The Child Nutrition Act, which is renewed every five years and sets the rules and funding levels for federal nutrition programs, including the school lunch and breakfast programs, is presently being considered by Congress. President Obama, who has set the goal of ending child hunger by 2015, is calling for $1 billion a year in funding for The Child Nutrition Act over the next ten years. But Joel Burger, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, along with other agencies fighting child hunger, says it’s going to take $4 billion a year to get healthy, nutritious meals to the 13 million children in the United States living in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger (which represents more than one in ten households). Unfortunately, the bill that emerged from the Senate Agricultural Committee has only allocated $450 million a year, not even half of what President Obama is recommending.
As the House of Representatives drafts its bill, which is expected to be released in mid-May, we are urging all New Yorkers to sign the New York City Council’s online petition urging Congress to support President Obama’s call for $1 billion a year in funding. Although it’s not the $4 billion a year NYC Green Schools supports, $1 billion a year will help cover a much-needed increase in reimbursements for healthier meals, as well as make enrollment in meal programs easier for children and families. It will also include assistance for farm-to-school programs. One in four children in New York City live in poverty, defined as an annual income below $16,600 for a family of three. We all need to rally behind this initiative of Speaker Christine Quinn and the City Council to make sure these children have access to healthy school meals, because in many cases the school breakfast and lunch that they eat are their only meals for the day.
So where is the money to fund the Child Nutrition Act supposed to come from? In our opinion, if the federal government can come up with $700 billion to bail out Wall Street, it can certainly find $4 billion a year to serve our nation’s hungry, undernourished children the healthy meals they need to realize their full potential. In its 2011 budget proposal, the Obama administration wants to limit farm subsidies to “wealthy farmers” and cut back government support for crop-insurance companies, which together would save more than $10 billion over the next ten years – enough to support the $1 billion a year the President is calling for. Congress needs to make feeding healthy, nutritious meals to our country’s hungry children a top priority. And we need to let Congress know by signing the City Council’s petition that it’s our top priority and what we want out tax dollars to support.
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