End Hunger for Children and Families

End hunger for children and families:

• Create policies and procedures that are client- centric. (i.e. Individuals employed in shift work jobs cannot easily answer telephone calls. Failure to answer call forces individual to go to the “back of the line”).
• Support and advocate for the expansion of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women, Infant and Children) programs.
• Ensure the ease of SNAP/WIC enrollment by increasing positions in Family Services Division and creating an online enrollment system and implement “presumptive eligibility” into SNAP for all children on free and reduced lunch.
• Identify students, before the end of the school year, who need summer feeding programs and link families to available food resources.
• Coordinate region wide, summer food programs and dinner food programs including a regional volunteer recruitment effort to staff summer and dinner programs.
• Broadly examine food insecurity in the region with a goal to end hunger in the region.
• Encourage institutions and non-profit organizations serving youth and families to incorporate a two question, food screening tool to determine if a child/family are at high risk of hunger.
• Educate schools with 40%+ students determined eligible for free and reduced lunch that they
  are eligible to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision Program (CEP).