Via Chef Ann Cooper’s Facebook feed I learned of this post on Civil Eats, giving an excellent recap and update on where the pending child nutrition bill stands in Congress. According to the post’s author, Adriana Velez, this week may be critical for the bill’s passage. She writes:
According to The Hill 80 percent of Americans support expansion of the act to “provide healthier food and cover more kids.” Yet in the current climate of economic crisis, finding the funding for this expansion has been a nearly insurmountable challenge. If this bill is not passed within the current lame-duck session, the new session of Congress will have to start over, perhaps with a diminished commitment to its expansion. In fact, there is reason to believe that there will be no work done the week after Thanksgiving, which means this week is make-or-break week for the bill.
As you know from prior posts here on The Lunch Tray, the key issue is funding — should the bill be funded using money currently allocated to the food stamps program, and will the White House live up to its recent promise to eventually make up those funding shortfalls if the bill is passed?
Child hunger and nutrition advocates come out on different sides of that question, and the Civil Eats post provides actions you can take in support of either position.
Adriana says
Hey, thanks for the shout out! Great blog you have here.
Cheers,
Adriana
bettina elias siegel says
My pleasure – your piece was a great synopsis of a complex issue. It’s so nice as a blogger to sometimes be able to say — “what she said!” 🙂