Healthy Kids, Healthy Meals, Healthy Future

THE WHY: All kids across the country should have consistent nutrition where they live, learn, and play. When our kids can eat healthy meals year-round, they have the fuel they need to focus on learning, and the foundation is laid for a better future of improved health and economic opportunity.

THE WHAT: Before breaking for the August recess, the House Education and Labor Committee set in motion the legislative process to expand access and participation in year-round healthy eating for our kids by passing H.R. 8450, the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act. The bill will make permanent policy changes that have been proven effective during the pandemic including:

• Increase eligibility for school meals so that more schools will be able to provide healthy meals at no cost to students.
• Reduce administrative barriers so that more schools and community-based organizations can provide summer and after school meals.
• Make it easier for WIC recipients to retain their benefits and receive telehealth appointments.
• Provide an additional meal and snack to low-income children in all-day daycare.
• Give families that rely on school meals additional grocery assistance during the summer months to replace meals that are otherwise missed when schools are closed.

Not only do these ideas have a track record of bipartisan support, many members of Washington’s Congressional delegation have an extensive history of leadership in bringing forward these ideas in legislation. Washington values feeding our kids, recognizing that food is essential for good health and growing in potential.

WHAT IS NEXT? When Congress resumes business in September, the House will need to vote on this bill, which will then be considered by the Senate Agriculture Committee. Congress will also need to build a plan to pay for these changes without harmful offsets that will be required to come from other child nutrition programs: offsets of that nature will only undermine the progress that can be made on ending child hunger once and for all when we must scale back other programs that are designed to feed low-income kids.

WHAT CAN WE DO? Our strongest resource is our collective experience! We’ve provided you with a standard email message expressing support for these provisions, but we invite you to personalize it with your own stories. Urge our Senators and your Member of Congress to pass this bill when they return from recess in early September. These are once in a lifetime investments that will improve our children’s health and our collective future.