Tell Congress: There's no vacation for hunger

2 MIN READ
Photo by Joseph Molieri/Bread for the World

By Eric Mitchell

Hunger won’t be taking a vacation this summer. While our senators and representatives are back home for the Fourth of July, five of every six low-income children who received a school lunch daily will not receive those meals during summer vacation. But together we can make sure those meals don’t disappear — and it starts with a phone call. 

Call your U.S. senators and your U.S. representative today. Urge them to cosponsor two important child hunger bills:

  1. Summer Meals Act of 2015 (S.613/H.R.1728)
  2. Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2015 (S.1539/H.R.2715)

Together, these two bills would help close the child hunger gap. The Summer Meals Act would strengthen and expand access to summer meal programs, while the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act would provide low-income families with additional resources to purchase groceries during the summer months while children are out of school.

Whether you’re a parent of a young child or just care about the children in your local community, we need everyone’s voice to close the child hunger gap. As a father of two myself, I believe this is fundamental.

Throughout the month of July, we will be asking you to join us in taking weekly advocacy actions to end child summer hunger. Start today by calling your U.S. senators and your U.S. representative. Tell Congress to cosponsor the Summer Meals Act and the Stop Child Hunger Act.

Thank you for raising your voice again. Together, we can move Congress to ensure that children are fed through the summer months — and year-round. 

Eric Mitchell is the director of government relations at Bread for the World.

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