Children Ask Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich to Protect Child Nutrition Programs

April 19 was Children's Day at two churches in New Mexico. All Saints Lutheran Church and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church not only had their adults write a total of 149 letters to Congress that day to ask our legislators to protect and expand child nutrition programs. The two churches also offered the opportunity for children to send the same message to Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Sen. Martin Heinrich and Sen. Tom Udall. Eight of these paper plate letters came from All Saints and 10 from St. Andrew.

The paper plate messages contained in this blog post were drawn by the children at St. Andrew. Patty Emord, who organized the overall offering of letters at the church, provided the photographs..The messages from the children ranged from a simple request to "End Childhood Hunger"  to more complex messages  urging Congress to take action to ensure that children have access to nutritious meals. A handful of those paper plates are posted here along with the sample letter provided by Bread for the World as of April 14, 2015.

April 19, 2015
Dear Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham:

As you consider the 2016 budget and renewing child nutrition programs this year, I urge you to make sure children at risk of hunger can get the healthy meals they need to learn and grow.

Specifically, I urge you to protect child nutrition programs from cuts and harmful policy changes and improve children's access to these programs while not cutting other safety-net programs. SNAP (formerly food stamps), serves nearly 21 million children. I urge you to protect SNAP and other anti-poverty programs from harmful budget and funding cuts.

Nutrition programs serve as a lifeline for America's vulnerable children and their families. As your constituent, I urge you to protect and improve child nutrition programs.

Sincerely,
The Children of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church 
5301 Ponderosa Ave.
Albuquerque, N.M. 87110
 

P.S. We also ask Congress to take a longer-term view at addressing hunger in our country and around the world while protecting the environment.