Altarum to Present at Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators Conference

The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated longstanding inequities in chronic diseases and healthy food access that have affected millions of Americans for decades. The White House recently announced the goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases. 

While a variety of entities across the United States are implementing strategies to address food and nutrition insecurity to promote optimal health, reduce risk of chronic disease, and eliminate health inequities and disparities, there is a lack of information about best practices in how these entities are organized and governed, select priority strategies, and assess their impact on communities.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and Altarum partnered to identify best practices in organizing collaborative approaches to addressing food and nutrition insecurity, such as food policy councils, food charters and plans, and State Nutrition Action Councils (SNACs), as well as which policy, systems, and environmental change strategies are most promising for groups to implement.

Altarum will present the results of our best practices assessment in the 2023 ASNNA Conference session “Addressing Food and Nutrition Insecurity through Collaborative Partnerships” on Tuesday, February 7th from 2:10pm–3:10 pm. The session will be led by Haley Huynh, MPH, SNAP-Ed coordinator, Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Hailey Boudreau, MPH, RD, LD, program manager at Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and Altarum Senior Associate Brenda Wolford, MS, RD, and will highlight opportunities to achieve the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health’s goals of ending hunger and improving nutrition.

Determining methods for estimating SNAP-Ed program dosage is challenging, particularly for community-wide multi-level, multi-component interventions, and there is a need to share and collaborate on methods currently in use across the country. Using a community network approach to guide the planning and delivery of SNAP-Ed, University of Illinois partnered with Altarum to better understand network characteristics and program factors that impact outcomes of SNAP-eligible populations living within identified community networks. “Estimating SNAP-Ed Program Dosage of Multi-level, Multi-component Interventions: A facilitated discussion of approaches currently in use” will be presented on Wednesday, February 8th from 1:00-2:00 pm.

The Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) is a professional organization for SNAP Nutrition Education (SNAP-Ed) administrators who is committed to improving the nutritional status of SNAP recipients. By implementing and spreading integrated approaches to nutrition education, ANSSA aims to serve the nation as an excellent resource for obesity prevention, network expertise, partnership development, and policy advocacy. The purpose of the 2023 ASNNA Conference is to bring together SNAP-Ed practitioners and stakeholders to identify frameworks and strategies to reconnect SNAP-Ed programming and implementation to local, statewide, and national needs and audiences; to rebuild the foundation of SNAP-Ed programming, partnerships, and implementation to be inclusive and emphasize equity; and to reimagine SNAP-Ed programming and implementation as it relates to federal policy, guidelines, and reports.