WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is establishing three new nutrition hubs to bolster food and nutrition security, and help lower the incidence of diet-related chronic diseases, particularly in underserved, at-risk communities.

Plans call for USDA nutrition hubs to be set up at the University of Hawaii, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Utah State University, effective at the start of 2025. Each three-year hub project will receive $1.5 million in funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, plus support from the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

In July, USDA announced funding of $4.5 million to form a network by creating nutrition hubs in three more communities following the pilot hub established in late 2023 in partnership with Southern University and A&M College. The pilot project was launched under the USDA’s Agricultural Science Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet for Better Health (ASCEND for Better Health) initiative.

“Nutrition security means everyone has consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being,” US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said. “Ensuring nutrition security for all has been a cornerstone priority for the Biden-Harris administration, and these new nutrition hubs will pave the way for even greater strides toward achieving that goal.”

The USDA said diet guidance will occur through the lens of “precision nutrition,” based on individual subpopulations’ unique characteristics such as dietary intake and food composition, genetics, socioeconomic and psychosocial characteristics, food environments, cultural factors, physical activity and health status.

Toward the goal of furthering nutrition security, the nutrition hubs will “stimulate and catalyze” cross-cutting and interdisciplinary work among scientists and stakeholders via highly interdisciplinary approaches and human-centered program designs, according to the USDA. The three new hubs are deployed as follows:

• Pacific Nutrition Hub: Located at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, this hub aims to enhance nutrition capacity in the US Affiliated Pacific Region through data-driven strategies and professional trainings for the area’s native populations that are culturally and biologically distinct in languages and customs.

• Healthy Living for Hispanic Communities USDA Nutrition Hub: The hub at the Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health through Agriculture will focus on strengthening food and nutrition security, reducing diet-related disparities and improving population health in Hispanic communities.

• Western Region Nutrition Security Collaborative: Utah State University’s hub is slated to drive interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration to address barriers such as structural inequalities and improve equitable access to health-promoting foods.

“USDA’s Land-Grant University partners are the perfect place to house these three new Nutrition Hubs because of the experience they have building their communities through education and Extension outreach programming,” said Chavonda Jacobs-Young, undersecretary for research, education and economics and chief scientist, USDA. “Their goal will be to better understand the real-world opportunities and challenges around food, nutrition and diet-related health disparities, and to develop coordinated science-based solutions and resources for their populations."