POSITION PAPER

Contact: Kimberly King

(352)-789-0121 Office/Cell

239 South Dudley,

Memphis, TN 38104
midsouthfoodbank.org
(901)-527-0841

kmking4@memphis.edu

Child Nutrition Act Supports Mid-South Children

Memphis, Tenn. - 15.8 million children across the U.S. live in food insecure households (Feeding America),
meaning, the home they live in is unable to provide nutritious, and healthy-life provoking food. The Child Nutrition
Act and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Reauthorization Act
provides federal funding to feeding programs such as the Mid-South Food Bank, which supports children in their
communities. The Mid-South has a 23.4 percent average of food insecure children, higher than the 21.6 percent
average of food insecure children in the rest of the nation (Eleni Townes). The Mid-South Food Bank is the leader
in providing meals to those children in need in the Mid-South.
The Mid-South Food Bank depends on the Child Nutrition Act, along with generous donations, for funding
to be able to provide these food insecure children with the proper nutrition, which in turn establishes physical and
mental health, academic achievement, and economic productivity in the future.
Right: Map of the nation according to percentage of food insecure
children. Photo Credit: feedingamerica.org

As shown to the right, the Mid-South is an epicenter of

food insecure children within most states in the area.
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Effie Johnson, a representative of the Mid-South Food Bank said, We are front-line responders to people in need.
The Mid-South Food Bank supports programs sending out 2,000 backpacks full of food home every weekend, and
provides food to families who are unable to provide for their children on their own.
Although the Child Nutrition Act helps the Mid-South Food Bank to support these children in need, there
are also many changes that need to be made this upcoming fiscal year due to the fact that there are still children
going hungry every day. Every five years, the Child Nutrition Act is due for renewal, which is called the Child
Nutrition Reauthorization, or CNR.
The CNR is scheduled to be looked over in September of 2015. It is important that everyone, as citizens,
contacts their representatives and lets them know that they support the Child Nutrition Act, as it not only supports
children in school, but also pregnant women and infants. Considering most brain development happens during the
first seven years of life, it is critical that children are fed in order to produce capable and productive citizens. We can
all agree that our children carry the torch into the future of our nation, and it is important to support them in this
manner more than ever.
President Obama, at the beginning of his presidency, made a commitment to end child hunger, and changes
to expand the Child Nutrition Act will be an important step in this necessary commitment. As a nation, we can
and must reach this critically important goal of eradicating childhood hunger, said Jim Weill, Food Research and
Action Center president, when asked his thoughts on expanding the budget supporting the act.
A main part of the budget built into the Child Nutrition Act is funding for school cafeterias to be open
during the summer for two meals so that children and their families (at a low cost),
can come and eat during certain times of the day. Out of all of the children who
receive assistance for free lunches during the school year, only 16 percent come
during the summers and have meals.

Right: statistics relating children eating breakfast

to living a healthy lifestyle.

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No child should go hungry just because they are not in school; the push this upcoming fall is for more
programs to expand into communities in order to provide food insecure children with somewhere to go for meals
that is closer to home.
The goal of expanding the Child Nutrition Act is to increase awareness of the need for summer meals, as
well as to provide more funding to continue to provide every child in school with free breakfast every weekday
morning. It has been proven by researchers at the Food Research and Action Center that children who do not eat
an adequate breakfast are more likely to experience stomach aches and headaches, they are also susceptible to
anemia, oral health problems, and other health concerns.
Considering the many other costs our nation is having to face, with increased medical funding,
unemployment, and family feeding programs, there is no better place to put the nations money than back into the
children who will lead it into the future. The more children who are fed at a younger age, the more productive and
healthy members of society we will have in the future.
Again, it is vital that everyone contact their representatives regarding their support of the Child Nutrition
and WIC reauthorization acts.
There is no greater investment that we can make than in our children.
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Work Cited
Blow, Ashli. "Food Insecurity in the Mid-South." - WMC Action News 5. N.p., 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/category/284216/food-insecurity-in-the-mid-south>.
"Child Hunger Fact Sheet." Feeding America. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/child-hunger/child-hunger-factsheet.html>.
"Ending Childhood Hunger by 2015 Food Research & Action Center." Food Research Action Center Ending
Childhood Hunger by 2015 Comments. N.p., 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
<http://frac.org/initiatives/ending-child-hunger-by-2015/>.
"Feeding Children." Feeding Children. Mid-South Food Bank, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.midsouthfoodbank.org/feedingchildren>.
Townes, Eleni. "Child Nutrition Act Invests in Our Children." Spoonfed. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.midsouthfoodbank.org/spoonfed>.