Dorothy spoke about the No Kid Hungry campaign from her perspective as a mom of five kids and her work reaching out to other First Spouses on our behalf. She shared some of the incredible progress our team has made in Virginia, especially around school breakfast where we’ve added more than 42,000 kids and moved participation from 53% to 61%.

Terry also spoke and shared that as governor his primary focus was on economic growth and workforce development. He emphasized that the key to his success in attracting businesses to the state was the investments made in children and education that began with making sure every child was fed.  That argument takes our elevator speech one floor higher than the buttons we usually push – not just stopping at the moral case for feeding kids or even the educational arguments, but reaching the even larger audience open to the economic rationale for ending childhood hunger. It connects us more squarely to the larger national conversation and many of the likely themes of the coming 2020 campaigns.

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Dozens of governors, Democrat and Republican, some newly sworn in and others veteran officeholders, committed to advance our efforts.  Share Our Strength also hosted a panel for First Spouses about activating No Kid Hungry strategies in their states.

We could not have had a warmer reception.  The result will be millions more kids getting the food, nutrition, and the enhanced educational opportunities that go with them. Thanks to the many Share Our Strength supporters whose hard work and generosity creates such opportunities. And special thanks to my colleagues on the Share Our Strength staff who worked so hard before and during the NGA meeting and represent us so well with America’s governors.

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Sister Norma Pimental runs the Catholic Charities respite center. Immigrant families are brought by Border Patrol after long journeys from Honduras or Guatemala, are the lucky ones, released on their own recognizance (some with electronic ankle bracelets) and receiving soup, a shower and assistance buying a bus ticket. We helped serve lunch to families and chatted across language barriers. Sister Pimental prays for the Border Patrol agents and recounted the time one officer, watching immigrant families being fed, told her “Thank you for helping us remember we are human beings.”  She frames the challenge: “We need a secure border and we need to treat people humanely and with dignity. We are a powerful nation and can do both.”

Rich Newman is an unlikely pro bono lawyer for unaccompanied minors and detained immigrants.  Previously a prosecutor supporting ICE enforcement, he explained drug cartel control of the border, raiding smugglers’ stash houses, and that absent a legitimate asylum claim (fear of government persecution counts, fear of gangs does not) virtually no one crossing the border illegally can come and stay here legally. He shared his evolution from prosecutor to advocate: “Immigration is the civil rights issue of our day. If my kids someday ask what I did, I want them to know I tried. Just like the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, progress is first made through the courts. Then, laws slowly change to reflect the arguments being made in court”

Marcella came from Mexico 11 years ago with her husband and son. They gradually built a comfortable home in a colonia while her husband built his mechanics business. She had two more children, American citizens. Her oldest is a Dreamer. She and her husband remain undocumented.  Chickens roam outside their house. The neighbors on each side are in trailers and lean-tos.  I ask whether harsher immigration rhetoric has made their life harder. As everywhere, the answer is “No, not really, we just go about living our lives”.

The Rio Grande Valley knows tears of sadness and tears of joy. The tears this time were different. They were tears for unrealized possibilities. Pat Matamoros, with the Cameron County health department for 25 years choked up while telling of the need for a food pantry. Marisela Cortez, representing Congressman Vela had trouble getting through her welcoming marks. School librarian Selma Ramirez cried when thanking us for coming, and shared that her cousin was the Ice agent killed in 2011. All three are American citizens of Hispanic descent. All three have purchase upon the American Dream. So why the tears? I think because they all know firsthand not only what is but what could be. They know what hard work can achieve if given even the slightest chance. They know how unjust are the half-truths that are told, how unnecessary the suffering, how unworthy of a great nation.

So what can we do? As always, we can build on what works. Each action no matter how small is larger than the small thinking that divides us.  We can ensure the Respite Center has healthy food, that Cameron County gets a food pantry, that the elementary school kids getting breakfast are also getting after school snacks and summer meals. Food nourishes justice.

I’m so proud of our team’s commitment to the most vulnerable and voiceless. Thanks Chuck, Jennifer, Monica, Sarah, Allison, and Amy. And so grateful for friends like Jeff Swartz, Jonathan Lavine, Ed Shapiro, and Chuck Myers who had the vision and resources to make our trip possible. There are so many places where we do important work – but the isolation of the Valley is palpable. I hope we’ll I always remember to show up on behalf of the forgotten. In the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks that Chuck shared with me yesterday: “The ironic yet utterly humane lesson of history is that what renders a culture invulnerable is the compassion it shows to the vulnerable.”

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In October, we led a delegation of business leaders to San Francisco. After a sobering walk through the Tenderloin, where the concentration of deep poverty all but assaults one’s senses, we visited nearby Redding Elementary School. Ninety-nine percent of the kids there live at or near the poverty line, 12% are from families struggling with homelessness. In the past, such social determinants of poverty would also guarantee these children were hungry. That is no longer the case. Redding Elementary not only offers school breakfast and school lunch, but a “second chance breakfast” later in the morning, and also an afterschool supper.

As a result, these kids with whom I sat – Michael, Ali, Juan, and a dozen others – may be poor, and from families where adults struggle with food insecurity, but they are no longer hungry.

This is one of the great successes of the national movement to end childhood hunger over the past decade. The data tell us this is no longer the exception but thanks to your support, rapidly becoming the rule. Poverty, hunger and food insecurity get measured in America across a variety of populations and in a variety of ways. One metric is particularly encouraging. For the most vulnerable children of all, those in families classified as “Very Low Food Security” – the federal government reports that in the ten years since Share Our Strength launched the No Kid Hungry campaign, the number of those families was cut in half, from 500,000 in 2008 to 250,000 last year. It’s a remarkable achievement.

But our work is not done. Even if not hungry themselves, 11 million kids, 1 in 6, still live in households that struggle with hunger and the stresses that come with it. A recent Annie E Casey Foundation report advised that “Focusing solely on helping kids doesn’t work when their lives are shaped by the adults raising them”. Eventually we must find ways to strengthen the entire family.

But for now, it’s one miracle at a time. Thank you for the one you’ve made possible, for helping to create “access to the miraculous, and for all we are sure to accomplish together in the year ahead. My best for the holiday season!

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-Rep. Jim McGovern

On our new and timely episode of Add Passion and Stir, Congressman Jim McGovern offers an impassioned defense of the food and nutrition programs at the heart of our No Kid Hungry strategy, and speculates about what might change should Democrats re-take the House and should be become chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.  He is joined by Equinox chef Todd Gray who has been part of Share Our Strength since our earliest days.   This episode is a great one to share with our anti-hunger partners across the country.  Listen in at our website or on iTunes.

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Wage improvement is finally beginning to reach those who have been at the bottom of the earnings ladder. According to The Wall Street Journal: “The lowest paid Americans saw weekly earnings grow more than 5% in the second quarter from a year earlier, more than the national median gain of 1.7% for all workers… Workers with less than a high school diploma saw their wages grow almost 6%…”

The eight years of jobs growth coincide with eight years of our No Kid Hungry campaign. We’ve had the benefit of executing our No Kid Hungry strategies in a favorable climate of economic growth rather than constrained by governors facing scarcity. The results are equally dramatic: fewer than 1 in 10 kids going hungry and childhood hunger down to historically low levels, even though 1 in 6 kids still live in homes that experience food insecurity.

I know some who find it difficult to celebrate the economic results given the boasts of President Trump that he is solely responsible for them. But of course the streak began under President Obama and the real issue is not political credit but millions more children benefiting from the best anti-hunger program of all: parents working and able to support them.

That may be why we see participation dropping in public nutrition programs, like school lunch, WIC and SNAP. To the extent it is for these positive reasons (as opposed to the increasing fears of immigrants that participating in such programs could jeopardize their hopes of remaining in the U.S.), we may soon be challenged to deploy our resources in additional important ways to help kids thrive.  Although hunger is diminishing, food insecurity and child poverty remain devastating problems.

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If you’ve supported Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign in any way over the past decade, take a bow. Because food insecurity and childhood hunger in the U.S. are now at historic low levels. Our work is not finished but fewer hungry kids in America is an incredible achievement. See my colleague Lisa Davis’s excellent statement on the latest USDA food insecurity data: here.

A couple of the newly published stats are worth highlighting. According to the USDA there are 6.5 million kids in the U.S. who live in households where one or more kids are food insecure, which amounts to 8.9% of all children or less than 1 in 10!  But 17% of kids live in households which experience food insecurity (on the part of the adults living there) which is why we say “1 in 6 kids are living with hunger.”

No child should have to live in a household that struggles with food insecurity. Moving the needle on “1 in 6” will require a commitment to helping kids by helping the adults they live with. That has everything to do with family income, education, housing, health care costs, and employment opportunities.  Complicated stuff, but given what we’ve already accomplished I have no doubt we can bring to bear the same innovation, entrepreneurship, bipartisanship, and bold goals that are the conditions of success.

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As firefighters work to contain the blaze, which has sent California into a state of emergency, Share Our Strength – the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign – is stepping in to help meet increased demand for food and supplies for families and communities impacted by these fires. Though much of our work takes place in schools, we know that hungry children in a crisis need all the help we can provide.

To support the families and kids impacted by this disaster, Share Our Strength is making a $10,000 grant to Dignity Health Connected Living (DHCL) in Redding, CA.

DHCL serves one of the locations hit hardest by the Carr wildfires in Northern California and, in addition to using its facilities as an evacuation center, is providing emergency food assistance and CalFresh outreach to the community.

While almost half of the displaced families near Redding are now heading home, they’re returning to smoke damaged houses and spoiled food. Share Our Strength funding will ensure that DHCL is able to meet the demand for food and supplies throughout this critical period.

The people of California are in our thoughts and prayers. Share Our Strength stands ready to do what we can to help families rebuild and ensure that their children have enough to eat.

You can help, too. We urge everyone who supports Share Our Strength and the No Kid Hungry campaign to donate what you can to Dignity Health Connected Living to help make their work possible.

The post How Share Our Strength is Helping Kids Impacted by the California Wildfires appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Chuck Scofield, Monica Gonzales, and I will be meeting up later today in Harlingen, TX in the central region of the Rio Grande Valley. We will spend the next two days meeting with families, advocates and lawyers and food policy experts to learn more about the needs of vulnerable children and how we can help. The meetings will include leaders from La Posada Provedencia and the Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, and we hope to attend immigration court in the morning.

We’ve made more than $100,000 in grants over the past month to help address issues at the border and we will try to get a sense of the impact they’ve had. Our goal is to listen and learn, and as always to bear witness. I hope we return with a clearer understanding of where our resources, voices, and strengths can make the most difference.

The post En route to The Border at Harlingen, Texas appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Late last week, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill to expand breakfast that we and our partners have been working on for three years. Under this new law, as many as 30,000 students in high-need schools will now have the chance to get breakfast as part of the school day. Washington is the 7th state in the nation to pass such a law.

Our next big opportunity is in New York state. Earlier this week, we took a group of chefs and culinary professionals to Albany to ask legislators to support Governor Andrew Cuomo’s breakfast budget proposal that would bring more kids breakfast who need it. If enacted, the proposal will help up to 100,000 kids get breakfast. We and our local partners are optimistic that the proposal will go through.
Beyond New York, a similar bill is moving in Massachusetts, championed by Share Our Strength and a coalition of local partners.

Momentum is growing from coast to coast. And voices like yours make a difference with legislators. If you’d like to get more involved in our efforts in Albany, Massachusetts or elsewhere, let me know and I’ll connect you to our team.

Your support is fueling the success of our No Kid Hungry campaign. Thanks for making this work possible.

The post Celebrating a Milestone In the Fight To End Childhood Hunger appeared first on Share Our Strength.

• Reinforcing the connection between child hunger and child health and mobilizing to oppose cuts to SNAP and other vital child nutrition programs
• Recognizing that child hunger and child health are among our most solvable problems in a nation that has no shortage of food or medicine
• Remember that children are not only vulnerable but voiceless and need us to be their voice in policy and politics
• Supporting children to lead as we are seeing thousands do on sensible gun safety in the wake of the Parkland, FL tragedy
• Being cathedral builders who may work on something their whole lives without seeing it finished but who are part of something larger than themselves and building something that will endure.

Every time a school serves lunch or breakfast to a kid who can’t afford it, every step that makes health care more accessible, every improvement in our schools, makes Americas stronger child by child.

The post The Children’s Health Fund Making America Stronger Child By Child appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Being able to “bear it only a little at a time” resonates with me. As a father, grandfather and uncle I find myself changing the channel away from the carnage.   But this was more than “time and chance” happening. Time and chance at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were compounded by a sickness and evil whose deadly consequence was politically enabled, and can only be stopped by political courage.

Everyone who works with or on behalf of kids – whether in hunger, health, education, sports  – has a responsibility to protect the work they do and the kids they serve, by standing up for common sense gun safety laws that the majority of Americans say they support. In fact, we have an even greater responsibility than others.

One man may be responsible for the slaughter of innocents. All of us are responsible for stopping it.

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Laura is the executive director of food service for Boston Public School and previously worked with us on breakfast after the bell in the L.A. Unified School District where she served for 10 years. Jill created the Shah Family Foundation with her husband after he co-founded and took public Wayfair, the home furnishing on-line retailer.  Share Our Strength Boston chefs Andy Husbands and Ken Oringer shared their strength by helping to design and supply the school kitchens.  Their story is a great example of everyone having the capacity to share their strength and make a difference on behalf of kids.

Listen to Add Passion and Stir on iTunes

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From my window facing the ocean I see something I’ve never seen before.  The clouds are not in the clear blue sky but instead sitting on top of the water. The extreme temperature differential between Maine’s always cold ocean and the -12 degree air has created a steaming layer of clouds where air and water meet.   In front of the clouds, in the water close to shore swim five fat black ducks, as leisurely as if in the Bahamas. I envy their serenity in the face of extreme conditions and consider adding the aspiration to my new year’s resolutions. But serenity rarely accelerates change.

2018 promises challenging conditions for our work. Pundits speculate whether the political earthquake of 2016 will be sustained or turn out instead to have been an aberration that gets reversed and ends one party control of Congress and White House. For all of the prognosticating no one can be certain. Every prediction is sewn tightly to the caveat “of course, there’s never really been a time like this so who knows.”

What does it all mean for Share Our Strength and the children we serve? At least two things: First, preoccupation with a divisive midterm election campaign makes it unlikely our political leaders will get much done. Progress addressing basic human needs will depend on organizations like ours working with partners on the ground to protect existing services and better connect those most vulnerable to them.  State governments will continue to be critical to our strategy.

Second, in 2017 we staked a new claim that went beyond increasing percentages of kids participating in school meals. For the first time we asserted childhood hunger has been significantly reduced, with one-third fewer children experiencing hunger today.  (See our excellent year-end thank-you video)

It’s a bold claim but not a surprising one.  When you combine 3 million more kids getting school breakfast, with unemployment down to 4.1 percent, and USDA data showing record low levels of the “very low food security” that represents missed meals, we know that many kids, while still poor, and possibly even food insecure, at least are not hungry.

Still, this bold claim represents a significant departure for us. In addition to emphasizing the harmful consequences of kids not getting the nutrition they need, we are also helping our stakeholders better assess where we are in relationship to the finish line.  There is still a long way to go, but not nearly as long as before. The closer we get the more relentless we will strive to reach it, while also planning more comprehensively for what comes next once we do. In this way 2018 finds Share Our Strength on a new trajectory. Welcome back. Happy New Year. Stay warm. But not too serene.

The post At 12 Below Zero, A New Year’s Day Like No Other appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Statewide advocacy wins like this are at the core of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign strategy. Theycontinue to reinforce that concrete, dramatic and measurable progress is possible, even in the context of a national political environment characterized by division and dysfunction.

Another leader whose accomplishments have been extraordinary is Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe. This recent Washington Post retrospective on her work includes her efforts on childhood hunger.

We look forward to being back in touch after the first of the year to report on year-end giving. Have a great holiday weekend and New Year.  Thanks as always for your support and friendship, and for all it makes possible.

The post Good News for Kids at Year End appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Childhood hunger is down by one-third since we began the No Kid Hungry campaign – more kids are getting the school meals they need than ever before – and we are well on our way to achieving our ambitious goal. At a time when Americans are desperate for evidence that our problems can be solved, we have forged the bipartisan public-private partnerships to solve this one. But still, too many kids in this country are struggling with hunger. I’m so grateful that we can count on you to help get us across the finish line.

I hope you will take some joy this holiday season, as I do, from the words of 4th grade teacher Angela Homan who said of our signature program: “Breakfast After the Bell changed the environment of my classroom. My students begin their days ready to learn which is a dream come true for me.”  Or of single mom Heidi Alphen who said of our nutrition education efforts: “Cooking Matters gave me my confidence back when I was at the lowest point in my life. It encouraged me to go back to work in the food industry, which in turn provided myself and my family with so many opportunities. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for making a difference in my life.”

Wishing you and your family all the best. Thanks again and have a happy and healthy holiday.

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Earlier this month, Rosemary and I drove 15 minutes from our home in Boston’s Back Bay to the P J Kennedy Elementary School in East Boston near Logan Airport. Traditionally a community of immigrants – once home to John Kennedy’s paternal grandfather Patrick –  East Boston is now 50 percent Latin American, and the school 85%.

Jill Shah, a friend and neighbor of ours whose family foundation renovated kitchens in three East Boston Schools to pilot improved school meals for some of Boston’s poorest children, met us to give us a tour. Until recently, Boston school meals were made on Long Island and sent here from New York to be thawed and eaten. Jill’s vision was more old-fashioned – source healthy food locally and actually cook it for the kids.

The school was built in 1933 and last renovated more than 50 years ago. All 302 K thru 5th grade students qualify for free or reduced price meals. Lunch is served in the basement where the new kitchen was designed by chefs Andy Husbands and Ken Oringer.  School chef Santiago, in chef whites and a Red Sox baseball cap, could not be prouder of the kitchen’s new combination oven/steamer, and especially the counter of freshly cooked food. From the minute we walked in, the wonderful smell made us hungry.

Around noon, kids line up and point to what they’d like. A lunch lady arranges their choices on a tray.  Today it is broccoli, carrots, chicken, mac and cheese, apples and bananas. The kids sit at picnic style tables and eat quietly. “Notice the zen-like hum” says Jill. “Last year it was total chaos in here.”  Jill plans to expand the program to 30 Boston schools next year.  They will be renovated and retrofit over the summer.

A first grade girl asks my name. Hers is Melissa and she is with her friend Kristin.  I ask what they like best. To my surprise it’s the broccoli and red peppers.  I walk over to the trash barrel on wheels and find almost no food tossed or wasted. Only empty cardboard trays.

The city estimated the renovation would cost $1 million.  The Shah Foundation did it for $65,000.  They threw in a new coat of paint. “This really didn’t cost much money” she says. “It was more about not taking no for an answer. There were tons of obstacles. A sink that didn’t meet regulations. The lack of a grease trap. I could go on and on. Some people stop at ‘no’. We didn’t. The idea was not just serve better meals but create a food culture here.”

Boston has the money for fresh and healthy school meals. What its students didn’t have was a voice. The Shah Family Foundation provided one. Good food matters. Share Our Strength chefs are as passionate about quality as access. Kids don’t just deserve food, they deserve healthy and delicious food. If the Shaw’s experiment in Boston catches on, our trip to the future maybe closer than we think.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday. Come back determined not to take no for an answer.

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Hello,
I wanted to reach out to thank you for your incredible program. A little more than 2 years ago I was living in a shelter with my young son, who is now 3. I have always loved to cook, but at that time in my life there were so many unknowns. I was broken and depressed. I was so fearful of my future that I couldn’t take any joy in my day to day interests. And now, I had a baby to care for and nourish.

Then, the program I was living in brought in a Cooking Matters class for all the residents. Every week, we would talk about food and nutrition, shopping and budgeting, and the challenges faced by low income mothers to properly feed their families. Then, we would cook. Together. And eat, together. And laugh, together. What an incredible difference this program made in my life! I was building relationships with other women around me. I was sharing my passion for good food and cooking. At times I was even able to teach my peers from my own knowledge. I was able to find my passion again, and use it as a way to rebuild positive quality time with my family.

Fast forward to two years later. My family and I have a wonderful home filled with love and laughter, and of course, home cooking. Not only have I built a better life for myself, my son, and his father (my fiance); but, through my own healing and rebuilding my life, I was able to provide a home for my two teenaged step children when their mother was no longer able to care for them.

How could I break the ice, and make them comfortable in my home? I cooked. I cooked family dinners. I took the kids to the grocery store with me. We ate together. I baked treats and comfort food. I cooked favorite dinners, and new foods that they hadn’t tried before. I got them involved. I watched what they chose for snacks, and gradually added healthier options to the cabinets that would appeal to them.

And amazing things started to happen. My stepson, 17 at the time, would sit in the kitchen with me, and we would talk. Sometimes he would help, more often he wouldn’t. But I was giving him an outlet to talk, just like I had when I attended Cooking Matters class. Then my stepdaughter, 19 at the time, who lost her sight at the age of 6, started asking about cooking. We started talking about technique and how-to’s. We brainstormed a lot of ways that she could cook and what she could make. This was huge for me- because she is blind, she is very limited to what she can grab in the kitchen if no one is there to help.

And lastly, there’s my littlest boy. I am certain that every mother struggles with getting their toddler to try new foods. I relied hard on the advice of the instructors from Cooking Matters. My son always comes to the market with me. We spend A LOT of time in the produce aisle, talking about colors and shapes, and choosing what to buy that week.

My purpose in writing this today is to proudly declare that yes, cooking matters! I’m certain that I would still be eating dinner every night whether I had taken a Cooking Matters course or not. But through this course, I learned so much more than just “how to..” Cooking Matters gave me my confidence back when I was at the lowest point in my life. It encouraged me to go back to work in the food industry, which in turn provided  myself and my family with so many opportunities. And it gave me a whole new outlook on healthy eating (newsflash: you don’t have to be rich to eat nutritious foods!)

So thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for this program, for the wonderful instructors, the fun cookbook, the exciting classes. Thank you for making a difference in my life.

Heidi Alphen

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For example, Jared Bernstein, who works with our board member Bob Greenstein at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities writes in the Washington Post: “please don’t lose sight of what’s going on here: a massive transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars that are now being used to help vulnerable families and moderate-income households to the wealthiest households. The Senate bill solves the problem that the poor in America have too much, and the rich have too little. In fact, it solves that problem even better than the House did.

But the most important lens for our purposes is the impact on children. For a better understanding of that, take a look at this statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.   “The bill fails children by dismantling the Medicaid program, capping its funding, ending its expansion and allowing its benefits to be scaled back. The bill fails all children by leaving more families uninsured, or without insurance they can afford or that meets their basic needs. This bill fails children living in or near poverty, children in foster care and children with complex health care needs whose parents have private insurance – all of these children depend on Medicaid, and if this bill passes, Medicaid will no longer be there for them.”

It’s hard to believe that both parties put party loyalty so far ahead of what’s best for kids – that out of 100 Senators there aren’t even five or ten who could cross the aisle to work with each other on a less draconian, more compassionate alternative.  I hope that when we succeed in ending childhood hunger, we are in a position to teach them what bipartisanship can do.

The post When Both Parties Put Party Loyalty Ahead of What’s Best For Kids appeared first on Share Our Strength.

At its core, this legislation would make it harder and more expensive for low-income families to get the care they need. Our No Kid Hungry work focuses on ensuring that children get the food they need to grow up strong; the projected impact of the House action profoundly undermines this work. Feedings kids improves their health and educational potential, but cutting their access to treatment for ailments like asthma, ear infections, obesity, dental needs or diabetes is like putting gas in a car but denying access to the mechanics and garages necessary to keep it running.

We also know that millions of parents in this nation are struggling financially, forced to make unthinkable tradeoffs each month between medicine or rent, paying the electricity bill or buying enough groceries. Making it harder for these families to afford health care, either preventative or in case of serious illnesses, will put more families in jeopardy, making them sicker, hungrier, and less secure.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We will fight against policies that hurt children and support policies that give them a more level playing field, making sure they get the basic food, care and skills they desperately need. These are our values, and Congress must reject this legislation.

Worth reading: two opinion pieces with analysis of the impact of last week’s effort to end the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.  The first by our longtime friend and ally Dr. Irwin Redliner, CEO of the Children’s Health Fund focuses on the impact on children whose health care coverage is threatened by the House action.

The second by our board colleague Bob Greenstein asserts “I have been in Washington, D.C. for 45 years.  But I have never seen members of Congress vote to so deeply hurt so many of their own constituents.  If enacted, this bill will stand as the biggest assault on ordinary Americans — and the largest Robin-Hood-in-reverse transfer of income up the income scale, from low- and middle-income families to those at the top — in our country’s modern history.

The post Why The American Health Care Act Would Be Devastating for Children appeared first on Share Our Strength.

433,000 more children were getting school breakfast last year than the year before, increasing the national average from 44% in 2006 to 56% in 2015-16, a clear majority of eligible kids getting the food they need to succeed.

433,000 kids, in your neighborhood and mine who are getting off to a better start each day. 433,000 kids making America stronger and more competitive thanks to government policies that enjoy bipartisan support and are both compassionate and pragmatic.

The progress described above did not come easily. Nor was it due to any one organization. Just the opposite.  Every time the larger anti-hunger community encountered an obstacle to kids getting breakfast, we worked together to knock it down. Thanks for the hard work and support that enabled our team to play such a meaningful role.

Poverty and food insecurity are still way too high in America. But by virtually every measure childhood hunger is decreasing. Childhood hunger is a solvable problem and the new breakfast scorecard is evidence that public-private partnerships are solving it.

The post 433,000 More Kids Getting Off to a Better Start Each Day appeared first on Share Our Strength.

Several facts stand out:

• While 30% of adults have low incomes, more than 40% of all children live in low income families, Including 5.2 million infants and toddlers under 3
• More than 60% of black, Hispanic and Native American kids live in low-income families compared to 30% of Asian and white children – a ration largely unchanged in recent years.
• Infants & toddlers under 3 are particularly vulnerable: 45% live in low-income families (approximately $48,000 or 200% of the federal poverty line), including 23%, (2.6 million kids), in families below the poverty line (approximately $24,000 for a family of four)
• Food assistance, public health insurance and other programs have had a mitigating effect on poverty but in the U.S. kids have nearly a one in two chance of living on the brink of poverty

Outside of the small community of child poverty advocates, the annual report, like others of its ilk, gets little attention.  Such reports don’t constitute the “click bait” that drives websites and children don’t have expensive and well connected lobbyists or PR agencies to put their case in front of media influencers or elected officials.  Those of us who have a voice need to raise ours on their behalf.

One of the things that’s amazing to me is how little is done, publicly or privately, to prioritize the 2.6 million children under the age of three who are arguably the most vulnerable of all. Such prioritizing is easier said than done. Toddlers don’t live in isolation from older and also needy siblings or from parents whose needs must be addressed if they are to have a chance of effectively providing for their kids. Establishing priorities implies accountability for achieving them and that entails risk that may be uncomfortable. Still, these 2.6 million should become a priority for public institutions and private organizations. It’s a manageable number and a solvable problem and solving it would provide the greatest return on investment of nearly any other social challenge.  All of us need to better understand how we target and triage on behalf of those who are most vulnerable and voiceless of all, to move them from the back of the line to the front of our conscience and concern.

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