Aug 2026-Cultivating Connections: Closing the Data Gap: Measuring Food Security through BRFSS

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‍Cultivating Connections Monthly Webinar Series‍

Join us on Wednesday, August 19, at 3:30 p.m. ET for the Hunger Nutrition and Health Action Collaborative Monthly Webinar Series. Connect with partners across the U.S. dedicated to ending hunger and building healthy communities. This webinar will highlight successful strategies, food and nutrition system changes, multisector partnerships, and community-building efforts.

During this month's partner call, you will learn about critical gaps in food security data, the growing need for high-quality state-level information and efforts to address these gaps through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Our panelists include Shelly Ver Ploeg, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy and Poonam Gupta, Senior Research Associate in the Health, Income and Benefits Policy Division at the Urban Institute.

Shelly Ver Ploeg is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy. She recently retired from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she served as Chief of the Food Assistance Branch, where she was responsible for directing the agency’s research and data priorities to support USDA’s mission to ensure all American’s have access to enough healthy foods and to monitor and evaluate USDA’s significant investments in food and nutrition programs. Her research focuses on access to healthy and affordable foods, food assistance program participation and diet and health outcomes, and the measurement of poverty. She received an MS and PhD in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and a BA in economics from Central College.

Poonam Gupta is a Senior Research Associate in the Health, Income and Benefits Policy Division at the Urban Institute, where she focuses on research related to food security, food access, and adequacy of and access to federal nutrition programs. She co-leads Urban’s Food Security Data Collaborative. Gupta holds an MSPH in international health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn and connect. Please mark your calendar and join us for an engaging and informative session. Email your questions for the panelists to hnh@cdcfoundation.org.

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