Race to the Top

Here is a brief excerpt from Secretary Vilsack’s speech: “I am pleased to announce my support for a new competition to eliminate hunger by 2015. We’ll provide competitive grants to Governors, working with stakeholders statewide, so that states can act as laboratories for successful strategies. We’ll let them be creative in experimenting with models that match program delivery with evaluation, so that we can learn what works and what doesn’t. Possible steps will include policy modifications to existing nutrition programs, enhanced outreach efforts, improved coordination between nutrition assistance programs and family supportive services, and work with community and non-profit organizations. Grants would be provided to States with prior accomplishments and commitments to reducing hunger, applications that target communities with higher prevalence of child hunger, and projects that reflect collaboration with a wide range of partners.”

And here is what Share Our Strength proposed last year: “Create a State Incentive Fund: The purpose of this fund would be to provide grants to states to help them develop and launch detailed plans to end childhood hunger. Priority would be given to states that can demonstrate: 1) a high prevalence of child food insecurity; 2) a lead governmental agency with the interest, expertise, and authority to influence the implementation of child food and nutrition programs; 3) proven private sector engagement in hunger reduction activities; and 4) a history of collaboration with community-based organizations that provide food and nutrition-related services to children and families residing in low-income communities.”

The Administration’s adoption of this concept represents a major milestone in our efforts.

One in four children in the U.S. are now on food stamps, for the first time in our history. A survey that Share Our Strength commissioned from Celinda Lake shows that 62 % of public school teachers identify hunger as a problem in the classroom and are using their own money on a regular basis to buy food for those kids.

But kids in the U.S. aren’t hungry because we lack food, we know that is not the case, and they are not hungry because of a lack of food and nutrition programs. That is not the case either. They are hungry because they lack access to those programs. And every time we increase access- to school breakfast, to summer feeding, to SNAP / food stamps, we increase the flow of already authorized and appropriated federal dollars into your state. Even increasing school breakfast participation from the 45% rate it is at today to 60% would bring $561 million into the states. More than a billion dollars are at stake when you consider all of the food and nutrition programs for which kids are eligible but not enrolled.

We urge Share Our Strength supporters to let their representatives in Congress know that you support the “race to the top” strategy for ending childhood hunger.