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Effectiveness evaluation of national nutrition education programmes must be a priority to safeguard nutrition security

Nutrition education and food assistance programmes have the potential to reduce the societal burdens that disproportionately impact those living in low-resource contexts. Here, we call for a standardized evaluation framework, measures and procedures for assessing nutrition education programmes in the USA as critical for achieving nutrition security and population health while lowering the national burden of escalating healthcare costs.

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Contributions

R.L.B., R.S.-F. and P.J.S. contributed equally to this work, drafted the manuscript and prepared for the final version of the manuscript. M.S.-P., E.F.R., H.A.E.-M. and B.L.F. provided subject matter expertise, editorial expertise and drafted segments of the manuscript. N.P. is a scientific writer who coordinated and integrated contributions from the authors and performed literature searches.

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Correspondence to Patrick John Stover.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Food thanks Karen Franck and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Bailey, R.L., Seguin-Fowler, R., Stover, P.J. et al. Effectiveness evaluation of national nutrition education programmes must be a priority to safeguard nutrition security. Nat Food 6, 419–422 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01164-5

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