Malnutrition Awareness Week

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, this week is Malnutrition Awareness Week, a week when advocates, healthcare professionals, and communities around the country will focus on the issue of malnutrition and hunger. As the cofounder of the Elder Justice Caucus, and as a caregiver, I know how important proper nutrition is for aging Americans to stay healthy. Malnutrition can lead to greater risk of chronic disease, frailty, and increases in healthcare costs. Unfortunately, malnutrition often goes undiagnosed in seniors because healthcare providers and family members do not know how to identify and treat it. We can, and must, do more to protect vulnerable populations who suffer from malnutrition, and I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition. I also encourage the federal agencies tasked with combating hunger to do all they can to reduce malnutrition. I urge the Department of Health and Human Services to include malnutrition screening measures in their national health surveys of older adults, and to include malnutrition among the national key health indicators for older adults. Additionally, I am calling on the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture to work together to include dietary guidance for the prevention and treatment of older adult malnutrition in the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

I applaud the work of the advocates at Defeat Malnutrition Today, a coalition of eighty organizations and stakeholders who are committed to ending malnutrition through rigorous screening and intervention initiatives, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an organization of food and nutrition professionals who are spearheading efforts to reduce hunger worldwide. Together, we can reduce malnutrition and strengthen outcomes for our senior population.

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