Statement
U.S. House Child Nutrition Bill Will Add to Child Hunger, According to National Moms Group
May 24, 2016
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
STATEMENT OF Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising on the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016
"The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce last week voted legislation out of committee that will turn back the clock on the advances we’ve made in improving childhood nutrition over the last five years. This reauthorization bill will actually reduce children’s access to the healthy and nutritious meals they need to thrive. It would cut off food programs for tens of thousands of children who need them and create unnecessary barriers that would prevent additional children from enrolling.
“The so-called ‘Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016’ would actually reduce the number of high poverty schools that can implement community eligibility, creating administrative barriers to qualifying students for much needed free school lunches and breakfasts, and resulting in fewer hungry children having access to healthy school meals.
“This bill does not allow for the opportunity to offer daycare centers and homes the ability to provide children with an additional snack when they are in care for long periods of time, and weakens nutrition standards for school meals and snacks.
“The damage also extends to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), eliminating the opportunity to make children eligible for WIC up to age six, which would bridge the gap between this program and school-based meal programs.
“These are just a few examples of the ways this act would roll back the advances that have been made in ensuring that low-income children get the nutritious meals they need. Studies show that good nutrition not only helps children grow up healthy, it helps them learn and succeed academically.
“The addition of a block grant pilot program to a bill that was already hugely problematic is another indication that the House of Representatives is out of touch with what our nation’s children and families need. It opens the door to a nationwide school meal block grant program – an approach we already know doesn’t work.
“At a time when one in five children in our nation are food insecure – going to bed hungry and not sure where their next meal might come from, Moms across the country are outraged that we are not doing everything in our power to feed as many of these hungry children as possible. Instead, we have cynical proposals like the ‘Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016.’
“We call on the U.S. House of Representatives to reject this legislation and stop it in its tracks right now, and the U.S. Senate to continue their work on their child nutrition legislation in order to expand and improve our nation’s childhood nutrition programs, not turn them into the ‘Hunger Games.’”