Letter to the Editor - Senate must act to help needy children

Editor,

While families are counting down to the holidays, many are also anxiously watching a different clock — the one that is running out for the Senate to take meaningful action to address hunger and poverty in communities here in Montana and nationwide.

Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, families will get their last monthly check this month through the enhanced Child Tax Credit, one of the programs of the Build Back Better Act now under consideration in the Senate.

This benefit has been a lifeline for families, helping them afford necessities like food, rent, diapers and utilities, and keeping millions of kids from slipping into poverty.

If the Senate doesn’t extend the enhanced Child Tax Credit, 27 million kids nationwide will lose out on this full benefit, including 78,000 in Montana.

But there are other things at stake if the Senate doesn’t pass the Build Back Better Act.

This legislation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help end child hunger. Across the state, it could strengthen access to school meals for students by adding more than 140 schools to a program called the Community Eligibility Provisions. And it could tackle summer hunger with the creation of a Summer EBT program benefitting more than 65,000 kids.

An opportunity to do this much for so many kids is truly rare. With 1 in 6 kids in Montana facing hunger today, Sens. Tester and Daines must act now and pass the Build Back Better Act.

Montana native Lisa Davis of Washington, DC., is senior vice president of No Kid Hungry.