Nutrition Policy Institute director Lorrene Ritchie will present at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2022 Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo. The conference will be held in Orlando, Florida, October 8-11. Ritchie will be co-presenting a session on October 9, 1:30-3:00 p.m. Eastern Time titled “Multiplying Your Impact: Conducting Research to Inform Policy” with co-presenters Sheila Fleischhacker from Georgetown University Law Center and Alison Steiber from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The session will be moderated by Mary Lesser from the University of California, Berkeley and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, Oakland.
Nutrition Policy Institute researchers will present at the National WIC Association 2022 Nutrition Education & Breastfeeding Conference in Orlando, Florida, September 6-9, 2022. Lorrene Ritchie will co-present a session titled “Now we are FIVE! Findings through age five from the WIC Infant and Toddler Feeding Practices Study-2 (WIC ITFPS-2)” on September 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Co-presenters are Amanda Reat from the USDA Food and Nutrition Services, and Christina Borger from Westat. Eastern Time. Marisa Tsai will present on findings from a California study at a session titled “Understanding Perceptions and Utilization of the WIC Cash Value Benefit: Perspectives from Four States” on September 8 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Co-presenters from other states include Emily Duffy from the University of North Carolina, McKenna Halverson from the University of Delaware, and Cristina Gago from Harvard University. A detailed agenda of the conference is available online.
For the second time since 1969, the White House is holding a conference on US nutrition. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, planned for September 2022, aims to provide a comprehensive package of strategies to reduce hunger and improve nutrition and health in the US. Under the direction of Ambassador Susan Rice and in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, the White House Conference team actively sought input from Americans, both to tell personal stories about hunger, nutrition and health and to offer recommendations for strategies. Nutrition Policy Institute's Christina Hecht submitted recommendations to promote and enable drinking water in place of sugary drinks. Hecht was also part of a national drafting team for recommendations for strategies to reduce sugary drink consumption. Others at NPI have also participated in several listening sessions to inform the White House Conference.
Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Christina Hecht and Janice Kao will take part in the 2022 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior conference on the intersection of nutrition education and behavior and the digital world. Hecht is a co-author of the abstract “Associations of Perceptions of Water Safety and Tap Water Taste with Beverage Intake Among U.S. Adults,” which Sohyun Park, the lead investigator, will present as a poster. Kao will present a poster from the NPI CalFresh Healthy Living evaluation unit research team—Carolyn Rider, Christina Becker, Evan Talmage, Kaela Plank, Amanda Linares, and Kao—in person from 12:15 to 2:00 EDT on July 31. The poster is titled, “Where Do We Go from Here? California Local Health Departments Navigate School-based SNAP-Ed During COVID-19.” The conference will be held in person, in Atlanta, Georgia, and virtually, from July 29 to July 31, 2022.
The American Society for Nutrition's annual conference, Nutrition 2022 Live Online, happens virtually June 14-16, 2022. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers will share results at the conference from their latest studies on the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Marisa Tsai will speak about ‘Larger WIC Cash Value Benefit for Vegetables and Fruit Is Associated With Lower Food Insecurity and Improved Participant Satisfaction in WIC Families With Children'; co-authors include Lorrene Ritchie from NPI. Amanda Linares will present a poster on ‘Association of Frequency of School Meal Consumption and Student Dietary Intake during COVID-related School Closures'; co-authors include Kaela Plank, Sridharshi Hewawitharana and Gail Woodward-Lopez from NPI. Both Tsai and Linares' presentations are available on-demand. University of California, Davis graduate student Alana Chaney will present live, online a poster on ‘Addressing Barriers to WIC Participation During COVID-19: A Qualitative Examination of California WIC Participants and Local Agency Directors'; co-authors include Lorrene Ritchie, Marisa Tsai and Nicole Vitale of NPI.