Originally posted on BU Experts.

Ahead of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, food insecurity expert shares research-backed approaches for addressing hunger in the U.S.

It is estimated that hunger and food insecurity affected more than 13.5 million households in the United States in 2021. According to nonprofit organization The Urban Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues due to widespread job losses, school and child care closures, and new or worsening financial stress faced by families and individuals nationwide. On Wednesday, September 28th, members of the Biden-Harris Administration, health officials, and food access experts will come together to address this crisis at the Biden-Harris White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

To learn more about the upcoming event, and solution-oriented approaches to address food insecurity, we turned to Dr. Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba. Dr. Ettinger de Cuba is a research associate professor in the Boston University School of Public Health’s Health Law, Policy, & Management Department. She also holds appointments in the Department of Community Health Sciences at SPH and the Department of Pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine. Additionally, she serves as the Executive Director of Children’s Healthwatch, a nonpartisan research and policy network aimed at improving the health of young children. Her research focuses on the relationships between social policy, family economic mobility and ability to meet basic needs, such as food, housing and utilities, health care, and child care.