By Caree Jackson Cotwright, PhD, RDN, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, USDA Food and Nutrition Service

Every February, the United States honors and celebrates the rich, cultural heritage of African Americans, including their triumphs and adversities that are integral to our nation’s history and success. To pay tribute to those who came before me and cultivate a better future for my three daughters, I share some of my journey to advance nutrition security and health equity through public service and highlight ways I hope each of you can join me in these efforts.

My late father Ernest C. Jackson, Sr. served as the director of community empowerment for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change. As a child, I benefitted from the achievements of the Civil Rights era. I attended school in Buckhead, an affluent neighborhood, home to the governor’s mansion. Every school day, I got on the bus in my modest Adamsville neighborhood where there weren’t many restaurants serving healthy meals, destined for a picturesque neighborhood featuring abundant food options. Though Adamsville didn’t have posh restaurants, we had each other. My mother ensured our meals were rich with vegetables from our garden, the nearby supermarket, or Mr. Bell’s neighborhood produce truck. I was so lucky to grow up in a neighborhood where neighbors and friends looked out for and cared for one another. As I explained in this nutrition security video, at the time I didn’t truly understand how differences in access to healthy retail food outlets affected our quality of health – really, our quality of life.

Now, with nutrition security as my focus, I am honored to continue my parents and neighbors’ legacy by working to ensure everyone in this country has consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable foods. In my role at USDA, it’s such a pleasure to remember my roots and blossom in my ability to engage people from all demographics and life stages. So please join me in partnership to advance food and nutrition security. Everyone can put on their imaginary backpacks and “get on the bus” so we can collectively ensure that no child ever wonders why their neighborhood lacks healthy food choices. USDA’s suite of 16 federal nutrition assistance programs already reaches 1 in 4 Americans. And with your help, we can reach even more and prevent ZIP codes from defining life expectancy. We have the collective power to ensure everyone in this country is set up to thrive.

By Simchah Suveyke-Bogin, Chief Customer Experience Officer for the Office of Customer Experience

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is committed to connecting all Americans with healthy, safe, affordable food sources. Towards fulfilling that commitment, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has launched multiple customer experience (CX) initiatives since President Joe Biden issued in December 2021 the Executive Order directing federal agencies to improve the experience for customers accessing government services and benefits.

Over the last two years, FNS has awarded more than $100 million in modernization grants to state agencies administering the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to improve the customer experience for all WIC participants. In its 50^th year of operations, WIC currently provides supplemental nutritious food, nutrition education, breastfeeding support and immunization screening and referrals to nearly 6.7 million women, infants and children, and operates in all 50 states, 33 tribal nations and five territories.

To spur improvements in the WIC shopping experience, CX initiatives include grant distributions for modernizing in-store shopping – responding to feedback from WIC participants – and working to enable WIC participants to shop online. Projects include efforts to help participants identify WIC-eligible foods in the grocery store, plan for and test online shopping with WIC benefits, and train grocery store staff to provide better service to WIC participants.

Furthermore, these efforts also include leveraging text messaging, mobile phone support, appointment scheduling tools, plain language and limited English proficiency support, and more to improve the WIC program's technology and service delivery.

With this major investment funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, WIC will be able to reach more eligible mothers and young children and improve the quality of services they receive throughout their entire experience, setting them up for healthy outcomes and reducing longstanding health disparities.

FNS also simplified access to school meals for families by giving an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas the option to serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost, and allowing more states to do the same with the expansion of direct certification with Medicaid. These efforts allow schools to automatically connect students to free or reduced-price school breakfast and lunch meals – without their families filling out an application – by using existing data from SNAP, Medicaid and other income-based programs. Not only does the initiatives increase food and nutrition security, but they also save time by simplifying program operations for hardworking school nutrition staff. USDA is committed to advancing these efforts to expand access to healthy school meals at no cost.

Over the last month, we have featured USDA CX accomplishments and efforts across all of our high impact service providers. In case you missed it, you can view our fourth post: Two-Year Anniversary of Customer Experience Executive Order: Pt. 4 Partnering with Land Managers and Landowners. Next week, we explore CX improvements for rural America.

Future CX updates will also be posted on the Office of Customer Experience (OCX) website and reported publicly on Performance.gov. To follow CX stories and posts across agencies, follow #govdelivers on social media.