Governor John Hickenlooper has signed an executive order extending an anti-childhood hunger campaign; part of a national effort to eradicate all childhood hunger by 2015.It’s also an extension of a program that first began under former Governor Bill Ritter.
The “No Kid Hungry” campaign was reaffirmed by Governor Hickenlooper during a breakfast with social workers at the Denver Athletic Club.
Kathy Underhill, executive director of Hunger Free Colorado, one of the initiative’s partners, concedes wiping out childhood hunger in this state in four years will be tough.
"It sounds very ambitious and audacious and it is, but it’s a 100% doable," Underhill says. "What we need to do in Colorado is use the full array of federal nutrition programs that are at our disposable but we frankly just don’t participate in."
Underhill says the state now ranks near the bottom nationally in usage rates for federal nutrition programs for kids, so increasing access to the roles is the initiative’s top priority.
