Announces commitment to expand the Nutrition Oregon Campaign to every county in Oregon by 2030 to support the challenge

The Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness answered the Biden-Harris Administration’s call to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases, all while reducing health disparities, by 2030. The White House announced the Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities as part of President Biden’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The challenge called for bold commitments from public and private stakeholders to collectively achieve the vision.

The Moore Institute was announced as one of the chosen commitments to advance the national agenda during a virtual event led by Second Gentleman Emhoff, Secretary Vilsack, Secretary Becerra, and other senior administration officials.

“We’re excited for Oregon to be a leader in national efforts to reduce diet-related disease,” said Les Myatt, Ph.D., FRCOG, director of the Moore Institute. “We believe this work will provide an example for how the science of developmental origins of health and disease can be translated into programs to improve community health.”

The Moore Institute works to improve the health of this generation and the next through promoting nutrient-rich diets based on whole food before and during pregnancy, during lactation and the first years of life. The Moore Institute’s work is grounded in the science of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, or DOHaD. This research illuminates the connections between nutrition and toxic stress exposure during key developmental moments and later life risk for developing chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

In 2016 the Moore Institute developed the Nutrition Oregon Campaign, a statewide network of connected communities, organizations and individuals working to end chronic disease for all. As the network backbone, the Moore Institute provides leadership and capacity-building opportunities, shares educational resources, builds public will around the need for improving nutrition and establishes shared evaluation metrics.

The Nutrition Oregon Campaign’s work is driven by the knowledge that communities best understand their unique needs, strengths and structural barriers to improving the health of their residents. With this understanding, the Moore Institute works with communities to identify engagement opportunities ranging from providing information, to developing a Nutrition Oregon Campaign Hub. Hub communities have a leadership team, a unique goal supporting the broader campaign vision and implementation programs supporting their goal. There are currently four active hub communities: Western Treasure Valley (Ontario), Klamath County, Yamhill County and Douglas County.

The Moore Institute’s White House commitment will expand the reach of the campaign to all 36 Oregon counties. This work will include Nutrition Consortium mini-conferences, speaking engagements, a social marketing campaign and adding five additional hubs by 2030.