July 23, 2021 ASNNA Newsletter

Resources New Report: 7 Key Farm Bill Opportunities to Strengthen Nutrition and Health through SNAP Strengthening the public health impacts of the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could help close long-standing inequities in public health outcomes. A new report, released with support by Healthy Eating Research, identifies seven policy opportunities for the next farm bill that have the greatest potential to improve SNAP participants’ nutrition and overall health: Increase SNAP Access and Adequacy 1. Increase SNAP participation 2. Increase SNAP benefit adequacy Promote healthier foods and beverages in the retail environment 3. Offer SNAP-authorized stores incentives, capacity building, and technical support to meet stronger stocking standards—particularly non-chain, smaller retailer venues in underserved areas 4. Ensure more retailers are authorized for online SNAP 5. Promote healthier purchases with SNAP benefits, including online purchasesStrengthen federal nutrition education and promotion 6. Increase SNAP-Education (SNAP-Ed) reach and impact Foster more resilient food systems 7. Strengthen the public health impacts of SNAP during disasters and through resilient food systems __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The inaugural America’s Health Rankings Health Disparities Report provides a comprehensive portrait of the breadth, depth and persistence of health disparities that existed across the nation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas Health Institute | texashealthinstitute.org America’s Health Rankings Health Disparities Report United Health Foundation recently released the inaugural America’s Health Rankings Health Disparities Report and interactive website, providing a comprehensive portrait of the breadth, depth and persistence of health disparities that existed across the nation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas Health Instituteis honored to have conducted this project for and in cooperation with the United Health Foundation.   Building on more than three decades of reporting by the America’s Health Rankings, the report documents disparities across 30 measures of health and the social determinants of health across race, ethnicity, gender, geography and educational attainment for the nation, all 50 states and DC between 2003-2019.   Across states, despite some progress, the report found striking disparities in key measures of health and opportunity, with rates varying as much as 20-fold. Within states, disparities are alarming too. To view data for your state, click here.   Visit our website to learn more about the report and THI’s health equity work! __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ New Research Brief: Improving Access to Free School Meals Healthy Eating Research recently released a new research brief on improving access to free school meals. Universal free school meals have been shown to improve student nutrition, behavior, and academic performance and strengthen school finances. However, confusion about potential impacts of offering universal free meals on education funding is a barrier to adoption.  Schools offering universal free meals are no longer required to collect free and reduced-price meal applications, an important source of data on household income that has traditionally been used to allocate funding to schools. In light of this challenge, this research brief identifies evidence-based strategies to address the intersections between school meals and educational funding. Learn more here.

Race, Health + Social Equity Resources

Call for Equity-related materials for the ASNNA Website’s Resource Clearinghouse

The Race, Health and Social Equity Committee is developing a set of resources for SNAP-Ed programs related to race, health, and social equity, which will be housed on the updated ASNNA website. This clearinghouse will provide resources, materials, and ideas from SNAP-Ed programs that have implemented explicit equity-based work into different aspects of their program models. We are inviting you to send in materials for possible posting.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bg8Ojova_c5tAn-hw5XoE-RpKnQE_FzO/edit

Please fill out the Call For Resources Survey to possibly see your resource posted on the ASSNA website.

For more information on ASNNA’s Race, Health + Social Equity Committee or to send resources to share, please contact committee co-chair Molly De Marco at molly_demarco@unc.edu

Who Counts? Racial Misclassification and American Indians/Alaska Natives

Learn about racial misclassification of American Indians/Alaska Natives in data. https://www.uihi.org/resources/who-counts-racial-misclassification-and-american-indians-alaska-natives/

Indigenous Health Equity: A Report

To reach our goal of health equity for American Indians and Alaska Natives, we must ground our efforts in cultural and traditional knowledge systems. https://www.uihi.org/resources/indigenous-health-equity/

Podcast: On Being with Krista Tippett; Speaking with writer Ocean Vuong(https://onbeing.org/programs/ocean-vuong-a-life-worthy-of-our-breath/) 

Save the Date: 27th National Health Equity Research Webcast

September 17, 2021 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET

“The National Health Equity Research Webcast emphasizes issues and solutions related to collecting and analyzing data for racial and ethnic populations, studying the relationship between race and socioeconomic status, identifying and reducing barriers to conducting research in minority communities, and devising surveys to study minority populations and subpopulations.” 
View the archive of the NHERW-Truth to Power:  Building Solidarity for Health and Democracy webinar.
Get more information on the This Is U.S. webcast.
Free registration opening soon.

Join the 27th National health Equity Research Webcast Newsletter