The Food Pyramid Has Flipped. Can Libraries Help Make Sense of It?

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has flipped the traditional food pyramid on its head. The release of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 suggests that Americans increase consumption of red meat, whole dairy products, healthy fats, and whole grains. According to the HHS website, this change is the “most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in our nation’s history.” 

In the past, households experiencing economic strain and food insecurity could have turned to SNAP-Ed, the nation’s largest food and nutrition education program, for advice on how to understand the guidelines through nutrition and food literacy. But with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, the program was decimated, losing all its funding and shuttering SNAP-Ed offices across the nation.

Where will the more than 42 million Americans who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  (SNAP) benefits, particularly food stamps, go to learn these new guidelines? And how should they evaluate and adhere to them?

An unlikely institution can help fill this gap: the public library.

Anchored in the community, the public library is much more than a place to check out books, read, or search the internet. In states ranging from Illinois to Pennsylvania to New York,  libraries are converting their spaces into makeshift food hubs that facilitate culinary education, food distribution, and community gardening, among other initiatives.

A recent study conducted by a team of librarians titled, Public Librarianship and Food Justice, funded by the Mellon Foundation, asked librarians to illuminate how public libraries and their programs can serve as sites for systematic food system transformation. They also asked for ideas about how communities can engage through a food justice lens.

The researchers suggest that libraries follow an LDCSR (Learn, Discover, Cultivate, Serve & Transform, and Reflect) model to “frame food justice in terms of the enduring values of library work: social justice, equity of access, and community-engaged and community-led services.” At the core of this model, the Serve & Transform component can be seen in several efforts at libraries across the nation.

Libraries have always fed metaphorically hungry minds, and now their food programs are feeding literally hungry bellies.

In Massachusetts, for example, the Nutrition Lab at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library offers a compelling example of how libraries put this kind of work into action, especially as communities actively navigate rapidly shifting national nutritional guidance. The Nutrition Lab is a community-based kitchen and incubator for teaching culturally appropriate cooking methods focused on nutrition and meal preparation. It honors diverse communities by empowering patrons to engage in hands-on experiences through demonstrations, classes, and programs.

A key feature of the lab is its chef-in-residence program, which hosts a different chef every year. The chef is charged with creating and teaching cooking classes for the entire community that are historically informed and culturally appropriate, promoting learning opportunities for healthy eating and meal preparation. For example, the current chef-in-residence, Kayla Tabb, is launching a three-part cooking series on Afro-Indigenous food in celebration of Black History Month 2026.

The Nutrition Lab is not alone. Instructional and demonstration kitchens, like the one at the Missoula Public Library in Montana, dedicated to “culinary literacy and health opportunities,” are increasingly part of library design and architecture.

At the Missoula library, staff members in the programming committee work with food professionals to run its cooking demo series. The series includes activities such as its Seeds to Salad program, a collaboration between the library and the Montana State University Extension Service. Participants in the program learn about how to make salad dressing from scratch using fresh ingredients.

Beyond the kitchen, the Legler Regional branch of the Chicago Public Library partners with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to offer a full-service food pantry called the Library-Based Food Access program. The pantry provides access to protein, fruits, and vegetables in support of a nutritious diet. This initiative could help some food-insecure Chicagoans adhere to the new food pyramid.

The gap in food and nutrition education left by the elimination of SNAP-Ed is vast. The program provided national coverage. Public libraries still reach communities that are often overlooked, especially in rural areas. Those libraries have a mission to contribute to the well-being and sustainability of patrons and surrounding communities.

Libraries have always fed metaphorically hungry minds, and now their food programs are feeding literally hungry bellies. Indeed, they are integral parts of civic infrastructure, shouldering responsibilities once carried by federal nutrition programs. At a time when library funding is under threat, public libraries still have the power to mobilize with the food justice movement to galvanize community resources as the American food crisis intensifies.

The views expressed here are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of Public Health Post or Boston University School of Public Health.