Hot Topics from WRAHC (Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium)

 

Washington Food Coalition attended the Western Region Anti-Hunger Consortium meeting on October 16^th in Reno, Nevada at the Grand Sierra Resort. This is a fantastic opportunity for hunger advocates from a large region of the country to meet together regularly and collaborate on hunger issues. This type of effective, geographically widespread meeting is a unique and powerful forum.

There are several larger issues that were discussed at the meeting with close relevance to the work of Washington Food Coalition members. Examples of these include:

Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR)

The CNR bill is scheduled to be passed in 2015. There are many critical nutrition programs that this bill covers. One of these is the summer meals program, which many WFC members run. Senator Patty Murray from Washington State is leading a bill that offers an alternative to the traditional congregate meal site model of summer meals by providing a boost in SNAP funds on EBT cards for families with school children during the summer. There’s an additional bill coming forward that would change some of the structure for the current summer meals program.

National Hunger Commission

Cherie Jamason, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada is a member of WRAHC and also serving on the National Hunger Commission. Cherie shared with WRAHC members what’s been done so far and also solicited input on 30 hunger relief ideas that she could submit for the Commission to focus on.

She also shared the initial report from the Commission, titled Current and Prospective Scope of Hunger and Food Security in America: A Review of Current Research. 

The full report can be found here.

Other hot topics include developments in SNAP, Community Eligibility, and innovative approaches to fighting hunger being done in other states from the Western Region.