Scott Leads Legislation to Address and Prevent Child Hunger

Press Release

Today, in a House Committee on Education and Labor markup, Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03) led Committee passage of legislation to help address and prevent child hunger by reauthorizing federal child nutrition programs.

The Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act builds on the Committee's work to expand school and summer meal programs, increase access to federal nutrition programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and prevent and address child hunger.

"One of the key lessons reaffirmed by our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is that, when we invest in child nutrition programs, we help reduce child hunger. In fact, from January 2021 through April 2021, food shortage rates among households with children fell by more than 40 percent--thanks to the investments in several COVID-19 relief packages. Still, we have more work ahead to achieve our ultimate goal--eliminating child hunger in America.

"To do so, we must ensure that federal child nutrition programs have the resources they need to feed children. The Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act takes long overdue steps to deliver on that goal by modernizing proven child nutrition programs and providing more children and families with access to nutrition assistance. This is a critical opportunity to help fulfill our basic responsibility to keep children from going hungry," said Chairman Scott.

Even before the pandemic, more than 2.7 million households with children--did not have reliable access to nutritious food. Moreover, the pandemic worsened pre-existing inequities in food insecurity. Both Black and Hispanic households with children reported food insecurity at rates roughly twice that of white households with children throughout the pandemic.

The Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act would help address both pre-existing inequities, as well as food insecurity spurred by the pandemic. Specifically, the legislation would:

Expand access to school meals,
Preserve the future of school meal programs,
Modernize the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC),
Address food insecurity during the summer,
Improve school meal capacity and sustainability, and
Strengthen the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Source