Inspiring and insightful conference call this week with Bill Shore, founder of Share Our Strength, who spoke and took questions from around one hundred other hunger advocates. Updates on the organization’s national “No Kid Hungry” campaign, and a overview of other strides being made in the fight  to end child hunger by 2015. Bill provided some great advice on actions we can all take to get the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill through Congress that are worth sharing. Although if Congress doesn’t act by September 30, the existing food and nutrition programs will likely be extended under a continuing resolution, we will have missed a chance to enact carefully crafted reforms that improve both the quality and nutritional value of school meals, and that improve access to programs for the large number of children who are eligible but not enrolled in programs that work.

Three actions to take to help pass Child Nutrition Reauthorization:
1) Please call or email your members of Congress, and in addition you can call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who ultimately have the most influence over moving this legislation forward.  The message is simple – tell them to pass a robust child nutrition bill before it expires at the end of September (see below more specific instructions for calling and e-mailing).
2) Pass this call to action on to all of your friends and family.
3) Write a letter to the editor for your local newspaper.

Here’s the information on how to call/email:   Call 1-866-277-7617 and ask to be connected to your representative’s office. You can look up who your representative is online at: http://www.house.gov/htbin/zipfind.   Email your senators and representatives in support of child nutrition reauthorization via:  http://www.hungeractioncenter.org/fastaction/default.aspx.

If you’re interested in hearing the briefing for yourself, it’s available here.