Food should meet the nutritional, social, and cultural needs of all people
- Photini Kamvisseli Saurez
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Realizing the right to food is about more than ensuring people have access to enough food. It is also about the quality of food people can access in their communities and daily lives, and how this food supports an overall sense of dignity and wellbeing. A right to food approach requires us to think about how food nourishes people, nutritionally, socially, and culturally. For the right to food to be real, we need work collectively to build and sustain the conditions where everyone can access food that meets their nutritional, social, and cultural needs.
This is especially true in public institutions, such as schools, universities, hospitals, and prisons, where decisions about the quantity, quality, and origin of the food served can make a significant difference to the experiences of the children, youth, and adults eating in these settings. In June, we discussed this in more detail in our monthly membership meeting, specifically the state of food in prisons and the role of universal school meal provision in creating opportunities to realize the right to food - you can read more about that here.
The ability to grow, produce, share, access, and enjoy food that nourishes you - nutritionally, socially, and culturally - is a fundamental part of living with dignity and agency, and a central part of the right to food.
New briefing report
Today we are launching a new briefing report - Food should meet the nutritional, social, and cultural needs of all people. In it, we explore the current situation in the United States and set out recommendations for change that were co-created with members of our Community of Practice.
Our recommendations include:
Provide universal free school lunch and breakfast programs in every state, with an emphasis on nutrition and local food procurement.
Mandate public transparency and accountability for carceral feeding programs to improve the quality and quantity of food for optimal health and wellbeing.
Maintain and expand Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA).
Reduce the tax incentives for donation of nutrient-poor foods and increase incentives for those that support good health and well-being.
Encourage and support consistent beneficiary participation in determining food choices and guidance for both public and private food programs.
Provide sustainable funding and infrastructure support for the development of local food action plans, including access to fresh and affordable food in all neighborhoods.
Secure and protect land access for small farmers and independent producers - particularly people of color, Indigenous communities and women.
Protect the right of Tribal communities to exercise self-determination and self-governance in all aspects of their food systems, including the right to produce traditional foods and to protect the biodiversity of their land and water to sustain their families and communities.
Provide public land access for hyper-local production through community gardens, food forests, and urban food producers.
Next steps
Our “Right to Food in the United States” briefings are designed to be used by advocates working to advance the right to food at all levels - in towns, cities, and states across the country.
Previous briefing reports include:
We encourage you to read and share them widely, and to contact us with any questions or ideas for how to use them in your own work.
This post is part of a “Right to Food in the United States” series, where we are launching a set of briefing reports that explore the progress the United States has made in advancing the right to food since 2020, when we underwent the most recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the United Nations Human Rights Council. For more information, please see our full report submitted on behalf of more than 35 organizations to the UN in April 2025 as part of the current UPR process.
Visit our website to find out how you can get involved with this work.