Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise today for the millions of children who will go hungry next week if Congress does not extend child nutrition waivers.

No student or child should ever go hungry in our country. At the start of the pandemic, Congress authorized waivers to help make it easier for schools to deliver meals to kids, and we gave 10 million more children access to healthy food.

Given the reality of higher prices at the grocery store, children and their families can't afford to lose the free, nutritious meals available at schools across the country. As a 40-year educator, I know hunger has been a crisis in our schools and our communities since long before the pandemic.

Madam Speaker, one in seven households today has a child struggling with food insecurity. In my home State of North Carolina, food insecurity has been a tragic fact of life for our kids and our students.

Before the pandemic, in North Carolina, 92,000 students were participating in the Summer Food Service Program, and 441,000 children were receiving SNAP assistance.

These numbers have only gone up. Our choice is clear: We can choose to act, or we can let millions of children go hungry.

Madam Speaker, as always, I am standing with our students, and I urge all of my colleagues to support S. 2089, as amended.

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