As some of you may have heard, Thursday July 15th marked an important step forward in the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act. The committee assigned to the bill within the House of Representatives, the House Education and Labor Committee, voted on and approved the bill (in the House, it is known as HR 5504 or the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act).
The next step is for the House of Representatives as a whole to vote on the bill. Some of you may have received action alerts to get on the phone and contact your representatives now in anticipation of this vote. However, through communication with the office of Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio (who was the author of the resolution-now-law declaring September as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month), Second Harvest Food Bank has been informed that the vote will not happen before Congress goes on its August recess and thus no action will be taken on the bill until September.
Traditionally, the August recess is a time when elected officials return to their districts and focus on gauging the political climate among their constituents and depending on the year, to also campaign for re-election. Second Harvest Food Bank is in the process of scheduling August visits for elected officials and their staff to our distribution sites and will use those visits as a forum to talk about the importance of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act to the hungry in our community.
Stay tuned for more on how those visits unfold, but in the meantime, there are a couple of things you can do to reinforce the message that a robust Child Nutrition Reauthorization is needed in this country:
- Lend your voice to a nationwide call-in effort. Call toll-free, 1-866-277-7617, to connect to your representative and senators. Urge your members of Congress and President Obama to pass HR 5504.
- Endorse HR 5504 by emailing the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) – an organization with whom Second Harvest Food Bank works closely to stay abreast of what is happening at the federal level in regards to food policy – to sign your organization onto the growing list of national, state, and local organizations endorsing the bill. Please send your email to emelcher@frac.org.
