Top U.S. Food and Beverage Companies Must Do More to Produce and Market Affordable, Healthy Food and Drinks

The Access to Nutrition U.S. Index, released recently, reveals that the 11 largest U.S. food and beverage manufacturers are not making adequate progress on their commitments to make, market and sell healthy food and drinks. While all companies have placed a greater focus on nutrition in their corporate strategies since the first index was released in 2018, their actual products have not become healthier, and they are not making sufficient efforts to safeguard children from the marketing of unhealthy products. The index, which assesses the leading food and beverage manufacturers…

WaterAid Launches Advocacy Program To Deliver Sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services to African Healthcare Facilities

WaterAid has announced the launch of a one-year program to advocate and inform policy change for improved access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) in healthcare facilities in Africa through a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The $1.49 million grant focuses on Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda and addresses challenges preventing frontline healthcare workers, patients and surrounding communities from accessing clean water, handwashing facilities and decent toilets that lead to unsafe working conditions, increased disease spread and greater health risk for mothers and newborns. The result will…

Closed Loop Partners Releases Key Insights from First-of-a-Kind Multi-Retailer Reusable Bag Pilots, with CVS Health, Target & Walmart

Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy and the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag released a new resource to help guide retailers looking to adopt reusable bag service models. The report, Beyond the Plastic Bag, shares key insights and analysis gathered from collaborative reusable bag pilots conducted in select CVS Health, Target and Walmart stores throughout Northern California in 2021, as part of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag’s Beyond the Bag Pilots. Approximately 100 billion single-use plastic bags are used each year in the U.S., most…

USC Quarterback Caleb Williams Teams Up with National “Seize the Awkward” Campaign to Support Young Adults’ Mental Health

The Seize the Awkward campaign released a new public service advertisement (PSA) featuring star quarterback Caleb Williams encouraging young people to check in with their peers and have open conversations about their mental health. The campaign— from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and The Jed Foundation (JED) in collaboration with the Ad Council —worked with the Caleb Cares Foundation and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of California (USC) to develop the student-produced video. In times of crisis, three in four young adults turn…

Make suicide prevention in Africa a priority, UN health agency urges governments

Did you know that Africa has the highest suicide rate in the world? To reverse that worrying statistic, the UN health agency WHO recently launched a social media campaign to raise awareness around mental health illness, which is believed to account for up to 11 per cent of the risk factors that are associated with suicide. “Every death by suicide is a tragedy,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, who maintained the suicide prevention was “rarely a priority” in national health programmes. Tweet URL Ahead of World…