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Congress to Pass Sweeping Child Nutrition Reauthorization in March

You can provide a voice for needy children by signing our petition to change the future of school food.

Recess, mystery meat, and milk cartons? Add your voice to the mix to support a healthy school meal environment for our children! This spring, Congress will pass legislation that feed millions of children in the US through Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR).

CNR monitors and improves all federal child nutrition programs, such as summer meals, WIC (Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program), CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program), and school breakfast and lunch.

Join Hunger Task Force in prioritizing H.R. 3047- the Balancing Act. Visit our Contact Your Elected Officials page to urge your representatives to champion this legislation because it benefits universal breakfast and expands afterschool meal programs as well as free lunch.

Once you're on the "Contact Your Elected Officials" page, sending a message is easy and fast. Follow these steps:

1) Click on blue Take Action box
2) Read more information
3) Scroll down to "Take Action" section of the page
4) Keep the sample letter language or edit it to include a personal story if you'd like
5) Enter your personal contact information
6) Click Send Message
7) Tell 5 of your friends to do the same.

Specifically, the Balancing Act:

• Allows all schools to serve breakfast free of charge to all students

• Provides start-up assistance for schools to begin serving breakfast

• Expands the after-school dinner program from 13 states to all 50 states

• Eliminates reduced price lunch by allowing schools to serve free lunch to students at or below 185% of the federal poverty line. Using United States Department of Agriculture and School Nutrition Association estimates, there are about 1 million children in this country who are eligible for reduced price meals who are not currently participating in the National School Lunch Program. Eliminating the reduced price category would also make WIC and school meal eligibility guidelines consistent.

The Balancing Act is not perfect, however. Congress should ensure the final CNR bill:

• Expands summer meal eligibility

• Expands universal breakfast in the classroom

• Rolls third-meal (dinner) authority into the school meal programs

• Enhances direct certification processing in states

A robust CNR bill ensures that programs can function as the critically needed safety nets children need to get healthy meals year-round. These programs improve children's growth and learning. Almost 200,000 children in Wisconsin live at or below the poverty level and nearly half of all babies born in Wisconsin receive WIC benefits. On a typical school day, about 600,000 children eat lunch at school and over 120,000 children eat breakfast at school. Finally, in 2008 alone, over one million summer meals were served to needy children in Milwaukee. A strong child nutrition bill will make a dent in childhood hunger and help move the country toward President Obama's goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.