We reached a critical milestone yesterday in the effort to end childhood hunger and it is directly due to your interest and investment in Share Our Strength.
The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday morning adopted the proposal we and other partners in the anti-hunger community helped to conceive and promote. 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 Child Nutrition Authorization did not include this concept but for the past week, our team worked closely with Colorado Senator Michael Bennett, Governor Bill Ritter, and Hunger Free Colorado, all whom played a key role in launching the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado last year (built upon the foundation of our work with Maryland’s Governor O’Malley), and in yesterday's meeting the committee accepted the amendment Senator Bennett offered which means this now moves to the full Senate for consideration. We will keep you posted in the days ahead.
Thank you so much for all you do to generate the resources, awareness and political will that enables Share Our Strength to achieve such powerful results for America’s children.
Billy
No comments:
Post a Comment