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North Carolina expands action plan to address food and nutrition needs

North Carolina officials have released a new action plan to address food insecurity and nutrition needs. 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Friday released its State Action Plan For Nutrition Security. Its purpose is to strengthen an overall strategic goal of supporting child and family well-being.

The action plan leverages the connections between several existing programs including Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), the Special Supplemental Nutrient Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, and Medicaid.

The overall strategy involves widening enrollment in the state’s nutrition programs, securing better ties between those programs and the health care network, and instituting a statewide breastfeeding hotline.

NCDHHS officials say action is necessary because many federal pandemic nutrition policies will be ending later this month. One initiative already underway is a program that texts information to help eligible families enroll in WIC.

According to a news release, over one million North Carolina residents, or almost 11 percent of the state’s population, suffer from food insecurity.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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