WASHINGTON — Democrats are once again proposing to expand the federal school lunch program to weekends and holidays, to create a full-time nutrition program during the school year for kids who are most at risk of going hungry when school is out.
The federal school lunch program currently gives kids free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch. But the sponsor of the Weekends Without Hunger Act, Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), says thousands of kids run the risk of going hungry any time school is out, and that the federal government needs to step in and fill that gap.
“With 58 percent of Clark County school children relying on free and reduced price lunch programs, more than 170,000 students in southern Nevada are facing hunger at home, and many depend on school meals as their main source of food throughout the week,” Titus said. “As students across southern Nevada start their week long spring break, far too many of these young men and women will go hungry without access to the school meals they depend on as their main source of food throughout the week.”
“Vacation from school should never mean hunger for children,” she added. “This legislation will fill a gap in federal programming and provide funding for nutritious meals to ensure that vacation from school does not mean hunger for children.”
Her bill would create a five year program to give food commodities to schools, food banks and other eligible institutions that would deliver food to hungry kids on weekends and school holidays. Titus introduced similar legislation in the last Congress.