The following is an op-ed written by Boca Helping Hands Executive Director Andrew Hagen.
Whether you are a gourmet or a gourmand, you’ve likely lived through more than one official attempt to tell you how to eat. Plates, pyramids, and charts have come and gone, each promising to clarify what belongs on our dinner table and what should be avoided. Dairy has shrunk, carbs have risen and fallen, meat has been praised and punished, dessert (even Jell-O) has quietly disappeared from polite conversation and sadly, red wine is off the list.
The latest version of the food pyramid from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services turns the familiar image upside down. Gone are most of the cans and all of the boxes. In their place are whole foods—vegetables, meats, fruits, eggs, nuts, olive oil. The message is unmistakable: eat fewer processed foods and more foods that look like they came from a farm, not a factory.
It’s good advice. Whether many Americans will follow it is an open question. Whether federal food programs, food banks and food pantries can follow it is a much more pressing one.
For organizations that provide food to families in need, like Boca Helping Hands, this new pyramid raises important implications. The prominent placement of fresh vegetables is welcome but also challenging. Federal programs that previously supplied large quantities of fresh produce to local food pantries have been cut. Reinstating those programs would immediately help food assistance organizations meet these updated nutritional goals. We are grateful that the State of Florida has stepped in with funding that partially fills this gap, but the need remains significant.
Second, food charities will continue encouraging donors to prioritize items that are higher on this new pyramid. Protein-rich foods, canned vegetables, peanut butter, and other nutrient-dense staples are far more helpful than starches, heavily processed foods, or canned fruits packed in syrup. Fresh produce, even home-grown vegetables, can often be accepted and distributed safely with the right systems in place. We will be seeking relationships with wholesalers and perhaps even farmers to accomplish this goal.
Third, organizations like Boca Helping Hands are examining how to use our limited purchasing funds more strategically. Buying fresh produce wholesale or directly from farmers, investing in refrigeration and storage, and reclaiming healthy food that would otherwise be wasted are all far better solutions than managing an overabundance of bread and starch-based products. Grants that support this kind of infrastructure will be a priority in the year ahead.
Still, the pyramid highlights an uncomfortable reality. Whole foods—not Whole Foods—are often the hardest foods to obtain in so-called food deserts, and they are frequently the most expensive. It is widely known that a family can often feed itself more cheaply and easily with fast food than with meals cooked at home from scratch. Add inflation, multiple jobs, long commutes, and limited time to cook, and the challenge becomes obvious.
Fresh meat and vegetables may be ideal, but for many families they are often out of reach.
The implications of this new food pyramid for food assistance organizations are mixed, but its core message is powerful. Feeding people is not just about calories. It is about nourishment, dignity, and long-term health.
We hope federal and state programs will take this pyramid seriously: not only as advice for individual households, but as a framework for the food that reaches food banks and pantries. And we will do our part, alongside donors and partners, to learn from it and pursue its laudable goals.
Because the goal isn’t just getting food to people who are hungry.
It’s getting good food to people who deserve a fair chance at a healthy life.
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