Ending Childhood Hunger

As promised on Friday, our latest “Memo to the Next President” is by Joel Berg and Tom Freedman on ending domestic childhood hunger.  36 million Americans, including 12 million children have been classified as food insecure.  But even though these numbers are startling and depressing, we can fix it. How do we bring the troops home from Iraq? What is the best way to reduce green house emissions? Those are hard questions. How do we end childhood hunger? We have the tools and know-how to do that. Berg and Friedman note:

This is no quixotic venture. It can be accomplished by reforming existing programs and with some new spending, most of which would go into the expansion of school meals and food stamp benefits targeted at children.

They outline a five part plan to help President-elect Obama meet his goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.

Step 1: Provide all children with a free school breakfast. Most low-income students are eligible for free- or reduce-priced school breakfast but do not take advantage of it because of stigma and availability. Adopting a universal school breakfast policy will feed more low-income children and produce positive effects throughout the entire school. Furthermore, it can save schools time and money through reduced paperwork and bureaucracy.

Step 2: Improve program accountability and efficiency. The application process for food and nutrition programs is too complex. Berg and Friedman argue that the Obama administration should combine the food stamp program with other nutrition programs to:

This will create administrative efficiencies, widen eligibility, and boost participation.

Step 3: Support Working Families. Berg and Friedman argue that we can’t end childhood hunger without making sure parents earn a decent wage. Therefore, we should expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and index the minimum wage to inflation.

Step 4: Reward Best Practices in the States. Provide bonuses to states that are particularly successful and innovative in reducing hunger.

Step 5: Provide Real Ammo for the Armies of Compassion. Berg and Friedman believe the government must form creative partnerships with non profit and religious groups to not only feed more people, but help break the cycle of poverty.

Read the entire memo here.