The United States has become a place where too many people can’t find healthy, affordable food. We urgently need to come together around a shared vision for long-term, sustainable change, and that vision is based on Food Equity.” - Nancy E. Roman, President & CEO, PHA
What is Food Equity?
At PHA, we believe everyone should have access to good food - food that is affordable, sustainable, nutritious, high-quality, and culturally connected. We also know that there is no true equity in society without health equity, and that there is no health equity without Food Equity.
PHA operates under the assumption that good food is an important catalyst for good health, and that every family in America should have access to good food. Through our work, we have identified three pillars necessary to support Food Equity:
- A healthy food supply, in both public and private sectors, and through the charitable system.
- Access to affordable, good food in all communities.
- Awareness, knowledge and skills that empower people everywhere to select good foods and to quickly prepare them at home.
Only after these pillars are erect and stable will America have a strong foundation for Food Equity — allowing all people to choose and consume health-building food.
Achieving Food Equity
As PHA advances towards our goal, we will focus on nutrition security. Without nutrition security we cannot achieve Food Equity and ultimately health equity.
We have committed to providing 100 million servings of vegetables, beans and fruits to food-insecure families and be directly responsible for mapping 1,000 new and existing good food access points by 2025, as part of our work to meaningfully shift the food supply available in under-resourced communities and improve Food Equity across the country.
We also know how critical it is to work together with communities to improve Food Equity. There are many developing and critically-important conversations moving towards community ownership of food assets and production, including movements toward food sovereignty, food justice, and restoration of cultural foodways.