An update from Good Shepherd Food Bank and Feeding
America on Child Nutrition Reauthorization:
Many of the programs that feed our nation’s children,
including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast, and the Summer
Food Service Program, need to be reauthorized every five years in a process
called Child Nutrition Reauthorization. The 2010 CNR bill, the Healthy Hunger
Free Kids Act, expires on September 30. Congress is currently working on a new
bill.
ACTION NEEDED - TAKE THESE STEPS
·
Sign on to the letter in
support of the Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act (S.1966) and push it out to
your local agencies and networks asking them to sign on. Read about the Hunger
Free Summer bill here.
·
Ask your Senators to co-sponsor the Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act
(S.1966) and the Summer Meals Act (S.613). Read about the Summer Meals Act here.
·
Feeding America will be holding a national call in day on September
15th, so stay tuned for more details and please be sure to share
the call in information with your local networks.
THE BACKGROUND
While it’s still unclear whether Congress will actually be
able to pass a new Child Nutrition bill this month, the next two weeks are our
greatest chance for influencing the process. With Congress back in DC, work on
Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) is moving forward. The Senate Agriculture
Committee is scheduled to mark up its legislation on September 17th,
and we expect that bill to set the framework for the final package.
Feeding America has three primary priorities, all of which would make
significant steps toward closing the summer meal gap and all of which are
included in the above legislation: streamlining CACFP and SFSP, creating a
summer EBT program, and implementing a non-congregate meal option.
The good news is that there is strong, bi-partisan support
for making an investment in summer meals. With a Republican House and Senate,
tight budget caps and a focus on deficit reduction, we also know that
investment will not be as significant as any of us would wish. But we have a
real opportunity to help ensure CNR legislation that strengthens the site-based
model by streamlining summer and after-school and also provides alternative
ways to reach kids who are unable to access a site through summer EBT and
non-congregate meal options.
There
are two “marker bills” that include these priorities. A few weeks ago, Senators
John Boozman (R-AR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Mark Kirk
(R-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) introduced the Hunger
Free Summer for Kids Act of 2015 (S.1966), a marker bill that includes a
non-congregate option and a summer EBT program. Streamlining CACFP and
SFSP was already included as the centerpiece of the Summer Meals Act (S.613)
introduced by Senators Gillibrand (D-NY) and Murkowski (R-AK), (which Feeding
America also strongly supports), and so it wasn’t included in the Hunger Free
Summer for Kids Act. We need your help building support for each of them.
There are wrinkles, of course. Focus in the Senate is on the
Iran deal, coming up with a Continuing Resolution or budget deal to fund the
government, and the Pope’s visit. There’s little attention left over for other
things. Also, while they are planning a mark-up for the 17th, the
Congressional Budget Office has yet to release their scoring for the bill, so
that could delay the process. We’re also hearing quite a bit from folks across
the country who would like to roll back the nutrition standards from the 2010
bill; rehashing the old bill is taking attention away from priorities and
program improvements this time around.
Nonetheless, the time to act is now. Please join in signing
onto the letter of support for the Hunger Free Summer for Kids Act and stay
tuned for details about the national call-in day tomorrow.
Thank you!