Current Advocacy Campaigns
Montana Food Bank Network advocates at both state and federal levels to protect and strengthen the public nutrition programs, and address root causes of hunger.
Federal Level
American Families Plan
President Biden introduced the American Families Plan in April outlining how to build a stronger economy by focusing on making significant investments in child nutrition programs, support for families and children, adding four years of free education, and extending tax cuts for families with children and workers. Learn more in the White House American Families Plan fact sheet.
Child Nutrition Reauthorization
Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) is a process used by Congress to update child nutrition programs, including the summer and after school meals program, school breakfast and lunch program and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. CNR is used to set policy and funding for these programs and is typically renewed every 5 years, although it has not been updated since 2010.
A number of marker bills have been introduced by members of Congress which begin the process of updating CNR. Click the images below to learn more about the marker bills we are watching.
American Rescue Plan Act
This $1.9 trillion bill includes financial help for individuals, families, organizations and local and state governments. Information on the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Biden in March, can be found on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website.
State Level
The 2021 State Legislative Session closed on April 29, 2021. This session MFBN focused on supporting bills that would help provide stability for struggling Montanans, and opposing bills that would do the exact opposite. It is only with the help of our Anti-Hunger Advocates and community partners across the state that we were able to come through the session with some important successes. We stopped bills that would have added new barriers to SNAP (SB100 and HB339). We passed HB235, providing $95,000 in state funds for Montana’s Double SNAP dollars program (which was vetoed by Governor Gianforte). Additional details on MFBN’s 2021 Montana Legislative priorities can be found here.
