More than 100 key stakeholders in obesity prevention from academia, community groups, government and industry, including United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel gathered last week at the White House to discuss the growing epidemic of child obesity and ways to combat it. After hearing from the First Lady, the meeting afforded an opportunity to talk with the Obama Administration's Task Force members, and then break into working groups on four separate challenges the Task Force will address, including increasing access to healthy foods, increasing physical activity, improving the school environment and empowering parents with their children.

Stenzel participated in the break-out group on increasing access to healthy foods led by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and focused primarily on increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables in inner city and rural "food deserts," and increasing access and affordability for those in poverty and government feeding programs.  Many of the community groups present spoke about urban farms on vacant lots, community supported agriculture, locally grown, and farmers markets. 

Stenzel was able to support these concepts as a "way to instill a connection between people and food production," but not as a way to truly meet volume needs in feeding the population. He encouraged the task force to look to the produce distribution system in place today for solutions, whereby regional and local wholesaler-distributors can play a critical role in getting fresh produce to consumers wherever and whenever needed. Deputy Secretary Merrigan agreed, and suggested looking at wholesale markets as part of the solution in increasing access to fresh produce. In addition, there was general consensus on the need to create incentives for people receiving SNAP benefits (formerly called food stamps) to choose more fruits and vegetables.

The meetings provided a good opportunity for Stenzel and others to promote the concept of allocating some portion of SNAP benefits directly to healthier foods like fruits and vegetables, similar to what has been done in the WIC program.  The Rev. Douglas Greenaway, president of the National WIC Association, spoke with the group about the great success of fruit and vegetable vouchers and positive response from WIC moms. Greenaway and Stenzel also emphasized the role of the WIC vouchers in building demand for fresh produce in those markets where consumers have not found much availability in the past.