End Hunger Now

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, over the August recess, I had the pleasure of visiting the incredible work being done by Verde Vida at their La Casita site and popup market at an elementary school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.

Across multiple school-based sites in the city, Verde Vida and their partners work to rescue and repurpose perfectly good but unused fresh produce to distribute to families in need.

Along with my colleague Congressman Adriano Espaillat, we got to visit with students participating in summer programming at the Magnet School of Inquiry and Expression.

Students had the opportunity to pick out healthy snacks at La Casita's community fridge and then fill a bag of fresh fruits and veggies to bring home to their families. Seeing the kids' excitement over choosing fun and healthy snacks brought a huge smile to my face.

Mr. Speaker, we ought to be uplifting more innovative models like Verde Vida that address food waste, promote nutrition and learning, and are rooted in trusted community spaces.

We can and should end hunger now.

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