Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids

But the bill significantly underfunds Child Nutrition Reauthorization — which authorizes and provides funding for all federal school meal and child nutrition programs — budgeting less than half the $10 billion recommended by President Obama.

Adding insult to injury, the act would handicap nutrition education programs for low-income children, teens and adults by capping funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Education Program (SNAP-Ed) — a move at odds with federal priorities to end child hunger by 2015 and prevent childhood obesity.

Our leaders must not rob Peter to pay Paul. Help spread the message: Fund Child Nutrition Reauthorization adequately without undermining programs already serving families and individuals facing food poverty.

NY Residents: EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS NOW!

CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS:

Please take an extra moment to make a big difference and call your legislators! Look up your senators' and representatives' contact information and use our talking points below. Plus, please make a call to Senator Max Baucus (D-MO) — the chair of the Senate Finance Committee who has special importance in this effort to ensure proper funding for child nutrition programs.

• The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act includes promising recommendations — especially provisions for Universal School Meals.
• Child Nutrition program improvements should not come at the expense of other nutrition programs. Please ensure Child Nutrition Reauthorization gets adequate funding without freezing funds for the nutrition education component of the federal food stamp program (SNAP-Ed, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — Education).
• The proposed freeze on nutrition education for low-income families would effectively cut more than $1.2 billion over the next decade, undermining federal priorities to end child hunger by 2015 and prevent childhood obesity.
• The freeze would disproportionately hurt New York: current funding patterns don't reflect the size of each state's food-stamp eligible population. (New York gets about ¼ the funding per person as California, yet is home to nearly as many food stamp recipients.)