The Agricultural Science Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet for Better Health program has announced the launch of a pilot Nutrition Hub. The Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center is extremely excited and honored to be the first university to house a USDA Nutrition Hub.
According to a press release shared on September 28, the 1890 Center of Excellence for Nutrition, Health, Wellness, and Quality of Life is housed at Southern University, a historically black 1890 Land-grant institution in Louisiana that is a partner in the creation of the Nutrition Hub. Informed by community dialogues, the USDA's new Nutrition Hub will serve as a vehicle for disseminating science-based, nutrition-related information at the local level, especially in underserved communities that are disproportionately affected by diet-related chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. Future hubs will focus their efforts on more communities with a high need. The USDA is adopting the effective Climate Hubs model, which annually reaches more than 20,000 individuals. This regional hub network connects USDA research and programs to provide timely, relevant, and reliable information as well as tools for making decisions.
The historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which presented a plan to give priority to the importance of nutrition and food security in overall health, including disease prevention and management, is supported by the Nutrition Hub. Given that an estimated 30 to 50% of all cancers are preventable through healthy diet and lifestyle changes, it also supports President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative to end cancer as we know it through the advancement of cancer prevention. The Hub works to increase health equity by empowering local residents to comprehend and incorporate USDA-funded nutrition research in ways that are sensitive to their cultural contexts.
In order to improve the effectiveness of its collective human nutrition research programs, create more accurate science-based resources and solutions, and increase public awareness of the opportunities and difficulties associated with food, nutrition, and diet-related health disparities, USDA will make use of the Nutrition Hub.Two full-time Nutrition Hub Co-Directors, one paid by ARS and the other by Southern University, will be hired thanks to a $1 million investment from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). With the help of this leadership structure, USDA and Southern University can work closely together to develop and implement Hub activities that make the most of both organizations' skills, resources, and connections. Additionally, a full-time graduate student at Southern University will be supported by the funds.
