Six anti-hunger advocates from New Mexico traveled to Washington to participate in Bread for the World's Advocacy Summit and Lobby Day on June 9-11. Our delegation included Kamatara Johnson (Circles USA-Albuqueque-Las Cruces), Sergio Mata-Cisneros (The Food Depot, Santa Fe), Carlos Navarro (St. John XXIII Catholic Community-Albquerque)m Kendra Poole (La Mesa Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque & Maryland), Lynette Schurdevin (Peace Lutheran Church Las Cruces) and Rev. Andy Stoker, Central United Methodist Church-Albuquerque)
Between the six of us, we visited our the offices of our three members in the House of Representatives and our two Senators. We lobbied for funding for the Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), global nutrition assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Kendra, who recently lost her job at the US Agency for International Development to the administration's downsizing noves, provided great insights on the importance of global nutrition assistance. A delegation from Puerto Rico joined as at two of our visits to advocate for changing the island's SNAP benefits from a block grant to full participation in the SNAP program..
While all our visits were scheduled with congressional aides, we were fortunate enough to meet up with Rep. Melanie Stansbury (at Rep. Gabe Vasquez's office, of all places). Rep. Stansbury was accompanied by NM State Sen. Harold Pope.
Here are other photos from Lobby Day.
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