On the morning of May 7th, MomsRising members & their children showed up at the NC General Assembly to spread awareness about the large number of hungry families in our state. At the same time, many of our 47,000 members across North Carolina were backing us up with emails to their lawmakers asking them to be on the lookout for us and letting them know that we were speaking for them.

Lawmaker

We delivered a fact sheet busting myths about what hunger looks like in NC along with artwork created by NC children. Using sweet potato stamps, these children sent a message to lawmakers asking them to stamp out hunger and ensure that all children have access to healthy foods to help them learn and grow.  

We were alarmed by these statistics and wanted to make sure to share them with lawmakers:

• 1 in 5 children struggles with hunger in North Carolina;
• North Carolina is the 10th hungriest state in the U.S.; and
•  People in nearly 590,000 NC households do not have enough to eat each day.

This is not acceptable!

Discussion

We also wanted to dispel potential stereotypes of who receives food assistance by showing our lawmakers the faces of hunger in North Carolina. Several participants shared stories either of their own use of SNAP (food stamps), WIC, or free or reduced priced school breakfast or lunch, or the stories of their friends’ and neighbors’ use of food assistance to make ends meet. 

We educated our lawmakers about the scope of hunger in North Carolina, and let them know that they can make a difference! Stay tuned for continued action within MomsRising’s North Carolina anti-hunger campaign.