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CUMAC’s two-story facility in Northern New Jersey has the look and feel of a standard food bank, with a warehouse, a handful of trucks, a client-choice pantry, and even a small garden. In practice, the operation has a mission that goes much further than giving out food or even addressing the root causes of hunger. In the view of Executive Director Mark Dinglasan, problems related to food insecurity go back — way back — to childhood traumas and the harmful impacts they collectively have on...

"The government has recently announced a strategy aimed at reducing obesity in the UK. It will introduce a ban on unhealthy food advertisements on TV before a certain hour, end “buy one, get one free” junk food deals, and create more comprehensive calorie contents on food and drinks. The government has also launched the Better Health campaign, to motivate overweight and obese people to lose weight. The programme offers tools and support from NHS weight management services, including a Better...

"ANN ARBOR—Parents who experience food insecurity might think they’re protecting their children from their family’s food situation by eating less or different foods so their children can be spared. But a new study led by University of Michigan researchers shows that children know more about food insecurity—the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food—than their parents give them credit for." Finish reading here : ...

"When Jackson Morgan thinks about who he was at age 18 and 19 — before the pandemic — he puts his head down and pushes his feet into the sand outside his family's house on Plum Island. “The guy I was a year ago, I was very different. I mean, I was a hothead. I had anger issues and stuff,” Morgan says. “I would damn near blackout when I got really mad and start to fight, and I wouldn’t remember bits and pieces of it.” But the pandemic changed everything for Morgan. When COVID-19 took the...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=812615ed-442c-498c-9566-a056b331bb0a

When we engage in emotional eating, we’re using food as our coping mechanism of choice to deal with whatever is inside. After all, it’s easy, accessible, and gives a perceived sense of relief—at least for a little while. The problem is, we never actually deal with the deeper emotion, sometimes rooted in ACEs. It just gets stuffed down and repressed. Then, there's the weight gain...

If you suffer from unconscious eating, your ACEs may be impacting your ability to lose weight. Unfortunately, a simple diet or exercise program won’t work because it doesn’t address the WHY behind your unconscious eating patterns in the first place. Learn the link between ACEs and unconcious eating.

"I remember watching my mother stand at the supermarket register, anxiously tugging at her shaggy dark blonde hair, repeatedly tucking it behind an ear. Her green eyes, amplified by thick glasses with rose-tinted plastic frames, scanned the running total. She’d hold an envelope open with one hand and whip out coupons like a blackjack dealer, placing them on each corresponding item to make sure the cashier scanned them together...." https://www.bonappetit.com/story/childhood-food-insecurity

Jammella Anderson kneels beside a bright pink refrigerator on a sidewalk in Albany, New York, stocking its shelves with fresh loaves of bread and heads of lettuce—food that is free for the taking. A passerby stops to ask how to donate. She tells them where and how to sign up to give veggies, dairy, or prepared meals. They continue walking, then double back and ask Anderson whether they can donate the stale contents of their apartment fridge ahead of a move. The answer is an emphatic “no.” To...

Proper nutrition is a key ingredient in rewiring your client's traumatized neural pathways. Research shows that nutrition is often not part of trauma treatment. Nutrition and trauma are on two different planets. This free webinar training by Dr. Sells is for professionals who want to understand why nutrition and trauma are not typically linked in treatment and how to bridge this gap with step-by-step tools, case examples, and handouts. Wednesday, July 21 12 - 1 pm EDT Click HERE to register...

By Change Lab Solutions, May 2021 How can cross-sector partnerships foster a just food system and support healthy communities? What do health care systems, local governments, and community organizations need to consider when partnering to increase healthy food access for those who need it most? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity rates in the United States have risen to unprecedented levels, affecting not only individual health but health equity in our communities. To address...

Excerpted from Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger by Katie Martin. Copyright © 2021 by Katie Martin. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington, DC. The following section draws from portions of Chapter 3, “A Paradigm Shift in How We Talk about Hunger,” pp. 46–50, 52–53. Scarcity Mentality: How to Move from Deficit-Based to Strength-Based Language A key issue that is holding us back from really tackling and ending hunger is the focus on not having enough.