Pledge Your Support to Fight Hunger

Today is the first day of a 60-day state legislative session. This is a short session year, intended to finish work from the 2017 session and make adjustments to the operating budget.

Our legislative agenda reflects this mindset: we’ve got some unfinished business in Olympia and are determined to put some long-needed reforms and budget requests over the finish line.

Chief among these is ending our five-year effort to improve access and participation to school breakfast for low-income students. School breakfast is a proven effective tool for improving educational performance, decreasing childhood obesity, and reducing disciplinary problems. Students can focus on the tasks of learning instead of on their empty stomachs. Yet Washington ranks 45^th in the nation when it comes to school breakfast participation for low-income kids. In most schools, students must come to school before the start of the school day to eat breakfast. The simple act of offering breakfast during the school day, just like lunch, means that breakfast is served when kids are at school and ready to eat. It’s a common sense solution that not only helps more kids get a healthy start to their school day but also reduces food waste and generates more revenue and reimbursements for school districts because more breakfasts are bought and served.

Many of you have been with us every step of the way to pass breakfast after the bell legislation. This is a top priority for leadership in both the House and the Senate but we will still need to work together to make sure that this stays a priority for legislators, securing the votes we need to pass our bill and signed into law by Gov. Inslee.

We will also fight hunger by supporting the bills and budget requests on our secondary agenda that help struggling Washingtonians access safe and affordable housing, health care, and work towards economic stability. Our support agenda includes the following:

• Pass legislation to end housing discrimination based on reported income support from public assistance
• Eliminate the 5-year sunset on the designation of document recording fees to protect state funding for housing and homelessness programs
• Protect access to affordable health insurance for low-income Washingtonians
• Restore the promise of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by restoring the TANF cash grant and eliminating asset limits so that more eligible families can access the program
• Pass the Fair Chance Act to open the door for job opportunities for people with prior felony convictions so that they can continue to work towards self-sufficiency.

At the federal level, we can expect efforts to slash safety net programs including SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. Our voices must speak loudly and clearly to prevent those cuts and strengthen state resources for our struggling neighbors. Let’s make a real difference for hungry families in Washington in 2018: pledge to speak up and take action!

WHAT YOU CAN DO