Houston Food Bank Advocacy Center
Did you know?
- Texas has one of the highest rates of child food insecurity in the country
- Every day 53,000 people in Houston are hungry
- Each week the Houston Food Bank feeds 137,000 people, 47% of which are children
- 43% of hungry families must choose between food and medicine
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YOU have the power to help end hunger. Let your elected officials know today that you want them to support comprehensive anti-hunger initiatives. Take a stand now because hunger is unacceptable.
ISSUES
Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization
Did you know that many children living in families facing food insecurity rely on school lunch as their only meal of the day? Hungry children have shorter attention spans and are not able to learn as well as their well-fed classmates. While this is a startling reality, there is something you can do to help.
Congress is addressing this issue now in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which includes program like School Breakfast, National School Lunch and the Summer Feeding Service Programs. Each of these programs plays a vital role in addressing the needs of food-insecure children. The current authorization for the Child Nutrition Act expires on September 30, 2010. As a result, Congress needs to finish the five-year reauthorization of this act prior to that date.
This reauthorization offers a great opportunity to create a future for school food in which fresh, healthy meals are the rule and all children have access to the nutrition they need to create healthy habits for life.
As the 2010 reauthorization quickly approaches, Congress is seeking input from members of the community for help in shaping the Act’s priorities. Please contact your Congress members today to let them know that you support the President’s request for an additional $1 billion per year for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization to help us eliminate childhood hunger by 2015.
Weekends Without Hunger Act
HR 5012
Weekends Without Hunger Act (HR 5012) is a new piece of legislation establishing a five-year pilot program to provide commodities to eligible institutions, such as food banks, to provide nutritious food to at-risk children during weekends and school holidays.
This is a critical step forward in addressing the needs of children while school is not in session. Filling the gaps during weekends and school holidays is one of hunger advocates’ top priorities for Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR), which Congress is addressing right now. This bill represents an important legislative opportunity to feed more hungry children in Southeast Texas and across the country. If the bill is passed, it would result in new opportunities to acquire federal commodities for backpack programs. Please call your member of Congress today and ask them to co-sponsor the Weekends Without Hunger Act (HR 5012) and include it in the final Child Nutrition Reauthorization.
Talking Points for your call
Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act
The Houston Food Bank is working with members of Congress to introduce an amendment to Section 1791 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (Bill Emerson “Good Samaritan Act”). As currently worded, the Act discourages donations of excess animal feed by manufacturers since the legislation only explicitly removes liability for human food donations. This means that animal food manufacturers can be held civilly liable for any donation of feed that is defective in any way. Therefore, those manufacturers do not donate.
It is important to encourage the donation of animal food because food insecure families often sacrifice their own food to feed their pets, leaving even less food for the family. This simple amendment will allow pet food manufacturers to donate the thousands of pounds of excess animal feed that is currently being destroyed annually.
Congressman John Culberson (R-7) has drafted the amendment. However, the Houston Food Bank needs your help to get this amendment passed! Please call, write a letter or schedule a meeting with your member of Congress to let them know that you support Culberson’s amendment to the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of the Child Nutrition Act of 1996 removing liability for animal food donations.
Letter outline for pet food donation amendment
Help feed your hungry neighbors
The Houston Food Bank has submitted a $657,100 appropriations request to Congress for FY 2011 to place 42 industrial freezers and coolers at agencies all across our 18 county region. These cold storage units will dramatically improve capacity at our agencies, allowing more nutritious food to be distributed to the hungry. This funding will place at least one unit in each congressional district in Southeast Texas. Congressman Gene Green and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee will include this request in the FY 2011 federal budget. But we still need your help to ensure this request makes it into the final budget! Please contact your member of Congress today and ask them to help end the fight against hunger by supporting this important funding. Find out where the coolers and freezers will be placed if this funding is awarded.
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Please contact Sydney Abbott, Public Policy Coordinator, at 713-547-8611 or sabbott@houstonfoodbank.org for any questions.