Business for Impact’s Portion Balance Coalition to Participate in The White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities

The Portion Balance Coalition (PBC), led by Business for Impact at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, was recognized by the Biden-Harris Administration as one of 141 participants in the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities, a key initiative of the administration’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

“We are excited to be among such an esteemed group of organizations making White House commitments to advance nutrition security, health equity, and building healthier communities,” said Laura Ferry, senior director of the Portion Balance Coalition. “The activation of the Portion Balance Coalition’s “Eat for You” collective impact campaign is a momentous step towards advancing nationwide education about portion balance and underscores our commitment to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Challenge.”

The White House Challenge is a national call-to-action to engage stakeholders across the country to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030, while reducing health disparities. The Portion Balance Coalition is a multi-sector collaborative working towards better nutrition for all through a focus on portions.

The PBC’s contribution includes a collective impact initiative featuring the national rollout of the coalition’s “Eat for You” campaign, a consumer and healthcare provider education campaign underscoring the idea that “nutrition isn’t one size fits all” and portion balance metrics should take the whole person into account. The PBC’s collaborators aim to distribute educational materials to tens of thousands of families, educators, health professionals, and other targeted groups to promote healthy eating habits through portion balance. 

The “Eat for You” campaign, also aligned with the USDA’s MyPlate initiative, aims to empower people to make informed choices about their nutrition through educational materials that serve a wide variety of audiences. Some of the “Eat for You” educational and promotional tools include flyers, social media content, videos, scripts, and other marketing materials. The campaign is designed to appeal to various demographics, meeting people where they are, in an intentional and informed manner.

The PBC’s commitment to the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities is instrumental to the PBC’s mission to promote portion management as an effective strategy in tackling obesity nationally as well as reducing food waste. To this end, the PBC will host a convening to release the inaugural “Power of Portions” Report on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. The multi-sector public health event will reveal a “state of the union” assessment and highly-anticipated research on food portions as a cost-effective strategy to contribute to lowering obesity rates, improving long-term health outcomes, and reducing food waste.

“The PBC looks forward to welcoming a broad range of experts to Georgetown for the unveiling of this ground-breaking report, which provides innovative research into the impact of portion sizes on our health, eating habits, and overall well-being, as well as their impact on food waste and sustainability,” said Ferry.

Learn more about the upcoming “Power of Portions” convening and register to attend the event on Georgetown’s campus.