Independent initiatives to end hunger range in scale, from small towns and counties to
major metropolitan areas and states. This chapter highlights a handful of initiatives that are
representative of different approaches. Some are led by governors, mayors, or state or local
elected representatives, while others are entirely volunteer-run. The aim of the chapter goes
beyond showcasing these efforts to showing the numerous contributions that local efforts
make when they partner with the federal government. First, let’s put the federal role in this
partnership in perspective and consider the political environment in
which local efforts must operate.
In 2013, the nutrition
safety net comes under
attack
USDA /Lance Cheung
International School
Meals Day at Harmony
Hills Elementary School
in Silver Spring, MD.
For more than half a century,
federally funded nutrition programs have been the mainstay of
the nation’s fight against hunger
here at home. It is worth a quick
reminder of how these programs
came to be. During World War II,
a surprising number of young men
were rejected for military service
because when they arrived for their
physicals, they turned out to be
malnourished.1 Congress and the
White House saw the need for a permanent federal nutrition program. In 1946, the National
School Lunch Program was established to ensure that U.S. national security would never
again be jeopardized by malnutrition.
Since then, Congress has established other nutrition programs to reach targeted populations at appropriate access points.2 They are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The biggest federal program is food stamps, now known as the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is accessed with a debit card at most food
retailers. School lunch, breakfast, and afterschool programs serve tens of millions of schoolage children with meals that must meet strict nutrition guidelines. The Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, targets pregnant and nursing
women and their young children, both those in the critical 1,000-day “window of
72 percent of food stamp/
SNAP recipients
live in households
with children.1
118? Chapter 4
n
Bread for the World Institute
According to a Gallup poll in August 2013,
Americans earning $75,000 a year or more
are more likely to eat fast food than are
lower-income groups. Those earning
less than $20,000 a year are the
least likely to eat fast food.2