Press Releases

Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02), voted to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S. 3307) to help reduce childhood hunger and obesity. The legislation will help school districts improve the nutritional quality of the food they offer kids, expand after-school and breakfast programs, and connect schools to local farms so children can have fresh and healthy produce. 

“In these tough economic times, many hardworking families cannot afford the groceries they need to feed their families. In my Congressional District, nearly one in six families suffer from hunger and in Washington state over 400,000 children are from families that are struggling to put food on the table,” said Rep. Larsen. “The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will bring us a step closer to ending childhood hunger by ensuring that kids are getting enough nutritious food to eat every day.”

Local anti-hunger organizations view this legislation as vital to the fight against childhood hunger. “At Food Lifeline, 37% of the people we serve at Western Washington food pantries are children, but we know that food pantries alone can’t end hunger,” said Linda Nageotte President and CEO of Food Lifeline, a Washington state anti- hunger organization. “In this tough economy, the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act helps ensure that more of Washington’s children have access nutritious meals, just when they need them most. We want to thank Congressman Larsen for his leadership on legislation to strengthen our nation’s child nutrition programs and help to end hunger in our state,” she continued.

Earlier this year, the House Committee on Education and Labor approved legislation that included a provision authored by Larsen, the EASY Access to Meals and Snacks Act (HR 4274), to allow non-profits to serve meals to low-income children year-round through the Summer Food Service Program. While this proposal was not included in the bill on the floor today, a section of the legislation achieves part of this goal by expanding the Child and Adult Care Food Program to include after-school meals served by non-profits to low-income kids.

“Although this legislation did not include my proposal to help local non-profits and local government organizations serve healthy meals to low-income children 365 days a year, I am encouraged that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act includes a provision to help the Child and Adult Care Food Program provide after school meals to at-risk children so they get the nutritious foods they need to succeed,” said Rep. Larsen. “I will continue to work to ensure that low-income kids get nutritious food at the times when they are most vulnerable to hunger— during the summer, after school, and on weekends.”

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act contains the following policy changes to ensure that low-income children have access to nutritious food: 

• Improve the nutritional quality of school meals by providing school districts with an additional 6 cents per meal if they comply with federal nutrition standards. This will be the first federal reimbursement rate increase in more than 30 years.  
• Require the Agriculture Department to develop science-based nutrition standards for all foods that kids can buy on a school campus. This will help reduce the amount of high calorie food and beverages in schools.  
• Expand the after-school meal program for at-risk children by reimbursing the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for providing an after-school meal to at-risk kids.  This provision is estimated to provide an additional 21 million meals to at-risk children every year.