The Hunger Action Network of NYS today urged Senator Gillibrand, as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to support including $4 billion annually in new funding for the child nutrition programs.

“Senator Gillibrand has been a strong advocate for increased funding for school meals and other child nutrition programs. These programs are critical to help end the growing problem among our nation’s children. We need Senator Gillibrand to speak up for the most vulnerable members of our society, hunger children, and fight to ensure that adequate funding is including for these critical anti-hunger programs,” said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is ready to introduce a child nutrition bill this week. Unfortunately, committee chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has provided only half of the $1 billion requested by President Obama. Anti-hunger groups have been calling for $4 billion. The programs include school lunch and breakfast, summer meals, WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and Child Care and Adult Care programs.

Nearly one in four children lives in a family that struggles to put food on the table -- a 34 percent increase from last year.. Child nutrition programs are a critical safety net protecting children from hunger, but we fail to connect far too many eligible children with these programs. Of the 19.4 million children who receive lunch assistance each school day, only 46 percent receive breakfast assistance and just 11 percent access summer food programs.

Strong child nutrition programs are critical to achieve President Obama’s stated goal of ending child hood hunger by 2015. In addition to the increase funding, groups are seeking to improve the nutritional standards for the program and to make it easier for participants to apply and for agencies to run the programs. Many families are unable to access benefits for which their children are eligible because not all programs operate in every community. We must improve access by increasing the number of breakfast, summer, and after school meal programs in operation and exploring alternative models to link children with the food they need when they are out of school.

Last November, New York Sen. Gillibrand proposed to increase funding for free and reduced school meals, raise income eligibility levels so more kids qualify and require cafeterias serve healthier fare. Gillibrand said she wanted to boost the federal reimbursement districts receive to serve free and reduced lunches by 70 cents. The reimbursement would rise from $2.57 to $3.27 per meal to help schools afford healthier food. "Too many children who should be receiving free, healthy meals are not enrolled in programs available to them - and they're paying the price in their grades, health and future," said Gillibrand, a member of the Agriculture Committee.