Race, Health, and Social Equity Committee
Acting For Change
ASNNA’s Race, Health and Social Equity Committee was formed to raise awareness of systemic inequities in the administration and implementation of SNAP-Ed, acknowledge that these inequities exist and act to change them.
If you are interested in joining the RHSE committee, feel free to email us!
Co-Chairs of the Committee are:
Mary Marczak, Director of Programs & Systems with the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development (marcz001@umn.edu)
Chanta’l Rose, SNAP-Ed Planning & Evaluation Lead with the Food, Fitness, and Opportunity Research Collaborative at UNC, Chapel Hill (crose33@unc.edu)
Equity Statement
ASNNA Statement on Racial Equity
Systemic racism unfairly advantages one group while unfairly disadvantaging other groups. In the U.S., this systemic racism has resulted in both unjust food systems and unjust economic systems. ASNNA looks to organize and create opportunities for learning, while sharing and exploring information about race, health, and social equity to carry out SNAP-Ed-funded work to advance health equity.
Guiding Principles to Embed Equity in SNAP-Ed
Presented at the ASNNA Conference in February 2023, the Race, Health, and Social Equity Committee shared out six guiding principles to ground us in the work of embedding equity throughout SNAP-Ed programming. These guidelines are intended to provide direction and support as Implementing Agengies navigate their equity efforts. The document also provides a list of reflexive questions that individuals and agencies can return to again and again to assess their priorities and progress.
Action Plan
Resource Clearinghouse
The Race, Health, and Social Equity Committee is curating a set of resources for SNAP-Ed programs related to race, health, and social equity. This clearinghouse library (below) provides resources, materials, and ideas from SNAP-Ed programs that have implemented explicit equity-based work into different aspects of their program models.
We also invite all SNAP-Ed implementing agencies and ASNNA members to share any equity based resources or materials. These submissions should come from approved SNAP-Ed Plans. If you have any questions, please contact Molly De Marco at molly_demarco@unc.edu. Submit materials here.
Clearinghouse Library
Community Engagement
Advocacy that Builds Power – Transforming Policies and Systems for Health Equity
Anti-Racist Assessment Tool for Food Banks
Best Practices for Convening a Community Advisory Board
Equity Analysis of Group Membership: A CLiP Template
Food Access Policy Change Through Authentic Resident Engagement
Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool
Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool; 2nd edition
Healthy Food Policy Project Case Studies
How to Create a Functional, Effective Advisory Committee
Identifying and Countering White Supremacy Culture in Food Systems
Native Health Initative Loving Service
The Planner’s Playbook: A Community-Centered Approach to Improving Health & Equity
Equitable Evaluation
Best Practices for for American Indian and Alaska Native Data Collection
Considerations for Conducting Evaluation Using a Culturally Responsive and Racial Equity Lens
Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity – Deepen Community Engagement
Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity – Diagnose Biases and Systems
Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity Guide – Debunk Myths
How to Design and Manage Equity-Focused Evaluations
Is My Evaluation Practice Culturally Responsive?
Practical Strategies for Culturally Competent Evaluation
Reflections on Applying Principles of Equitable Evaluation
Shifting the Evaluation Paradigm: The Equitable Evaluation Framework
The Southeast Multi-State Racial and Health Equity SNAP-Ed Needs Assessment FFY 2022
Who Counts? Racial Misclassification and American Indians/Alaska Natives
Land Acknowledgement
Training
Framework for Trauma Informed and Responsive Organizations in Massachusetts
IDEAL Engage Anti-Racism Toolkit Overview
Moving to Institutional Equity: A Tool to Address Racial Equity for Public Health Practitioners
NACDD Equity Resources and References 2021 Using Data to Promote Equity in Policy and Programming
Organizational Race Equity Toolkit, Washington Race Equity & Justice Initiative
Racial Equity Resource Directory
Ready, Set, Go! A guide for collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity – 2022 Update
State Health Department Organizational Self-Assessment for Achieving Health Equity
Other
A Framework for Increasing Equity Impact in Obesity Prevention
Advancing Racial Equity Discussion Guide Part 1 APHA Resource
Applying Racial Equity to US Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs – SNAP, WIC and Child Nutrition
Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being
From Disparities to Discrimination, Getting at the Roots of Food Insecurity in America
Healthy Neighborhood Investments – A Policy Scan and Strategy Map
Native Governance Center Style Guide, Native Governance Center
Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma Induced Approach
SNAP-Ed at 1890 Historically Black Colleges and Universities
What Is Health Equity? And What Difference Does a Definition Make?
Events & Webinars
The ASNNA Race, Health, and Social Equity Committee, in partnership with SNAP-Ed Connection and UNC Chapel Hill, hosted a 4-Part Webinar series discussing the role of Racial Equity in SNAP-Ed. We hope you will watch these and share them with your teams to continue to bring awareness around the importance of equity and the opportunity to re-imagine SNAP-Ed programming in ways that are trauma-informed, inclusive of and respect cultural differences, meaningfully engage community, and work to ensure meaningful experiences around food and nutritional health education and advocate for racially and socially just policy, systems, and environmental change activities.
Statements
USDA Advancing Racial Equity Comments
July 15, 2021
The Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) appreciates the opportunity to comment and provide recommendations to USDA to advance racial justice and equity for underserved communities. The comments were developed by our Race, Health and Social Equity Committee.
Additional Resources
Racial Equity Town Hall Summary Slides
July 15, 2021
Breakout Room Topics
- What is SNAP-Ed’s role in building equity?
- What can the ASNNA RHSE committee do to help us all educate ourselves around these topics?
- What is already being done at your program/organization to address race, health, social equity issues?
- What are the top 3 action items the ASNNA RHSE committee can take within this fiscal year to help you/your program or organization?
- What is one thing that you can do in your current SNAP-Ed work and role around equity?
Nutrition Security with Dr. Sara Bleich
June 22, 2022
A special presentation and discussion with Dr. Sara Bleich, the first Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was held on June 22nd, 2022. Dr. Bleich provided an overview of USDA’s Actions on Nutrition Security and discussed with ASNNA members how federally supported nutrition education, including SNAP-Ed, plays a key role in the Department’s efforts to promote and elevate nutrition security.
Relevant USDA Nutrition Security Resources
Press Release – USDA Announces Actions on Nutrition Security | USDA
Secretary’s Historic Remarks – USDA Live | USDA
Report – USDA Actions on Nutrition
Website – Nutrition Security | USDA
- By Pillar webpages
USDA Actions on Nutrition Security Infographic
Secretary’s Podcast about Reimaging Food Policy with Mark Bittman
Food and Nutrition Service Research and Evaluation Plan Fiscal Year 2022
Statement by Secretary Vilsack on the President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget | USDA
RHSE Committee members represent state agencies and implementing agencies, both in extension as well as other types of organizations such as health departments, non-profits, social service organizations and universities. They are from most SNAP-Ed regions and are Black, Asian, Native American, Latinx, multi-racial and white, men and women, with representatives from the following states (up-to-date as of April 2023): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Illinois, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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