 Thank you for joining us here today at this historic event. This is the first in a series of national convenings developed by the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to help shape the upcoming White House Conference. Throughout the day, your recommendations to shape future federal policy will be captured and ultimately shared with the organizers of the White House Conference. To keep you energized, we're pleased to provide a plant-powered lunch prepared by our own Department of Education's Office of Food and Nutrition Services, the entire Department for their steadfast commitment to our children's health and well-being. I'd also like to thank the Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health for its partnership in bringing together today's event. Dr. Dari Mosefarian, a co-chair of the Task Force, is here with us today and will provide closing remarks later this afternoon. This event has been made possible with support from the Bia Echo Foundation, the Hand Foundation, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and No Kid Hungry. Mayor Adams' passion and commitment to advancing food and nutrition policy has been evident since day one. Under his leadership, we are committed to holistically reshaping our food system and making healthier, plant-powered options more accessible to all New Yorkers. It is my honor and privilege to now introduce you to Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you. Thank you. Really, really, really excited, excited about the thought of me get that green, yellow hat with the holes in it, you know? Amazing moment, you know, when I was speaking to Congressman McGovern and Congressman Espeyot to learn that it was in 1969, over 50 years ago, was the last time we did a real analysis of a White House conference on food, and for us to do it now and start the process of connecting the dots, because we have been sort of divided in so many different areas as we have pursued some of the major issues that we're facing as a country. We address an issue of our economy as we rebound from COVID. We could do it by ensuring we use our food supply right here in the state, using ways of growing food, using our buying power to leverage our dollars. We're dealing with environmental issues. We know that the over-consumption of unhealthy meat products and food and how we use it for feed for chickens and cows and other livestock is destroying our Amazon, is destroying our environment, yet we never really talk about it. Even in the space that's now being examined, the connectivity between food and mental health issues, we're now starting to look at that and see what's the connection on how people are eating, our microbiomes, the unhealthy food that you're seeing in various parts of our city. When you go to fancy places that many of us may live, you know, Park Slope in Bed-Stuy, we have whole food, but you go into those areas where nitro residents and those who are in economically challenging communities, you see junk food, and the grades that are connected with those areas just wreak havoc on all of us. But then this is a personal story. There's no one in this room, no one, that does not have someone that's going through a chronic disease in their life, all of us, all of us, and you know what happens, it hijacks your life, you no longer yourself. When I think about waking up that day and having the doctor tell me I was going to be blind in a year and I was going to lose some fingers and toes because of advanced stages of diabetes, the Ulta, the high blood pressure, the American package. When I thought about that and all I had to do was just change my diet, that is an amazing moment to see that life raft thrown at you, that state, if you change your diet you could change your life. All the lies that told us chronic diseases were part of getting older and it was in our DNA, we finally realized it was not our DNA, it was our dinner, it was not our lineage, it was our lunch, and it was not where we were born, it was our breakfast. And we feed those chronic diseases every day to people in hospitals, senior centers, schools, prisons, we feed the chronic diseases that we are facing in our country. And since being on this journey, you're born in sometimes into these dark places not realizing they are not burials but they are plantants. And as you continue to see the harvest, you come in contact with amazing people like Kate and George Holtz from Emblem Health who's helped sponsor this event and so many more that have been part of this journey. And I was just telling reporters earlier, this is not a popular journey. Every time I take a hot dog out of someone's hands I'm losing a vote. You can't do this because merely because you're trying to pander the people. There's so many people that get angry when you start talking about the culture relationship we have with food but we notice it's the right thing to do. And it's not by just being silent, it's by doing this. So all of you who have worked and toiled in this field for a long time, like my good friend Dr. McMacken over at Bellevue Hospital who had this vision of having lifestyle medicine at Bellevue Hospital. Now it is in every H and H facility in our city of giving people choices. That's an amazing moment that people thought was impossible. All of you who have done this work, I want to personally say thank you. Because right now in this city, there's an Eric Adams walking into a doctor's office who's being told you're going to lose your sight. Who's being told you're going to lose some fingers and toes. Who's being told that you have to go on dialysis. Who's being told that you have chronic heart disease. Right now, every day those diagnosis are destroying the lives of people we know as families and friends. If we get this right, we're going to turn those diagnosis around. And we're going to empower people to know that they can be controlled of their health. It's right there, right before us. And this is how we're going to get it done. So again, I thank you for coming out on this beautiful day to embrace this beautiful idea that we could have in hungryness in this city to end the fight on chronic diseases and at the same time make this a better place for all of us. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Congressman Jim McGovern represents the second district of Massachusetts in the House of Representatives. He serves as chairman of the House Rules Committee and is a senior member of the House Committee on Agriculture's Subcommittee on Nutrition and Oversight. Congressman McGovern is also co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus and has been a leader in the fight against hunger both home and abroad. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us today. Everybody, before I speak, I'm going to be a special guest, Congressman Espeyot. I want to have him have an opportunity to do it. Well, Congressman McGovern is a real rock star. We visited schools where you have urban farming in the district. And of course, the mayor, I think, is the one authentic voice nationally about this particular issue because of his own personal journey. And the pandemic told us what we already knew, but we refused to acknowledge. We're stubborn and we refuse to acknowledge the truth, which is that we have a chronic problem with diabetes, cardiovascular problems, renal problems, asthma. All these things are caused by one thing, unhealthy food. And so let's break with that so it's not a problem in perpetuity. And I'm happy to be here today and be part of this team. Thank you. So good morning, everyone, and what an honor it is to be with so many champions working to end hunger, improve nutrition, and bring about a more just, fair, sustainable, resilient food system in this country. And I know many of you in this audience have worked with many of you. I can't thank you enough for your dedication and your commitment. I am grateful to Mayor Adams for inviting me here and for his leadership in bringing us together for this critical discussion. The symbolism of this day is huge. New York is the first major city in America to convene a discussion in advance of September's White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This dialogue, the ideas that all of you generate, will play a key role in informing our country's anti-hunger strategy for decades to come. Mayor Adams is setting an example that cities and towns across America should follow in holding these long overdue conversations. My friends, America is at a crossroads. We are the richest country in the history of the world. We have plenty of food to feed everyone, and we have the money and expertise to do it. What we have lacked is the political will. Hunger is a political condition. Yet, as many of the emergency hunger and nutrition programs that began during the pandemic end, some have said, let's get back to normal. My response is normal wasn't good enough. Normal meant nearly 40 million of our fellow Americans went to bed with not enough food. Normal meant food apartheid and lunch debt. Normal meant food waste and a snap gap. As a congressman and as a human being, I'm ashamed of what we accepted as normal. We should all be ashamed, because it simply doesn't have to be this way. And I and others have been working for decades. Many of you who are gathered here have been working to build support for this White House conference. You know, we secured funding in Congress. We work together in a bipartisan way to make it a reality. And I'm grateful to the president and vice president for listening to all of us and moving ahead with this conference. The Biden administration is already bringing together agencies to break down the silos and come up with a holistic plan to end hunger and improve nutrition and health. That's what Mayor Adams is doing here in New York, bringing together the agricultural commissioner, the Department of Health, hospitals, schools, and everybody else. And that is what I'm pushing the federal government to do as well. This is a chance to connect the dots and to accomplish something real. I believe we can do it. And when we do it, it's going to be because of conversations like this that ask us to imagine what a hunger-free future looks like. Not only is this about the well-being of our people, it is about the success of our children, our families, our businesses, our communities, and ultimately our progress as a nation. But we don't need to start from scratch. We can listen to and learn from organizations and experts already doing the work. Over the past year, I've traveled all across the country to try to build support for this conference, including here in New York, meeting with people and organizations on the front lines, meeting with people like Father Mike Lopez, who's been feeding thousands of families per week out of his church in Queens. Stephen Ritz, who's teaching kids in the Bronx how to grow their own vegetables. Organizations like the Met Council providing culturally appropriate food. God's love we deliver, focusing on medically-territorial meals. Bronx Impacts Food Access Collective helping to end food apartheid and food injustice. Queens Together and the Amazing Coalition of Anti-Hunger Advocates. Edible School Yard in East Harlem, which I visited with my friend Adriano, which is working to transform kids' relationship with food. And Bowery Farming, which is reimagining what farming looks like, especially in urban settings. And a gazillion other places I've had the honor of being president here in this city. I've seen amazing work going on, and I want to amplify, uplift, and replicate it all across America. Look, I'm under no illusions about the difficulty of the task at hand. But to those who say solving these problems is impossible, here's my response. We've done it before. The first and only White House conference, as the mayor mentioned, on hunger, food, and nutrition wasn't perfect. But it led to a decade of transformative progress in the battle against hunger, poverty, malnutrition, and disease. It was convened the same year we landed on the moon. Our leaders used to ask us to dream big, to imagine a better future, and then work together to solve problems. So if you watch the news today, it seems like Democrats and Republicans can't agree on anything. Hell, sometimes it feels like Democrats and Democrats can't agree on anything. But these issues are solvable problems. When it comes to recognizing that food is medicine, bringing down health care costs and integrating nutrition into the treatment of diet-related diseases, or building a more resilient food system that uplifts local farmers and brings fresh produce to every neighborhood, or making sure kids have healthy, free meals in school every day, or even making sure that no person goes hungry in this country, not only are these the right things to do, but they're also the smart things to do. And we can do them within the decade, saving millions of people from suffering and trillions in health care costs while, you know, while we're at it. So let me just end with this. Food is about joy. It brings us together. We sit down, we share our meals with one another because food is love. In a world where too much is wrong, this is a chance for us to come together and do something right. And to make sure that everyone in this country is treated with dignity and respect. So I want to thank all of you for your steadfast commitment to ending hunger in New York City and across the country. And thank you again, Mayor Adams, for your vision and for your incredible leadership. I look forward to working with you in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Thank you all. Thank you, Congressman. As you've said, access to healthy food, supporting farmers, ensuring that no one has to worry about where their next meal is going to come from. These are common sense values that it seems everyone should support, no matter what side of the IOU come from. It is my pleasure to introduce a man who embodies this bipartisan spirit, former Staten Island president and current leader in the Adams administration, Jimmy Otto. Good morning, everyone. Let me start out by saying to the congressman from Massachusetts, as a New York Mets fan, I apologize for the World Series in 1986. But as a New York Jets fan, it would seem that Belichick and Brady have more than made up for it. It's good to be back at Gracie Mansion. I have to tell you a very quick story. It was nearly two decades ago, January 2003, to be precise, that I was the Republican leader in the city council. And I and my 50 colleagues were invited to dinner here at Gracie Mansion by then Mayor Bloomberg. Ostensibly, the dinner was to repair the fractured relationship that then Mayor had with the city council, particularly the three Republicans and the three other Democrats who voted no on that infamous historic property tax increase. And as the Mayor began his speech, he fell back into the same rhetoric that had angered me to begin with. And when he was done, I stormed over to my colleague and said, where out of here? I stormed over to my colleague because he was a fellow Republican, but also because he had the keys and he drove the car. And storming out of Gracie Mansion in opposition to the mayor is one thing. Storming out of Gracie Mansion in opposition and then looking around, trying to figure out how to get back to Staten Island via mass transit is another. But I broke out the time machine because I want to take you back to another time, not measured in decades, but measured in years. I'm reading from my cell phone. January 16, 2019 at 327 p.m., 327 p.m. Eric, I just watched your testimony. Brother, when you talk on these issues, you speak to me. I feel like I can run through walls with you when you speak. Bravo. I'm still a meat eater, but I'm all in with you in this fight. We are doing a thing here on the rock, but anything I can do, count on me. My colleague and my friend in that text has a new appellation these days. Bloss. The Eric was Denver President and now Mayor Eric Adams. And for these last six months, I have been blessed to be inspired on a continuous basis across a whole breadth of issues and inspired to run through walls with him. Six months have gone by in a flash. But so did the eight years as a borough president before that. So did the 15 years in the city council before that. And for those of you out there who share the perspective of middle age with me, you know you look in the mirror at times and you see one of your parents. Every time I see a new wrinkle or a new age spot, every time I make a sarcastic joke, I see the reflection of my old man. Now when you work for Eric Adams, a guy who grinds like no other before him, the sight of that old man in that mirror is an inspiration. My father was a worker. He was a bull. And I look at it and I look at myself and I see him and I say I could do this. I could try to keep up with this mare. But then I think about something a little less inspiring. I think about the gene pool that I am swimming in. When I was in the council, I went on this anti-tobacco tear going to schools across the district. And I used to take the school children on a tour of the scars on my father's body. There was the ulcer. There was the kidney lost to a malignancy. There was the open heart surgery. And then last but not least, the most difficult of all, there was the scar on the stump of the right leg where they took a good portion of it. And I look at that image in the mirror and I worry about my fate. But then I remember DNA is not destiny. As Mayor Adams says, it's not in our DNA, it's in our dinner. And as one food influencer and author wrote, genes are not destiny. They merely predict what the standard American diet will do to you. You all know the numbers. I don't have to go through them. So I've gone on a journey. I put a lot of faith in epigenetics, trying to change my lifestyle, change what I eat, change how I exercise, do things differently than my father did. And I have done a lot of research and a lot of reading. But sometimes I give in, even though I am thoroughly blue collar and working class, I give in to the privileged perspective of willpower and self-control. And I think, come on, man, you gotta be able to do better than that. But then you do more research and more reading. Mark Bitman's book, Michael Moss's book, and you read about how production drives consumption. You read about how it's not a fair fight. So I am a Republican standing up here saying to local elected officials, national figures of all stripes, get in the fight. The mayor likes to say there are many rivers that feed the sea. Pick an aspect of this fight that you could believe in. And join this fight, it is an unfair fight. And I have to tell you, I'm a political animal, well, less so these days. But I'm a political animal. And I follow on Twitter the outrage, everyone is outraged. Everyone's outrage leads to more outrage. We need to have that outrage that a bunch of corporations hire lawyers to manufacture and manipulate food to hook us. And they're beating us up and our families on the inside. If someone came through the door of my old constituents on Staten Island to harm them or their family, they'd fight like mad. They're coming in our homes in little packages every day. And the bruises and the beatings are on the inside. And they're not seen until they are seen. I will close with this. In November of 2019, the New York Times ran an op-ed where two physicians said we need a Manhattan project to find definitive answers to the epidemics of diet-related disease. I am down with that. And in the meantime, I'm so inspired that all of you will join me in standing shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Adams and run through a few walls. Thank you. We've got a little bit of a transition up here into our panel. Thank you, our opening speakers so much. Mary and Nestle likely needs no introduction to you. Her influence on U.S. food policy is nothing short of remarkable. Through her books, her writing, her blog, her tenure at NYU, she has made us all more informed and engaged food citizens. Welcome, Marian, who is going to moderate this panel featuring innovation to inspire D.C. action. Her co-panelists, her panelists, excuse me, are going to be Chancellor Banks, Dr. Ashwin Vassan, our Commissioner of Health in the city, Dr. Michelle McMacken, Executive Director of Lifestyle and Nutrition for our health and hospital system, and State Ag and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball. Thank you.