Help increase access to food for hungry children and families

“The Act for Hungry Families,” Senate Bill 6411, will be heard in Olympia by the Senate Children and Family Services and Corrections Committee Friday, January 30, at 8:00 a.m.

Washington has the unacceptable distinction of being one of the five hungriest states in America in each of the last eight years.

The Act for Hungry Families will mandate lunch and breakfast in all elementary schools to guarantee every child access to food, require all school districts that operate Summer Meal Programs under the United States Department of Agriculture waiver to open their meal sites to every child in the area, implement an automatic five month receipt of Basic Food benefits (Food Stamps) to families transitioning from cash assistance to work, streamline reporting requirements to cut down administration and error rates, and restore Basic Food eligibility to people with former drug felony convictions to help break the cycle of poverty.

The impact of the bill on the state budget will be minimal, with most funding already available from federal programs.

Members of the Children & Family Services & Corrections Committee are:

Senator Val Stevens (R-39), Chair; Senator Linda Evans Parlette (R-12) Vice-Chair; Senator James Hargrove (D-24), Ranking Member; Senator Don Carlson (R-49); Senator Alex Deccio (R-14); SenatorRosemary McAuliffe (D-1); Senator Debbie Regala (D-27).  Also key in passing this bill will be Joseph Zarelli, R-18.

ACTION:

If you live in one of their districts, please contact them, let them know you are a constituent, and ask that they support this bill.

The bill has strong bi-partisan support and is sponsored by Senators Brandland, Rasmussen, Sheahan, Hargrove,Swecker, Brown, Jacobsen, McAuliffe, Regala, Eide, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Winsley.  If you are in one of their districts, please let them know you appreciate their sponsorship of this bill.

Please let all of your legislators know you would appreciate their support of this bill.

If you can attend the hearing on Friday and speak in support of this bill, please do so.

Thank you,

Eve Rickert

FCWPP Lobbyist

If you can, identify yourself as a Friend (Quaker) when contacting legislators in response to these Alerts. It helps us in our work in Olympia .

Contact your FCWPP Lobbying Team, Eve Rickert and Alan Mountjoy-Venning at fcwpp”at”comcast.net (please insert the @ symbol – publishing e-mail addresses in public websites exacerbates spam problems) or by calling 360 556-2584

Additional information about the bill, together with the full text, can be found athttp://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/billinfo/dspBillSummary.cfm?billnumber=6411

Use http://dfind.leg.wa.gov/dfinder.cfm to find who your legislators are. Contact information for your senators can be found at http://www.leg.wa.gov/senate/members/default.htm .Contact information for representatives is athttp://www.leg.wa.gov/house/default.htm