WHAT WILL KIDS EAT THIS SUMMER?

Summer’s here.

America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network

Will the children in your community have enough to eat?

Listen to the NPR podcast!

Tell a Friend!

When summer vacation starts, more than 12 million children in America who live on the brink of hunger will lose the one place they can count on for a meal. The USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) offers relief for hungry children when the school year ends. Unfortunately, it only reaches 2 million of America’s hungry children during the summer months. The Hunger Action Center supports the SFSP, and we’re pushing for expanded awareness and funding of this important program.

Under the SFSP, sponsors—such as food banks, schools, public agencies, camps, and other non-profits— receive reimbursement for the cost of providing two meals or snacks per day to children in need. You can learn more about the SFSP by listening to this NPR podcast. In it, Maura Daly of America’s Second Harvest joins Debbie Hammill, site director of Washington, D.C.’s Brooklyn Manor Housing Development, to talk about the issues driving seasonal child hunger.

Unfortunately, only 2 million children nationwide currently benefit from this program, which faces some key challenges:

Awareness. Many families simply don’t know the program exists in their communities.

Sponsorship. The SFSP needs more local organizations and volunteers to support summer food service locations in their communities.

Transportation. Many children who are eligible to participate have trouble getting to an SFSP location because they don’t have or can’t afford transportation.
Learn how the SFSP helps children in need.
Increasing awareness is the first important step.

THE SENATE REJECTS MEDICAID CUTS ON MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS

Image via WikipediaSenate Approves Emergency Spending Bill, Rejecting Cuts to Medicaid!

On Thursday the Senate, by a margin of 75-22, approved a package of emergency funding for the current fiscal year that includes an amendment stopping Medicaid regulations that would severely impair the ability of states to finance critical mental illness services. The future of the supplemental funding bill is uncertain. A presidential veto has been threatened against any supplemental funding that is beyond the Administration’s requests for military spending. After next week’s Memorial Day recess, House and Senate leaders will be meeting to decide when and how to send the measure on to the president.

This is an important victory in the ongoing effort to stop the seven proposed Medicaid regulations, including those limiting case management and rehabilitation that are central to publicly funded mental illness treatment and support services for both children and adults. Now bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate are on record in favor of imposing moratoriums on these regulations. Your voice has made a real difference!

The Senate package also includes a range of other funding for priorities important to NAMI. Among these are:

* $96 million rent subsidies for permanent supportive housing (PSH) units for Louisiana and Mississippi ($76 million for Louisiana and $20 million for Mississippi) – these are supportive housing units targeted to current and formerly homeless individuals with mental illness in communities still devastated by the 2005 hurricanes,
* $475 million for VA Polytrauma Centers,
* $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
* $275 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upgrade safety and inspections.

TELL THE SENATE TO PROTECT MEDICAID!

Image via WikipediaTell the Senate to Protect Medicaid!
from: enews@nami.org.
May 21, 2008

Last week the House again acted to pass legislation that would delay a series of federal regulations that would severely limit Medicaid coverage of critical mental illness services including rehabilitation, case management, and school-based services. The delay in the regulations was part of an amendment to the supplemental war funding bill that included this delay on the regulations passed by a vote of 256-166.

NAMI is extremely grateful to advocates that contacted their House members –your voice made a real difference! Now the effort to include the delay in the Medicaid regulations shifts to the Senate, where the war supplemental funding bill will be taken up this week. Adding the moratoria to this "must pass" supplemental funding bill is likely the best legislative opportunity aimed at stopping these regulations and protecting Medicaid funding for critical community-based services for both children and adults living with serious mental illness. Because the President has threatened to veto the moratoria on the Medicaid regulations, it is critical that the Senate reject any effort to strip the provision from the amendment to the war supplemental funding bill (HR 2642).


ACT NOW!

We need your help again! Send a message to your Senators urging them to make sure the Medicaid moratoria stay in the war supplemental funding bill. In addition to protecting Medicaid, tell your Senators to support provisions in the bill that address critical priorities at home including:

* $96 million rent subsidies for permanent supportive housing (PSH) units for Louisiana and Mississippi ($76 million for Louisiana and $20 million for Mississippi) – these are supportive housing units targeted to current and formerly homeless individuals with mental illness in communities still devastated by the 2005 hurricanes,
* $475 million for VA Polytrauma Centers,
* $400 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and
* $275 million for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upgrade safety and inspections.
For More info
Background on the Medicaid Moratoria Legislation