<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Murray seeks summer food funds for needy kids

She proposes hike in assistance while school not in session

The Columbian
Published: May 21, 2014, 5:00pm

WASHINGTON — Charity Edwards is unemployed and separated from her husband, raising four kids on a monthly income of $1,100.

She gets another $419 a month in food stamps to help feed her two girls, ages 6 and 11, and her two boys, ages 15 and 17.

“There’s not money left to buy clothes,” said Edwards, 38, of Everett.

Under a bill introduced Wednesday by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, Edwards would get $600 — $150 per child — to buy food when schools are not in session each summer.

Murray jumped into the latest food fray on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress are bickering over school lunch rules, including how much to spend on poor children and what foods would most benefit them.

She said her plan would cost $42 billion over 10 years, helping 30 million kids, including 475,000 in Washington state and nearly 62,000 in Pierce County alone, beginning in 2016.

Eligible families — those who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches during the school year — would get the money for summer food in electronic benefit transfer cards.

“When school lets out for the summer, many of those same kids lose access to regular meals and go without the nutrition that they need,” Murray said in an interview. “I believe that kids shouldn’t have to spend the summer months wondering when they’re going to get the next meal.”

As part of her work, Murray is promoting smaller details, too: She wants poor kids to be able to eat more white potatoes, a big crop in her state.

Murray, along with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state and 18 other senators, wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking to include white potatoes on the list of approved foods used in the federal Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. Many Republicans in the House of Representatives back the idea, too. Critics, however, say kids already eat enough starchy vegetables and that they should eat other, healthier vegetables.

The issues will come to a head in coming weeks as Congress finalizes new spending plans for the Agriculture Department, which oversees school lunches and the WIC program.

But finding consensus will be difficult.

In the House, many Republicans worry that the school lunch program already is too costly.

And they fear it will get even more expensive with new federal guidelines backed by first lady Michelle Obama. They would require schools to offer more fruits and vegetables, whole wheat products and low-sodium foods.

Critics say it’s a mistake to force schools to offer food that many students refuse to eat, resulting in more food in the garbage and fewer students eating the meals.

On Tuesday, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved a bill that would let districts get waivers to opt out of the healthier school lunch guidelines if they’re struggling financially to meet them. On the same day, the Agriculture Department announced that it would give “new flexibility” to schools by allowing them to serve traditional pasta instead of whole-grain for another two years.

Murray said her plan, called The Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2014, wouldn’t increase the federal budget deficit, despite its hefty price tag.

She’s proposing to offset the spending by changing a law that allows U.S. companies to finance expanded operations overseas with debt and then immediately deduct the interest before they report any taxable income. Murray wants to temporarily defer the deductions.

“That’s a fair trade,” Murray said. “It says that companies in our country that are taking advantage of tax loopholes that send jobs overseas ought to be investing in our young kids.”

According to Murray, only 14 percent of the children in the United States who receive free or reduced-price lunches during the school year take advantage of a federal summer school food program. The program funds nonprofit groups that serve lunches in congregate settings.

Loading...