Strengthening the Child Nutrition Act
Posted by Billy Shore on Thursday, March 25, 2010
Yesterday our efforts to end childhood hunger in America got an important boost when the Senate Agriculture Committee adopted a proposal that we and other partners in the anti-hunger community helped to conceive and promote. Proposed by Colorado Senator Michael Bennett, it would establish “State Childhood Hunger Challenge Grants”—what Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has called “a race to the top.” The fund would give governors the resources to implement our signature process of statewide collaboration to increase access to nutritious food for all children who are eligible for such programs but currently lack access.
The initial version of the reauthorization legislation, called the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, did not include this concept, but for the past week our team worked closely with Senator Bennett, Governor Bill Ritter, and Hunger Free Colorado (key leaders in launching the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado last November) to promote this proposal. The committee accepted Senator Bennett’s amendment, which means this now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
The bill takes important steps toward meeting the President’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015 and rightly emphasizes increasing children’s access to nutrition programs. In his budget, President Obama requested that $1 billion be appropriated to fund these important programs. Share Our Strength supports the President’s recommendation and will work to ensure that the final law provides the funding necessary to make No Kid Hungry a reality in America by 2015.
Share Our Strength believes it is possible to end childhood hunger in the United States through the leadership of governors, mayors and other state and local leaders—public and private. The goal of the challenge grants is to foster leadership, collaboration, and strategic action to end childhood hunger—the very foundation of the No Kid Hungry partnerships we are building in states across the country. Through a strong Child Nutrition Act, leadership at the state and local level, and federal incentives that encourage states to develop innovation approaches to connecting kids with food, we will make No Kid Hungry a reality by 2015.
March 25, 2010 | 2 comment(s) | Tags: Child Nutrition Reauthorization, childhood hunger, childhood hunger strategy
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2 reader comments so far.
Tremendous news and progress! Now if we can just get California involved...
Posted by Cate Puzo on March 26, 2010
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Posted by Camsbolomaf on November 24, 2011
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