Note: This letter is from a friend of UFWH, Rick McNary, who is the co-chair of the D.C.- based Alliance to End Hunger’s Advocacy Committee. Universities Fighting World Hunger is a member of Alliance to End Hunger which brings together major international and domestic agencies, non profits, NGOs, corporations, civic and religious organizations, and individuals to collaborate against hunger.
On behalf of the Advocacy Committee for the Alliance to End Hunger, I want to inform you of two important bills in front of Congress this year intended to fight hunger. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) Act focuses on domestic hunger while the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) focuses on international hunger.
About the CNR:
• The current child nutrition law—governing programs such as School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program, Summer Food Service Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)—reaches ov
er 30 million children and will expire on September 30.
• We are encouraging Congress to draft and pass a strong CNR bill that continues the good work of these programs and helps to increase access to children in need. The current Summer Food Service (aka Summer Meals) Program’s reach is limited due to:
o Transportation barriers;
o Excessive administrative bureaucracy;
o Severe weather; and
o Hungry kids who live in communities ineligible for meal sites.
• Ask: Through CNR, Congress can provide more options for summer meals delivery by:
o Keeping successful congregate sites open and supported;
o Providing low-income families with grocery credit during summer months; and
o Streamlining afterschool and summer meal programs into one program.
About the GFSA:
• The GFSA is a bill that would make Feed the Future (FTF) permanent.
• What is FTF?
o FTF is a global hunger and food security initiative that supports local capacity to increase food security, agricultural productivity and good nutrition.
• This bill is important because:
o It ensures sustainable growth: FTF is designed to help hungry and malnourished countries around the world develop long-term, country-specific agriculture policies.
o It focuses on women, who make up the majority of smallholder farmers.
o It works! In 2014 alone, it brought increased income opportunities through $600 million in new agricultural and rural loans, and reached nearly 9 million children under 5 through nutrition programs in Africa.
• Ask: Congress should support this legislation to improve global food security and better combat chronic hunger and malnutrition.
You can support both of these issues by calling your Members of Congress and urging them to take action! For suggestions of other advocacy activities, please visit our Advocacy Playbook at www.alliancetoendhunger.org/advocacy-playbook/.
About the Alliance to End Hunger: The Alliance to End Hunger engages diverse institutions to create the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad.
About the Advocacy Committee: The Committee which engages the members of the Alliance in create messaging about hunger is that is relevant to different stakeholders that addresses international and domestic issues in the context of relief and development that can be easily communicated to both the grasstops and grassroots levels of society.
Rick McNary is the Author of Hunger Bites: Bite Size Stories of Inspiration & vice president of public and private partnerships for Outreach, Inc. He also serves on the Executive Board for the Alliance to End Hunger in Washington, D.C., and is a long-time friend of Universities Fighting World Hunger. Follow him at http://www.rickmcnary.me or connect via email at rick.mcnary@gmail.com.
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