Titus proposes $10 million anti-hunger bill for schoolchildren

WASHINGTON -- An anti-hunger bill that would provide schoolchildren with food to take home during weekends and holidays was introduced Tuesday in Congress.

The bill by Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., targets children from low-income families that qualify for free or reduced-cost school breakfasts and lunches during the week.

The Weekends Without Hunger Act would start a federal pilot program to provide food for schools and local anti-hunger groups to distribute.

The bill authorizes Congress to spend $10 million a year for five years on the effort.

More than 19 million schoolchildren eat free or reduced-cost meals during the week, according to Feeding America, a national network of hunger relief charities.

In Clark County, roughly 148,000 children qualify for the free or subsidized meals.

"With 45 percent of Clark County schoolchildren relying on the free and reduced-price lunch program, more than 140,000 students in Southern Nevada are facing hunger at home, and many depend on school meals as their main source of food throughout the week," Titus said.

"With many nonprofit and charity organizations struggling to meet the high demand for food during this tough economic time, my legislation would help provide our children with food during weekends and holidays."

Nonprofits in about 150 cities operate weekend feeding programs in which children are given bags or backpacks of food to take home on Fridays.

In Clark County, the Three Square food bank assembles about 6,000 backpacks each week, each containing 5 pounds of nonperishables including canned meat and fruit, President Julie Murray said.

The weekend feeding program, called Backpack for Kids, operates in 195 schools but meets only a fraction of the need in many of them, Murray said.

"We want to be able to expand our program," she said. "Our budget allows us to distribute only 40 bags per school, and in several schools that have 50 percent or more impoverished children, they have asked us for hundreds of bags.

"We have hundreds of volunteers that come in to pack the bags. It is just a matter of funding to add more bags. We would add as many more as funding would allow us to."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.