Child Nutrition Reauthorization Passes!
Posted by Michael McKenna on Monday, December 6, 2010
As many of you have probably heard by now, it’s time to celebrate some good news coming from Capitol Hill! Late last week, after days of heated debate and a few interesting parliamentary maneuvers by supporters and detractors of the bill, the House of Representatives finally passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act with a final vote of 267 in favor and 157 against. That marked a good day for America’s children for a number of reasons.
Here’s a break-down of the bill by the numbers:
- $4.5 billion – the amount in dollars invested in child nutrition programs over 10 years.
- 21 million – the number of additional after school meals served to at-risk children by Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- 115,000 – the number of new eligible students that will be connected to school meals as a result of direct certification based on existing Medicaid data.
- 6 – the number of additional cents per meal that will be reimbursed to school lunch providers by USDA, which will allow food service workers to improve the nutritional quality of the food they serve. That is the first such increase in 30 years!
There are other exciting elements of the bill as well, including updated nutrition standards for all meals served in schools, a demonstration project that uses census data to determine eligibility, and increased funding for research into the causes of childhood hunger.
Share Our Strength is particularly excited about Section 142 in the bill which authorizes State Childhood Hunger Challenge Grants, awarded to states on a competitive basis to create public-private partnerships to end childhood hunger. That’s right, just like those we’re helping to lead in Maryland, Arkansas, Colorado and counting!
This bill is the product of many months of hard work on the behalf of concerned citizens from every age, profession, and background. You called, you wrote, you cooked, you blogged, you petitioned, and did so much more in support of this bill. So thank you for your hard work over the past six months! Our members of Congress needed to hear that their constituents cared about this bill and the Share Our Strength network rose to the occasion.
There’s still work to be done however. In order to pay for this important bill so that it didn’t add to the deficit, Congress cut a temporary increase in SNAP benefits (food stamps). SNAP is a vital program for the working poor, that helps keep kids well-nourished throughout the month.
So when you call your member of Congress to thank them for voting in support of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, remind them to find a way to restore that SNAP funding before the end of the year.
December 6, 2010 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: Child Nutrition Reauthorization, no kid hungry, politics
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