To: Secretary of Agriculture - Tom Vilsack, USDA, President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Universal Breakfast, Universal Lunch: Every kid, every day.
Universal breakfast and universal lunch are needed in U.S. schools. Currently 1 out of every 5 children in the United States faces hunger. The undersigned demand that child nutrition programs in U.S. schools be expanded to provide universal breakfast and universal lunch for all school children. Every child in every school should eat every day--no questions, no stigma, no accounts, and no separate meal lines for children from low-income households.
Why is this important?
Universal breakfast and universal lunch are needed in U.S. schools. Currently 1 in 5 children in the United States faces hunger. The undersigned demand that child nutrition programs in U.S. schools be expanded to provide universal breakfast and universal lunch for all school children. Every child in every school should eat every day--no questions, no stigma, no accounts, and no separate meal lines for children from low-income households.
--In response to recent news that the Salt Lake City school district in Utah publicly dumped children's meals into the trash in front of them because they did not have money in their lunch accounts--the district having made a decision to humiliate children with money problems, and publicly throw untouched food away rather than allow the children to be fed with it;
--in response to our congress voting to cut 9 billion in food aid to needy families, while families across the nation are still reeling from a financial crisis they did not create;
--in response to the story of a Georgia bus driver, Johnny Cook, losing his job over publicly expressing outrage at a child going hungry in school, while the Georgia Congressional representative Jack Kingston publicly proposed child labor for impoverished children in Georgia schools;
--in response to stories like Massachusetts' Coelho Middle School cafeteria workers, who made children dump out the food from their trays without eating, because they had no money on their lunch accounts, and many similar stories springing up across the country recently--
The undersigned are disgusted and outraged. We see an alarming public trend of brutal contempt toward child hunger. We demand swift action by our representatives to condemn and counter such trends from overtaking institutions like public schools where our children are cared for and taught common values.
Most of us do not know a single American family, rich or poor, who would take food from a hungry child to throw it in the trash. Many of us are old enough to have been told that wasting food was shameful and ungrateful when there were starving children in the world.
Those who sign here will not allow our children or our neighbors' children to be treated with such abuse and contempt. We will not allow one-fifth of the nation's children to go hungry. Those who sign here refuse to accept the United States as a nation of children facing starvation. We will not accept that our common taxes support the profits of agricultural corporations, yet neglect the needs of the generation we are trying to raise.
--In response to recent news that the Salt Lake City school district in Utah publicly dumped children's meals into the trash in front of them because they did not have money in their lunch accounts--the district having made a decision to humiliate children with money problems, and publicly throw untouched food away rather than allow the children to be fed with it;
--in response to our congress voting to cut 9 billion in food aid to needy families, while families across the nation are still reeling from a financial crisis they did not create;
--in response to the story of a Georgia bus driver, Johnny Cook, losing his job over publicly expressing outrage at a child going hungry in school, while the Georgia Congressional representative Jack Kingston publicly proposed child labor for impoverished children in Georgia schools;
--in response to stories like Massachusetts' Coelho Middle School cafeteria workers, who made children dump out the food from their trays without eating, because they had no money on their lunch accounts, and many similar stories springing up across the country recently--
The undersigned are disgusted and outraged. We see an alarming public trend of brutal contempt toward child hunger. We demand swift action by our representatives to condemn and counter such trends from overtaking institutions like public schools where our children are cared for and taught common values.
Most of us do not know a single American family, rich or poor, who would take food from a hungry child to throw it in the trash. Many of us are old enough to have been told that wasting food was shameful and ungrateful when there were starving children in the world.
Those who sign here will not allow our children or our neighbors' children to be treated with such abuse and contempt. We will not allow one-fifth of the nation's children to go hungry. Those who sign here refuse to accept the United States as a nation of children facing starvation. We will not accept that our common taxes support the profits of agricultural corporations, yet neglect the needs of the generation we are trying to raise.