Wednesdays4Kids January 20

-- Alice Waters

Take Action: Urge Representatives to Support Good Nutrition in Child Care
An email or phone call to your US Representative of Minnesota THIS WEEK can result in more healthy meals and snacks for children in child care!

Child and Adult Care Food Program helps low-income children in child care homes and centers receive nutritious meals and snacks. Congress will decide this year whether to continue the program and has an opportunity to improve the program as well. Please join us in letting our Minnesota Representatives know of your support for H.R. 4402, the Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act.

Here are some talking points for your message:

• Please support improvements in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) by co-sponsoring the Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act (S. 2749/H.R. 4402). 
• CACFP makes a significant difference in the ability of child care and Head Start programs to offer wholesome and nutritious meals. Healthy meals lead to healthy child development and healthy children. 
• Support the Access to Nutritious Meals Act, which seeks to increase the reimbursement rates for meals and snacks to help offset the rising prices of food; adds an additional meal or snack service for children who are in child care longer hours while their parents piece together work opportunities in this difficult economy; provides important supports for family child care provider eligibility to counteract the dramatic decline in family child care home participation in CACFP; and streamlines and simplifies program paperwork and administration. 
• These changes would greatly strengthen and improve the CACFP program, and would make a huge difference in our program and our community. Please co-sponsor the Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act and help us strengthen the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Your message this week makes a difference, click here to find out who your representative is. Thank you to Child Care Works for their great work on this issue!

2010 Day on the Hill: Registration is Now Open
Mark your calendars for our 2010 Day on the Hill, March 25. This is your opportunity to join with hundreds of other Minnesotans from across the state to speak with your legislators about the issues that you care about on behalf of our state’s children.

This year we will focus our advocacy on protecting early child care funding, ending child abuse in Minnesota, and ensuring that parents are earning a livable income.  Click here for more information about our 2010 Legislative Goals.

Be sure to register early and take advantage of our early-bird rates. Click here for our online registration form.

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