Many of the lessons learned by RWJF and our grantees and partners are relevant to this proposed rule.įor example, research funded by our national program Healthy Eating Research (HER) has repeatedly demonstrated that increasing flexibility and options available to families improves healthy consumption. We have also supported and worked with the National WIC Association to expand access by streamlining enrollment in the WIC program, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of note, RWJF has consistently invested in research demonstrating WIC’s role in reducing food insecurity, improving nutritional intake, and reducing childhood obesity, while identifying ways to further improve the impact of the program. Our comments are grounded in the perspectives and expertise of our grantees, who include academic researchers, policy experts, advocates, and organizers with deep expertise in supporting health in early childhood. We work to amplify voices to shift national conversations and attitudes about health and health equity. We promote policies, practices, and systems change to dismantle the structural barriers to wellbeing created by racism. We cultivate leaders who work individually and collectively across sectors to address health equity. We rely on evidence to advance health equity.

That is why RWJF focuses on identifying, illuminating, and addressing the barriers to health caused by structural racism and other forms of discrimination, including sexism, ableism, and prejudice based on sexual orientation. It reflects what takes place in our communities, where we live and work, where our children learn and play, and where we gather to worship. It is a state of physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Health is more than an absence of disease. In partnership with others, we are working to develop a Culture of Health rooted in equity that provides every individual with a fair and just opportunity to thrive, no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they have.

RWJF is committed to improving health and health equity for all in the United States. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): Revisions in the WIC Food Packages proposed rule. The following comments were submitted by Richard Besser, MD, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) president and CEO, to the U.S.

Wic approved foods nc effective 2017