This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first, and only, White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health. Republican President Richard M. Nixon called for the conference saying, “The moment is at hand to put an end to hunger in America itself. For all time.”

Although President Nixon’s ambitious goal of ending hunger was not realized with that conference, significant strides were made to alleviate hunger and to improve nutrition in the Untied States. Now, given the renewed debate on health care reform; the impact the recession is having on greater demand for food shelves and meal programs; and the dramatically increasing rates of obesity in the U.S. (more than a quarter of all Minnesotans are obese), it is time to call for another White House conference to draw attention to the interrelated issues of food, nutrition and health.

Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. JoAnn Emerson (R-MO) have re-introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for a White House Conference on Food and Nutrition to be held by December 31, 2010. This conference will bring attention to the estimated 36 million Americans who face a constant struggle against hunger, including over 12 million children and 5 million seniors, the disabled and the critically ill.

For three days, beginning on December 2, 1969, eight task forces and 26 panels presented background information and recommendations to the 2,200 participants of that White House Conference. Some of the recommendations from the meeting included: creating programs to address the problems of specific groups such as pregnant women, the sick, and the aged; introducing a free school lunch program for needy children; improving mass feeding programs such as those run by schools, hospitals and the Veterans Administration; and facilitating the distribution of quality food at low prices in poor urban and rural areas.

Remarks made by President Nixon at the opening of the conference still resonate today. “A child ill-fed is dulled in curiosity, lower in stamina, distracted from learning. A worker ill-fed is less productive, more often absent from work. The mounting cost of medical care for diet-related illnesses, remedial education required to overcome diet-related slowness in school, institutionalization, and the loss of full productive potential – all of these place a heavy economic burden on a society as a whole.”

If President Nixon could see the critical role that food and nutrition plays in the overall health of Americans, and if he could support a White House conference to address these issues, President Obama can also support such a conference. And so can Minnesota’s entire congressional delegation.

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