Chefs Tell Congress: Let’s Pass a Child Nutrition Bill ASAP
Posted by Michael McKenna on Thursday, September 23, 2010
“We the undersigned chefs”…and so begins a petition from chefs across the country about the importance of a strong child nutrition reauthorization bill that I helped deliver to members of Congress last week.
Share Our Strength circulated the petition that has collected more than 400 chef names who believe Congress can and must do better for the future generation of Americans.
I was joined on Capitol Hill by my colleague Emily Byram and top local chefs Chef Victor Albisu of BLT Steak and David Varley of Bourbon Steak, as well as farmer Craig Rogers of Border Springs Farms. We visited with the lead staff on children’s issues from five Congressional offices, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Sandy Levin (MI), Representative Baron Hill (IN), Representative Chris Van Hollen (MD), and Representative John Larson (CT).
The chefs described their efforts to try and get better quality food into schools and their involvement with the First Lady’s Chefs Move to Schools program. As Chef Varley pointed out, great food shouldn’t just be for patrons of Bourbon Steak!
We told staffers that the bill that the Senate passed in early August was a good step forward, and expressed our hope that the House will pass a robust bill to promote access to programs for kids in need.
One of the great elements of the bill (in both the House and Senate versions) is the competitive grant program for states to develop comprehensive plans to end childhood hunger in their states. The goal is to get the right people around a common table to map out shared goals and then keep each other accountable. Sound familiar? That’s exactly the model that Share Our Strength has been bringing to life in Colorado, Maryland, and a few other states across the country. Wouldn’t it be great to take the No Kid Hungry model nationwide?
The bad news is that no one we met with had much certainty about the future of the child nutrition bill passing with so few days left before Congress recesses for the election. In our eyes, this is the most important priority that Congress should tackle.
44 million Americans live in poverty, including 1 in 5children. That kind of poverty should not exist in the U.S. If you agree, make sure you tell your elected leaders that they need to pass a strong bill before the programs expire on September 30th.
Related posts:
Child Nutrition: What It Will Do and What You Can Do to Help
Child Nutrition: Silence in Response to 44 Million Americans Below the Poverty Line
September 23, 2010 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: chefs, Child Nutrition Reauthorization, no kid hungry
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1 reader comment so far.
No child should ever be hungry. It is hard enough to be a child, they should have no worries besides just growing up!
Posted by Jay Brooks on September 24, 2010
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