Faith Action Network Update....partnering with LPPO

An Update for the Synod Hunger Team from the Faith Action Network Your ELCA State Public Policy Office At the September 2011 Synod Hunger Team meeting, team members asked the Faith Action Network for an e-news article to provide recipients with a brief update about the FAN merger, and to highlight two or three hunger-related legislative priorities for the year. We send this update with gratitude for the opportunity to re-connect, and to join our energies with yours to create the legislative victories that will reduce hunger in our state and nation. The Faith Action Network absolutely remains your ELCA Washington State Public Policy Office, enjoying robust local, synodical and churchwide connections. LPPO's merger with the Washington Association of Churches continues the powerful work of both organizations by broadening our network and increasing our resources. The ELCA has a strong tradition of partnering with ecumenical and interfaith bodies, and we are proud to strengthen that tradition while remaining rooted in our baptismal vocation to "strive for peace and justice in all the earth."  If you have made financial contributions to LPPO in the past, we thank you and ask you to continue your giving. If you have not, we invite you to do so! You may continue to send financial gifts to: Faith Action Network, 766 John St, Suite B, Seattle, WA 98109. There is also a giving button on our website at www.fanwa.org. And now for some hunger-related legislative updates! 1. 2011 Legislative Success Threatened In the 2011 session LPPO and WAC, along with their anti-poverty allies, were successful in sustaining funding for the WIC/FMNP (Women, Infants, and Children/Farmers Market Nutrition Program). Funding for this small but important program was to be "zeroed out" in the second year of the 2011-13 biennium, but we took the lead to restore fall funding for the second year of the biennium. This program will be threatened again this year, and we will need your voices to persuade legislators to keep it going strong! 2. Meals for Kids Coalition FAN is currently a partner, along with the Children's Alliance and the Washington State Nutrition Association, in a Meals for Kids Coalition. We are attempting to increase access to free school meals for children from low-income households. Currently, depending upon household income, families either pay full price, reduced price, or receive lunches free.  Cuts threaten $6.8 million that was used to establish the free tier. Our strategy is to preserve the $6.8 million and the free tier, and remove the reduced price tier so that more families will qualify for free lunches in these difficult economic times. Since Kari wrote this for us in September, be sure and check our the FAN webpage for the latest development.