Author: Steve Hansch

Social Marketing and Childhood Diets Implications of MAHA in the U.S.

A recent report by Dr. Claudia Parvanta, reviews the implications of the current U.S. Administration’s May 2025 “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) report for children’s diets and nutritional education in the U.S.  Responding to a request from the Social Marketing Quarterly editorial team, the author wrote “The MAHA Report and the Demand for Social Marketing: Driving Behavioral Change for Childhood Health Outcomes,” which finds that Social marketing is essential for achieving the MAHA Report’s goals, requiring more than just regulation or promotion.   While the MAHA Report identifies key drivers of chronic diseases, such as ultra-processed foods and environmental chemicals, Parvanta highlights the report’s limitations, including potential misinformation.

She cautions against top-down mandates that alienate stakeholders and consumers.   Borrowing from decades of behavior change research, she argues that effective change needs to address all “four Ps” (product, price, place, promotion) and involve both upstream (policy, industry) and downstream

(consumer) strategies.

She recommends to:

»»    Study consumer behaviors in regard to consumption of ultra-processed foods (those high in added sugars, chemical additives, and saturated fats); promote healthy alternatives; leverage SNAP-Ed and WIC models; incentivize industry to improve food quality; tailor interventions to community needs;

»»    Mobilize public support for stronger regulation of harmful chemicals; educate on safer behaviors (e.g., cooking methods, reducing plastics); make invisible threats visible; balance messaging to avoid confusion with essential nutrients;

»»    Revive and sustain large-scale campaigns for physical activity, like CDC’s VERB; ensure long-term funding; focus on making activity easy, fun, and normative; address broader systemic barriers, and

»»    Restore trust in public health through provider engagement; support evidence-based communication; avoid undermining public health agencies; use social marketing to build credibility and relevance.

Dr. Parvanta supports the urgency of improving children’s health but stresses that policy and regulation alone are insufficient. Sustained, evidence-based social marketing, involving all stakeholders (government, industry, communities) are needed.

She calls attention to the constructive examples of the:

  • National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) which educates and engages communities to improve diabetes management.
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed) which improves dietary behaviors through education, partnerships, and incentives.

The report is available from ResearchGate:  DO – 10.13140/RG.2.2.23307.81444.

Food Insecurity Impairs Resilience and Elevates Distress in Young Adults

About 13.5% of U.S. households or nearly 18 million families experienced food insecurity in 2023.   Food insecurity manifests as a person’s uncertainty of accessing sufficient and nutritious food.  It is increasingly recognized as a series risk factor for mental health.

A recent cross-sectional study published in Health Science Reports, led by Lena Begdache, PhD, an Associate Professor at Binghamton University, generates new insights on how food insecurity impairs resilience and elevates distress, particularly among young adults. The researchers found that this occurs even in the absence of a negative “stress mindset”.  The study’s design and sample population:

  •      1,099 U.S. respondents were surveyed, 70% of whom were under the age of 30, using validated scales to measure food insecurity, resilience, stress mindset, and mental distress.
  •     The researchers assessed how food insecurity relates to psychological outcomes across gender and age groups.

Their key findings:

  •    Food insecurity was significantly linked to lower resilience and heightened mental distress, but was unrelated to stress mindset. A stress mindset was defined as a person’s orientation toward stress (e.g. seeing it as positive or negative) and it remained unchanged.
  •    Physical activity was the strongest positive factor promoting resilience and improving a stress mindset. This finding suggests that exercise may offset some of the mental stress associated with food insecurity.
  •    The negative effects of food insecurity, like increased mental distress and reduced resilience, were more pronounced in women than in men. This means that when women experience food insecurity, they are more likely than men to also experience emotional or psychological challenges like stress, anxiety, or lower ability to bounce back from hardship.

Why is this important:

  •     The study demonstrated that resilience is not automatically built from  adversity, as is often thought. The researchers found that when hardship involves poor diet quality, it does not build resilience, but rather may leave people more fragile, rather than stronger.
  •    Food insecurity did not affect a person’s stress mindset, but rather by other personality or environmental variables.

Implications for Policy and Practice

  •     The study highlights the need for targeted programs that take gender and age into account.  Responses that treat food insecurity as a gender-neutral issue may miss opportunities to help those most at risk.
  •    Programs should not only address hunger, but address resilience, particularly through promoting exercise.
  •    Improving the quality of a person’s diet, not just caloric sufficiency, could play a critical role in mental well-being

This research highlights a paradox:  food insecurity leads to greater mental distress and lower resilience, even when people maintain a positive stress mindset.  In the U.S., where millions faced food insecurity and many recently lost pandemic-related additional SNAP benefits and many more are poised to lose them under the 2025 national appropriation, referred to as ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ these findings suggest that solutions must go beyond food access alone.  Quality nutrition, physical activity, and gender- and age‑sensitive mental health interventions all play vital roles in supporting well‑being.

Read the full research report here: https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.70787
The Interplay of Food Insecurity, Resilience, Stress Mindset, and Mental Distress: Insights From a Cross-Sectional Study  by Lina Begdache, Amera Al-Amery, Katerina K. Nagorny, Ushima Chowdhury, Lexis R. Rosenberg, Zeynep Ertem;  Binghamton University Press Release: https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/5633/new-research-explores-how-food-insecurity-affects-stress-and-mental-health?

Rest in Peace, Dr. Gretel Pelto

Nutritional anthropologist and inspiration to many, Gretel Pelto, passed away on July 15, 2025 at the age of 85.  “She was a  delightful person who sparked my imagination” said a nutritional anthropologist colleague.

Pelto was a pioneer in promoting formative research as a precondition for effective program design.  She helped institutionalize methods like Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures (REAP), which allow programs to quickly understand.   Pelto emphasized that local caregiving behaviors, feeding practices, and beliefs about illness critically influence child nutrition and diarrhea outcomes. She argued that programs must understand how mothers and caregivers perceive and respond to symptoms like diarrhea.  This led to more tailored and relevant messages and interventions, such as adjusting oral rehydration therapy (ORT) messages to local contexts.

Pelto highlighted the central role of women — not just as caregivers — but also as decision-makers who are constrained by time, income, and intra-household power dynamics.

Perhaps her greatest legacy was her bridging anthropology with applied nutrition and public health programming.  She worked with organizations like WHO, UNICEF, and USAID to integrate qualitative insights into nutrition planning.  At the World Health Organization in Geneva from 1992 to 1999, Gretel led groundbreaking initiatives to improve household management of childhood illnesses, shaping global health strategies across Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Her classic textbook “Nutrition Anthropology:  Prospects and Perspectives” was one of the earliest to flesh out nutrition anthropology in development and aid.  She authored over 160 research articles, 14 books and monographs, and 35 technical reports and manuals.  Many of which can be found in the Cornell University hosted “Gretel Pelto papers, 1974-2017: ” https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA04327.html

She was awarded the Malinowski applied anthropology award, and the Kellogg Award in International Nutrition, an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki (1996), and fellowships with both the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Gretel cherished mentoring students and collaborating with colleagues.  Her enthusiasm and keen intellect fostered a global community of scholars and practitioners.  World Hunger Education Service former Chair, Margie Ferris Morris, remembers Pelto — her mentor and advisor:  “Gretel was always encouraging to her students. She once told me to believe in myself more, as the work I was doing was important! “

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was an early friend of musician/roubadour Bob Dylan and taught him the song House of the Rising Sun..  She is survived by her beloved husband and collaborator, Dr. Jean-Pierre Habicht, a famous and accomplished nutritionist.

 

Future of America’s Assistance for Global Health – Roundtable

Hunger Notes joins with other sponsors in convening an expert discussion  on July 17, 2025 about the role of American foreign aid in global health, looking ahead 5+ years.  The Consortium of Universities for Global Health, the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, the World Hunger Education Service, and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health are organizing an online (Zoom) roundtable conversation of American public health professionals about how future United States foreign assistance can best promote global health in least developed countries.

It asks about the ongoing battle against the risks of death and illness among children in many lesser developed countries, but also what are new risks that may become disease priorities?  Neglected tropical  diseases or pandemics?

What American research is making a difference or will be in solving emerging problems?  Where are emerging gaps?  Should U.S. government aid target pneumonia, measles, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition or which other priorities?

What are new opportunities for partnerships?  Which new technologies from America will make a difference?  What are the best roles for U.S. NGOs, networks, drug manufacturers, medical equipment providers and U.S. universities?

Results from this roundtable will be synthesized into a 5-page white paper that will be shared with the U.S. Congress, State Department and media.

Hunger  Notes welcomes your inputs on these issues, as well as questions to be posed.  WorldhungerEd@gmail.com.  Questions can also be addressed to:  ForeignAidRoundtable@gmail.com .

This roundtable is one among a series of similar roundtables organized this year about the future of American foreign aid.

Hunger Hotspots Report, Summer 2025

Hotspots for elevated hunger and malnutrition during the summer of 2025 were highlighted for Sudan, Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali in the new report produced by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, along with the World Food Program, with support from the European Union and the Global Network against Food Crises.  This is a semi-annual report published collaboratively by U.N. agencies.

See:  https://www.fightfoodcrises.net/sites/default/files/resource/file/HungerHotspots2025_CD5684EN.pdf

As reported on Reliefweb:  This report makes it veryclear: hunger today is not a distant threat – it is a daily emergency for millions,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said. “We must act now, and act together, to save lives and safeguard livelihoods.  Protecting people’s farms and animals to ensure they can keep producing food where they are, even in the toughest and harshest conditions … is essential.”

“This report is a red alert. We know where hunger is rising and we know who is at risk,” said Cindy McCain, World Food Programme Executive Director. “We have the tools and experience to respond, but without funding and access, we cannot save lives.”

In the Sudan, conditions are expected to persist due to the continuing conflict and ongoing displacement, particularly in the Greater Kordofan and Greater Darfur regions.  Displacement will further increase while humanitarian access remains restricted. The circumstances are driving the country toward the risk of economic collapse, with high inflation severely limiting food access. by the poor.  Around 24.6 million people were projected to face “Crisis” level food insecurity or worse.

In Haiti, record levels of gang violence and insecurity are displacing communities and crippling aid access.  in Mali, high grain prices and ongoing conflict are eroding the coping capacities of the most vulnerable households, particularly in conflict-affected areas.

In contrast to prior reports, however:   Ethiopia, Kenya, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have been removed from the Hunger Hotspots list.  In East and Southern Africa, as well as in Niger, better climatic conditions for harvests and fewer weather extremes have eased food security pressures. Lebanon has also been delisted following reduced intensity of military operations.

Vdieo of the report launch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0_t_tCH-5s&t=11s

https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-june-october-2025-outlook-enarit

Early Humans and Plant-based Diets

The latest edition of Science journal (by the American Association for the Advancement of Science) reports that wooden tools from a 300,000-year-old site in Gantangqing (southwest) China demonstrate the importance of plant foods in early hominin (human) diets in a subtropical environment.  The journal contrasts this with other research oriented toward meat-focused early human diets.

Science writes that “Wooden tools recovered from a site in China… emphasize that ancient hominins ate their vetties too.  The 300,000 year-old implements are digging sticks, carved from branches and tree roots using stone blaades.  The pointing hand-size implements were probably used to harvest carbohydrate-rich tubers and roots from the soft ground of a prehistoric lakeshore.  …Along with the tools, researchers uncovered ample plant remains, including hazlenuts, pine nuts, grapes and kiwis.  In the lake and along its muddy shore, early hominins would also have been able to pluck and eat the leaves and seeds of water lillits.”  This includes edible leaves, seeds, or stems, especially subsoil corms and rhizomes.

See:  “Wooden Tools Point to Ancient Taste for Plans” by Andrew Curry, July 3, 2025 Science.  Also:  https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr8540

WHES Co-sponsors Roundtable About Aid Toolbox

On June 19, 2025, a roundtable of two dozen experts about how international aid is designed and given will be held, co-organized by the World Hunger Education Service (WHES), the USAID Alumni Association, the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and George Washington University.

In order to advise and inform the future of U.S. foreign aid as well as for other international donors, the roundtable will compare the range of tools used to give aid, from grants and contracts to loans and investments, from incentives and prizes to insurance and direct technical assistance.   Also discussed will be the use of competition to make awards to NGOs or commercial organizations, the design of awards to achieve scale and sustainability, and the roles of evolving tools such as blended finance and payment-for-performance.

Participants will include former U.S. government experts plus aid managers from European governments, the World Bank, U.S. foundations and NGOs.

A summary of findings will be made public afterwards.

This is part of a series of roundtables that WHES has been involved in organizing this year, and educational seminars for senior US policy makers in the 1980s and 1990s.  Prior roundtables included expert discussions about food/nutrition, basic education, the role of faith-based organizations, health and what average Americans care about in aid.

Questions can be directed to:  WorldHungerEd@gmail.com

World Expo in Osaka Japan Targets Zero Hunger

An exhibit focusing on world hunger has been on display for the past two weeks, ending today, June 15, 2025, at the World Expo in Japan.  World Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai is currently taking place in Japan under the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.

The exhibition promotes agrifood systems, improved nutrition, school meals and food aid., and is co-sponsored by three United Nations agencies:  the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Visitors learn how innovation, investment, and collaboration can transform agrifood systems from farm to table via examples.  The IFAD representative in Japan explained:  “Hunger often remains a silent, invisible crisis. It rarely makes the headlines unless it becomes famine. Yet it continues to devastate lives every day, even though the world produces enough food for everyone. We can solve global hunger with the right investments, especially in small-scale food producers in developing countries, many of whom paradoxically suffer from hunger,.”  see:  https://www.ifad.org/en/w/news/the-fight-against-global-hunger-takes-center-stage-at-expo-2025-osaka

World Expos are held every five years.  The last three since 2010 have been in Dhubai, Shangai and Milan.  World Expos, officially known as International Registered Exhibitions, are a global gathering of nations dedicated to finding solutions to pressing challenges.  Each welcomes tens of millions of visitors, allow countries to build extraordinary pavilions and transform the host city for years to come.

 

Hunger Notes Co-sponsors Basic Education Roundtable

World Hunger Education Service (WHES) is co-hosting a roundtable of experts on June 12, 2025, a Thursday, to discuss American experiences and capabilities for supporting basic education overseas, including recommendations for how U.S. official foreign aid could re-incorporate early grade education, literacy, numeracy and inclusion again.

In 2025, aid to basic education through USAID and the Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration were almost entirely terminated by the Administration, despite Congressional appropriations for education.

WHES joins with other groups including the nonprofit networks such as the Basic Education Coalition, the Global Campaign for Education/U.S., the University of Massachusetts Amherst  Center for International Education, and George Washington University in holding this June 12 roundtable online.

It includes experts from American NGOs working around the world, research institutes, associations, foundations, commervial providers, UNHCR, USAID, and other organizations.  It will discuss what unique or distinctive comparative advantages does the U.S. have in technical, financial or other assistance to basic education in lower-income countries?  It will cover how NGOs have been assisting curricula, IT technology solutions, teachers, administrators, PTAs, textbooks, and education management systems.

It will also look at lessons from past U.S. support via the McGovern-Dole program which provides school feeding to encourage attendance by girls in primary schools in dozens of countries (which were also cancelled in 2025 by the government).

Part of the discussion will look at inclusion of children with disabilities, and education in emergencies and conflicts, which had been a priority for both USAID and the Department of State, until this year.

This is one of a series of comparable roundtable meetings of experts, including discussions about food/nutrition, health/migration, environmental conservation, global health, technology, the roles of faith-based organizations, and the roles of Universities.

Questions and interest can be directed to ForeignAidRoundtable@gmail.com, and/or WorldhungerEd@gmail.com

 

Status of McGovern-Dole School Feeding Unclear

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled most of its existing foreign assistance programs, including those involving overseas school feedings.  These projects are referred to as “McGovern-Dole” that were projected for the future.

The overall program, named after former senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, has provided life-saving meals in a school setting to over 31 million of the world’s most vulnerable children and has been one of America’s signature child nutrition and food security programs.  In 2022, the program fed nutritious school meals to more than 2.7 million food-insecure children during the school year, while training teachers and rehabilitating schools, in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

All of these school feeding projects were implemented by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and/or the World Food Programme.  The recent, May 2025 cancellations occured abruptly, as NGOs were preparing to design and compete for new awards in more countries.  No rationale from the U.S. Administration was given, despite Congressional questions to USDA.  The Trump Administration has further deleted the program from its FY2026 budget request.  Currently, American NGOs, such as World Vision, Save the Children, Project Concern and Counterpart International are challenged by the loss sudden and unexpected loss of support.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), one such NGO, announced how these terminations leave school-age children in the lurch:  “Beginning in July, more than 780,000 children across 11 countries will be left without their school meal, as 11 out of CRS’ 13 projects have been terminated—deepening the crises of hunger, malnutrition and poverty that already threaten their ability to learn, grow and thrive. …. In 2024, evaluations of our work highlighted increased literacy rates, economic growth and reduced absences due to hunger and illness. … A recent study in Guatemala and Honduras revealed that 76% of respondents cited three major benefits of USDA’s McGovern Dole School Feeding program that reduce migration: increased access to education, improved agricultural production and a stronger local economy.”

Civileats reports that “the canceled grants will mean less demand for U.S. farmer commodities, even as other trade policies are pinching growers.  And it will contribute to shrinking the United States’ soft-power influence around the world.”

McGovern-Dole school feeding programs have been seen as a way to encourage young girls to attend schools in settings where many girls find it difficult.

Evaluations of school feeding programs are common, such as by WFP, USDA, and NGOs.  A meta-analysis commissioned by the U.S. government in 2020 found that the effect of take-home rations on school participation is positive for all school children and is the same for girls as for boys, while the effect of in-school meals on school attendance is larger for girls than for boys.

Globally, an estimated 350-400 million children receive school feeding each year.  In years past, reviews by the World Bank and the respected International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recognized the benefits of school feeding in terms of nutrition, educational gains, women’s empowerment, and long-term development.  In 2009, the World Bank published Rethinking School Feeding: Social Safety Nets, Child Development, and the Education Sector, cast school feeding as part of safety nets and as long-term investments.  In 2021, the World Bank and WFP launched an initiative that evaluated the efficacy of school feeding programs via experimental impact evaluations in countries like Burundi, Guatemala, Jordan, Malawi, and The Gambia.  Results from 2024 found that school meals, benefited an estimated 418 million children globally, enhanced educational outcomes (e.g., enrollment and retention) and acted as social safety nets during shocks.

Senators Bob Dole (Republican) and George McGovern (Democrat), who sponsored the enabling legislation for this school feeding aid, were both nominees of their respective parties for U.S. President, and both served in Europe during World War II.  Senator McGovern flew 35 precarious missions as a pilot during 1944-1945 from Italy over Germany and after the war flew food aid for the recovery of Europe.

Senator Dole championed humanitarian causes abroad.  He played a key role in mobilizing Senate support for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1996, pressuring the Clinton administration and NATO to address the Bosnian War.  Senator McGovern served as the first Director of the U.S. Food for Peace Program before becoming a Senator.  During that time, he worked with the White House to create the U.N. World Food Programme, which was approved by the U.N. General Assembly in 1961 and launched in 1963.

Update: However, on May 12, 2025 USDA announced a call for Fiscal Year 2025 applications for McGovern Dole programming.  The priority countries listed are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Honduras, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

– S. Hansch, WHES Board

 

This article was updated and corrected on Nov 11, 2025 to note the status of this program remains unclear and that a new funding opportunity was announced. This is a developing issue.