Small Actions You Can Take to Make Big Changes in Your Country
Does the idea of talking to a member of Congress sound overwhelming and scary? Perhaps you want to impact the political world of nutrition, but the idea of sharing your story with legislators makes you feel very nervous. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) has made it simple and painless to communicate with your legislators through Action Alerts.
What are Action Alerts?
These are messages written by the Academy that are sent to members of Congress to help raise awareness and add legitimacy to specific issues. Available for both members and nonmembers of the Academy, your unique letter is addressed to your appropriate legislators based on your zip code.
How to Do an Action Alert
Start by visiting the Action Center on AND’s website. Underneath “Action Alerts”, click the button indicating if you are a member or nonmember.
Choose the Action Alert you want to address. If you are a member, you will sign in and your personal information will automatically populate. For nonmembers, fill out your name, email, phone number, and street address. Make sure to click the boxes to receive text or email updates about the policy. Otherwise, deselect those boxes if you do not want updates.
Review your message. An automatic message highlighting the nutrition policies of concern will already be in the message body, but this is where you can edit the automatic message. If you have any life experience or stories that directly relate to the topic at hand, add these in to personalize your letter. At the WSAND 2021 public and advocacy update this past February, representative Nicole Macri of the 43rd Legislative District shared that legislators want to hear stories from the people who are on the streets, interacting directly with the public they are serving. This message is where you have an opportunity to share your story or the story of people who are truly impacted by this policy. If you do not have anything to share that is fine too, and you can keep the automated message.
Send your message. Once you have read through your message, send it on! Your email will be sent to the appropriate legislator. You can feel confident that your voice has contributed.
After you complete these action alerts, you may choose to monitor the status of the policy as it makes its way through the traditional voting system on the Academy’s State Legislative Tracking Map. Begin (or continue) making big changes by completing the current action alerts today! Click here to get started.
An Example of the Success of Action Alerts
The House just passed the Build Back Better Act we The Academy have been supporting and rallying for. U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott (VA.) and David Scott (GA.) and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) worked to get it through. Here are some of the highlights this bill addresses that pertain to our profession from the Academy website:
Increases access to free, healthy school meals for nearly 9 million more children for school years 2022 through 2026.
Expands the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program to prevent hunger while school is out for summers 2023 and 2024.
Supports school kitchen equipment and nutrition education, as well as the infrastructure for Older Americans Act, congregate and home-delivered meal programs.
Invests $2 billion in food and agriculture research.
As the United States begins rebuilding from the pandemic, it was imperative to pass the Build Back Better Act to address nutrition security and improve health equity in communities across the country. Thank you for your support!
Legislative Day 2022
Another way to become involved with public policy and advocacy is to attend the Washington State Legislative Day. This event has typically taken place each year in Olympia at the State Capitol during the month of February with the Washington State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (WSAND) teaming up with the Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition. Unfortunately, due to Covid, Legislative Day has not taken place since 2020. In 2021, WSAND shared resources and insights with state legislators via webinars and an interactive session. For 2022, WSAND will have a series of webinars in February which will highlight policy and advocacy.
This year’s nutrition advocacy webinars:
The first webinar is called “Making the Protection Connection: Using the Incident Reporting Tool” and is scheduled for February 2, 2022, from 12:00-1:00 PM. The use of this tool will help protect consumers and improve health. Register here for this webinar.
The second webinar is called “Practical Policy with a Purpose–Making An Impact” and will be on February 9, 2022, from 12:00-1:00 PM. This webinar will discuss how members can effectively engage in policy initiatives at the state and federal levels. Highlights will include practical strategies for legislator outreach, staying informed on the 2022 legislative agenda, and WSAND legislative priorities. Register here for this webinar.
As members of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and of WSAND, it is important that we all do our part to support public policy and advocacy to help improve the nutrition and health status of our communities. By sharing our unique experiences with our state and federal legislators, we are strengthening our role as experts in food, nutrition, and health.