
Legislative Update: Week One
The first week of the session has been a productive one for Kansas Appleseed. Our team has been at the Statehouse everyday to meet with legislators to advance our legislative priorities. We were honored to be invited by Governor Laura Kelly to the State of the State address, where she outlined several priorities important to our mission, including her continued commitment to expand Medicaid, fully funding education, supporting childcare providers and centers, and, our favorite, reducing childhood hunger.
Here’s what we’ve been working on this week:
Reducing Hunger in Kansas
On Wednesday night, Governor Laura Kelly announced in her State of the State address that she has included a line item in her budget to fund reduced-price meal co-pays for Kansas students. This is something that Kansas Appleseed has advocated for, and it is a huge step forward to ensuring more kids have what they need to thrive!
With over 36,0000 Kansas kids eligible for reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program, this will make a huge difference for low-income families across the state. By eliminating the reduced-price copay for kids, Kansas is investing in their well-being, development, and future success.
While we are elated to see this proposal come up, it will take all of us to get it across the finish line! We have several ways to get involved, including:
- Friday, January 24th we are hosting a webinar for folks to learn more about eliminating the reduced-price meal copay for Kansas kids, and next steps to ensure it becomes a reality. Registration can be found here.
- Sign this petition calling on Kansas legislators to take action quickly and ensure Kansas kids on reduced-price meals will no longer have to pay for their meals at school.
Protecting and Expanding Food Assistance Programs
The House Committee on Welfare Reform kicked off the session with multiple bills that would impact SNAP food assistance in Kansas. Kansas Appleseed has seen these bills introduced several times in the past few years, so there have not been many surprises thus far. We will continue to monitor this committee to ensure attacks on safety net programs do not go unnoticed.
- HB 2015, directing the secretary for children and families to request a waiver from supplemental nutrition assistance program rules that would allow the state to prohibit the purchase of candy and soft drinks with food assistance.
- HB 2027, Reorganizing subsections of the public assistance statute.
Improving the State’s Foster Care System
Yesterday, Kansas Appleseed Deputy Director, Mike Fonkert, provided testimony to the House Committee on Foster Care and Child Welfare Committee during an informational hearing on Governor Kelly’s Executive Order 25-01. This order ended the state’s practice of taking foster youth’s SSI, Survivor, and Veterans benefits and adding them to the DCF budget. We presented our strong support of this executive order and encouraged the swift codification of it into statute, ensuring that it will remain in effect regardless of who our governor is. We look forward to continuing our work with DCF as they implement this change and build out more robust financial literacy courses for youth and their support systems to encourage responsible money management.
Your advocacy matters, and we encourage you to look up your legislators’ contact information and be ready to take action on legislation that is important to you. We also invite you to sign up to receive texts from us on fast moving issues where your voice can make all the difference!