Junior Satvika Iyer was invited to the White House to speak on behalf of the Friends of the Earth organization on issues such as sustaining food production and minimizing waste during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 28, 2022, Iyer said.
During the conference, Iyer participated in a roundtable conversation on solutions for incentivizing healthy food choices and improving local access, she said. Others present at the roundtable included U.S congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon from Pennysylvannia’s 5th district, executives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the founder s of the company Kids Eat In Color were present, she said.
“Seeing room for improvement in an institution and knowing I could make a difference for the better through my previous experiences gave me the confidence to pursue and combat the issues (of food insecurity) head on,” Iyer said.
The conference was largely successful, Iyer said. The conference was linked with the FDA organizing new healthy food guidelines and a National Strategy that had $8 billion of funding along with it, she said.
Iyer said she was personally inspired by the conference, saying, “I feel extremely motivated to continue my advocacy across the state, and I hope to expand my efforts to education and climate literacy as a whole.”
The White House requested youth speakers from Friends of the Earth, a non-governmental organization that Iyer had worked with for two years, she said. Friends of the Earth’s senior program manager Chloe Waterman reached out to her, Iyer said. She was interviewed by aides of the World Health Organization and Agricultural Committee, and she answered questions about her work fighting local food insecurity and promoting vegan lunches in the school district, she added. Iyer was ultimately offered the spot, and her trip to Washington D.C. was sponsored by Feeding America, she said.
Getting to interview “felt like an accomplishment already —that I was being considered. I had an opportunity to showcase the work I’ve been doing, and it didn’t feel like this was the end goal. It sort of felt like it was the next step,” Iyer said.
When speaking about working to comply with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards when bringing vegan options to MHS, “It felt like we were working against the (USDA) because they had so many guidelines in place for how something should be presented,” Iyer said
Because of this work, Iyer was able to apply for the Friends of the Earth Youth Steering Committee to lobby a bill called the Healthy Future Students on Earth Act by speaking with congressmen and representatives, she said. This act has been introduced to the House of Representatives and is yet to progress, she said. It would begin the Healthy Meals for Healthy Kids pilot program, which allows for $370 million in funding for school cafeterias and lunch menus, she said.
“We have the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that’s enough for no one in America to go hungry,” Iyer said. “Our entire way of life needs to reform.”