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Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge and Congressman Bobby Scott Applaud Nationwide Initiative to Provide More Children with Healthy Meals Year-round
2/1/16
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, the Obama Administration announced that the President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget will invest $12 billion over ten years to reduce child hunger during the summer through a permanent Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) program to provide supplemental food benefits during the summer months for all families with children eligible for free and reduced price school meals. Full committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03), Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Ranking Member Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11), and other House Democrats have sought to expand innovative feeding programs that help kids stay healthy year-round as well as increase access to school meals.
“The proposal to make permanent and expand the summer EBT program nationwide ensures that an effective option for reducing hunger is available to those in need throughout the country,” said Rep. Scott. “Feeding programs, such as the summer EBT pilot program, have benefited millions of children, keeping them healthy and preparing them to return to school ready to learn in the fall. Millions more stand to benefit from the program's expansion. It is my hope that the Congress can work together to pass both a budget and a reauthorization of child nutrition programs that makes needed investments in federal programs targeting food insecurity to support our ongoing efforts to eliminate childhood hunger.”
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – which administers that nation’s school meals and nutrition programs – also announced a new initiative to increase access to school meals for low-income children through a project that will allow interested State agencies that administer the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to use Medicaid data to certify students for free and reduced priced lunches.
“Child hunger is not a game. I see its effects in the 11th Congressional District every day,” said Rep. Fudge. “In 2015, Ohio ranked sixth in the nation for food insecurity and surpassed the national average for hungry households. Hunger makes it harder for students to learn, places additional burdens on struggling families, and contributes to poor health in our communities. I commend President Obama for taking steps to support and strengthen some of our nation’s most important anti-hunger, anti-poverty programs. We must do all we can to combat food insecurity and give our children a healthy start in life.”
In 2014, nearly one in seven American households experienced food insecurity, meaning that one or more household members did not have a consistent source of adequate nutritious food. Moreover, 40 percent of all food-insecure households—and nearly 6 percent of US households overall—were considered to have very low food security. This means that, in nearly seven million households, at least one person in the household missed meals and experienced disruptions in food intake due to insufficient resources for food. Committee Democrats support strengthening and improving federal feeding programs to ensure that all American children have the food they need to grow, learn, and succeed.
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