Dear friends and neighbors,
Although it feels like we just started, we’re more than 75 percent of the way through this year’s legislative session.
There is still plenty of work to tackle in the next two weeks, especially as we finalize the state’s supplemental budgets and prepare for the opposite house cutoff on March 3rd.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the recent 44th Legislative District town hall with friends and colleagues Rep. Brandy Donaghy and Sen. John Lovick.
The best part of this job is getting to hear directly from all of you, and I look forward to when it’s once again safe to host these events in person. If you were unable to attend, you can watch the town hall recording. If you have a question we weren’t able to cover, never hesitate to reach out to my office at april.berg@leg.wa.gov.
Food Fighters
The Food Fighters are a group of HDC members working to fight hunger by building a robust and sustainable food system. We do this at the legislature by supporting hunger relief organizations, investing in the infrastructure farmers need to connect to eaters, bolstering the efforts of institutional purchasers like schools and hospitals, and making it easier for low-income families to put healthy food on their tables, among other strategies.
The Food Fighters have been around for a number of years working on bills like the Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Program (2019 – HB 1587), Breakfast After the Bell (2018 – HB 1508), and the Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights (2018 – HB 2610). When COVID-19 hit, we worked to eliminate lunch copays for students who qualify for reduced-price lunches (2021- HB 1342), expand traditional cash food assistance, and ensure access to food throughout the pandemic.
This session, our top priorities include:
- increasing public school participation in the community eligibility provision of the United States department of agriculture (House Bill 1878 by Rep. Marcus Riccelli),
- providing school employee shortage relief by raising the cap on hours that retired school employees can work (House Bill 1699 by Rep. Steve Bergquist),
- expanding the students experiencing homelessness and foster youth pilot program (House Bill 1601 by Rep. Mari Leavitt),
- establishing service requirements for the department of social and health services (House Bill 2075 by Rep. Strom Peterson),
- improving accessibility to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (House Bill 2048 by Rep. Strom Peterson), and
- improving workplace standards for truck drivers (House Bill 1706 by Rep. Mike Sells).
Plant-based meals in schools
Yummy plant-based pumpkin pasta shells with cashew cream sauce.
In Washington, one in six kids live in a household that faces challenges in putting enough food in the table.
Many students rely on public school cafeterias as their only guaranteed source of food, but school districts across Washington have experienced drastic food supply chain issues and staffing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing a diversity of healthy meals in schools allows students to practice personal choice and provides students with the opportunity to experience a variety of nutritious foods, including those from plant sources, from an early age.
That’s why I sponsored a budget request to appropriate $150,000 of the general fund for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to administer grants to school districts for plant-based school meals pilot programs.
These funds will allow schools to supplement their supply chain options, have a positive environmental impact, and provide more culturally inclusive diet opportunities. And, districts could use this grant as an opportunity to teach students about plant-based proteins that grow near them – whether it’s a legume farm in Eastern Washington or a tofu plant on Vashon Island.
Getting the right information to help more kids
Right now, the 295 school districts in Washington State do not have a streamlined process for the submission of household income information that is required for participation in school meals and programs.
That’s why I sponsored House Bill 1833, which removes student access barriers to free and reduced-price meals. It also provides parents and guardians with a voluntary, secure, and convenient multilingual online portal for providing household information that is required for a school’s participation in the national school lunch program, the school breakfast program, or both.
By ensuring an accessible, simplified process of determining program participation eligibility, House Bill 1833 will support hunger-relief and make it easier for low-income families to receive the support they need.
HB 1833 passed the House 92-4 and just passed the Senate Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education on Feb. 23.
Keep in touch
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate everyone who wrote, called, or participated in our town hall meeting. Please feel free to get in touch with me.
We are also hosting coffee chats around the district, so please for email announcements of when and where those will take place.
I hope to see you soon!
