"[1] The three-day gathering came at the end of a decade of social, cultural, and political change which had resulted in a sudden awareness of the widespread malnutrition and hunger afflicting many poor in the United States.
Eight-hundred academics and scientists, business and civic leaders, activists, and politicians developed more than 1,800 recommendations, which were reviewed by the 2,700 conference attendees and delivered in a full report to the President on December 24, 1969.
[3] In May 2022, President Joe Biden announced a new White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health which was scheduled to convene on September 28, 2022, in Washington, D.C. A long period of prosperity due to post–World War II economic expansion resulted in a large decrease in the number of people below the poverty line during the 1960s.
"[5] The Board made recommendations including the declaration of a national emergency, particularly targeting 280 counties, migrant farm camps, and Indian reservations not yet served by food programs.
Cold War nuclear threats didn't deter the optimism, buoyed by a long stretch of global economic growth, that positive changes would come.
[4] In contrast to Whitten, conservative Senator Ernest Fritz Hollings of South Carolina began to address hunger and poverty in his state, prompting other congressional leaders to do the same.
[9] At the opposite end of the political spectrum, in 1968 Senator George McGovern became the top congressional food and nutrition advocate after the assassination of presidential candidate, Robert F.
The National Welfare Rights Organization, La Raza Latinos, the Black Caucus, and others had been strongly advocating a universal guaranteed income plan at the $5,500 level or more.
[13][14] Anti-hunger attendees largely refrained from carrying out threats of disruptions to the conference, and a groundswell of moderate voices joined the hunger lobby in making demands for emergency food relief for the hungry and permanent income assistance for the poor.
)[17] The latter debate became particularly controversial when an association representing the largest food companies was allowed to present a pre-packaged set of GRAS recommendations for panel approval.