The child nutrition bill, which will be before the House on Wednesday, December 1, impacts over 41 million children in every community across the country, yet Congress is at risk of letting it slip away. While child nutrition may not command the megaphone like the tax debate, it should. Our children’s health is no small thing.
That’s because the cost of poor nutrition is staggering, and not just to the individual child. In 2005, the impact of our nation’s hunger problem was estimated at over $90 billion per year – $800 million in Connecticut alone. And the annual health care cost of obesity is estimated at $147 billion dollars a year.
Our leaders often remark that there is no greater investment that we can make than in our children. These numbers demonstrate that’s not just a feel-good saying. The child nutrition bill matters to our children, it matters for Connecticut and it should matter to Congress.
Please call or contact your Congressperson and ask him or her to help hungry kids. Call 877-698-8228 or visit http://www.congress.org to locate your Representative.
Congress must not miss this opportunity to invest in our children.
