SPLC president condemns political decision that will leave children hungry

It appears that even the issue of child hunger can’t bridge the partisan divide, says Southern Poverty Law Center President and CEO Margaret Huang in a recent commentary.

The column, published in The Hill, looks at how more than a dozen governors have refused to enroll their states in a federal food program, potentially leaving 10 million children hungry while out of school this summer. Many of these youth are Black children in the Deep South states the SPLC serves, part of a region with the highest average food insecurity and poverty rates.

“In 2022, one in three Black children went without reliable access to food,” Huang writes. “It is indefensible that when given the opportunity to help Black families get ahead, these governors — all of whom are white — shrugged and said, ‘No thanks.’

 “It’s hard to understand their reasoning as anything but scoring political points against the Biden administration.”

While it’s too late for these states to reverse course this year, Huang urges officials to make the right choice for children next year.

The column can be read at The Hill website. The SPLC also published this investigative story examining the real-life consequences of turning away this federal aid.

Photo at top: Students line up for lunch at East Brainerd Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Credit: The Washington Post)