It boggles the mind to know that in the richest country in the world, one in six children go to bed hungry every night. A fundamentally broken economy that funnels riches to the wealthy while squeezing every last cent out of working families has led millions of American kids to rely on school breakfasts and lunches for a significant amount of their caloric intake.
But that might come screeching to a halt unless Congress reauthorizes a series of pandemic-era waivers allowing schools to creatively deliver meals to their students and enabling 10 million more students to access free meals.
The waivers are set to expire June 30th — and there appears to be little urgency to make sure our kids stay fed.
Tell Mitch McConnell to extend the school lunch waivers and keep our kids fed!
Opposition to extending the waivers comes from — you guessed it — Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans. Advocates suspect that McConnell is deliberately trying to create a child food crisis to hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.
There is a mountain of evidence pointing to how important school meals are to improving academic achievement, school attendance, and of course, keeping kids healthy and alive. It's disgusting to see Republicans play political games with hungry children, and there's no good reason to not make these waivers permanent.
Demand Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans stop millions of our kids from going hungry!
