Over the summer, MomsRising members signed-on to our open letter asking Congress to give as many children as possible access to nutritious, healthy food with a strong reauthorization of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, referred to as the 2015 Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR). The reauthorization covers important programs, including summer nutrition, the school lunch and breakfast program, the Child and Adults Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

In October, as part of our Halloween activities, our littlest members helped decorate hundreds of fairy wands to deliver to Congress to help lawmakers tap into their magical powers to reduce child hunger.

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And on Tuesday, November 10th, we brought the signatures, decorated wands, a booklet of MomsRising member stories, and even the Tooth Fairy, to Capitol Hill to deliver the message that all kids deserve a healthy start. Ahead of our visit, we asked our members to call their Senate lawmakers to let them know that the Tooth Fairy and her assistants were heading their way to advocate for child nutrition and to look out for them.

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Here’s what happened - First thing in the morning, more than 45 moms, dads, kids, and other family members and advocates gathered at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center for an issue briefing by some awesome speakers:

• Monifa Bandele, Senior Campaign Director for MomsRising.org, kicked off the morning and explained why this issue is incredibly important to MomsRising members.
• Sarah Howard of MomsRising shared her family’s story about how food assistance helped her family makes ends meet when her husband was a new enlistee in the military.
• Fern Ingber, President of the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation, brought America’s Toothfairy along with her, and explained how whole child health begins through the mouth—and both need great nutrition!
• Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs for the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), highlighted how nutrition programs are working to reduce childhood hunger across the country and how Congress could bolster this effort.
• Joyce Raezer, Executive Director of the National Military Family Association, spoke about the importance of nutrition programs for military families serving at home and abroad.

After the briefing, we divided into groups for petition drop offs, as well as in-person meetings with Senate staff from the Agriculture Committee. MomsRising delivered more than 20,000 signatures in person to 8 Senate offices. On top of that, we electronically delivered all the petition signatures to all of Congress.

Our kids were dressed as “Assistant Tooth Fairies” and as they walked the Senate halls and into offices, they handed out the decorated fairy wands with the message: "Work your magic to reduce childhood hunger."

Here are more of our favorite photos from the day:

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*The photos displayed here are owned by MomsRising.org, and are not to be distributed or shared beyond this newsletter, but please feel free to share the blog post!

You can see the rest of the photos on our Facebook photo album.

Here’s some terrific news coverage of the event, which aired on the evening news in several media markets:

http://www.graydc.com/content/news/Tooth-fairy-draws-attention-to-child-nutrition--345061582.html