Maine is now one step closer to ending childhood hunger for 70,000 children.

Preble Street Maine Hunger Initiative and Share Our Strength worked together this week to ensure passage of LD 1353, An Act to Further Reduce Student Hunger. This bill requires schools with over 50% participation in free and reduced lunch and who have children gathered there for either academic or recreational programming to provide summer meals.

In a state with the third highest rate of food insecurity in the nation, and where one in four Maine children live in a food insecure home, this bill makes a big difference to the over 70,000 eligible Maine students who do not have access to a healthy summer meal. An Act to Further Reduce Student Hunger is good for Maine children and families, and it’s good for business.

An Act to Further Reduce Student Hunger was approved by the legislature last June, and was vetoed by the Governor in January. Preble Street Maine Hunger Initiative launched a coordinated awareness campaign about the importance of summer meals, and the newspapers have been saturated with the collective message of ending childhood hunger in Maine.

The Senate has now reapproved this bill with a vote of 25-10 and the House with a vote of 92-45. LD 1353 has now passed not once but twice. From Preble Street Maine Hunger Initiative, THANK YOU to all of our supporters for helping ensure there is No Kid Hungry in Maine.