Democratic Leadership Council Credits Joel for New Obama Hunger Initiative

From the DLC website, here is their February 24, 2010 press release:

DLC | Press Release | February 24, 2010

UPDATE: Obama Administration Embraces DLC Idea of Targeted Anti-Hunger Grants to States
Key Strategy in Plan to End U.S. Child Hunger by 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s just-announced strategy to meet the President’s goal of ending child hunger by 2015 included an idea, first proposed by Joel Berg and Tom Freedman in a DLC paper, to create a USDA grant program to reward states for innovative anti-hunger strategies.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a former DLC Chair, announced a new competition to help eliminate child hunger by 2015, saying: “We’ll provide competitive grants to Governors, working with stakeholders statewide, so that states can act as laboratories for successful strategies.”

In a 2006 policy paper for the DLC, Berg (the executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and author of the book “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?”) and Freedman (President of the strategic consulting firm Freedman Consulting and a former senior advisor to President Clinton), proposed both that the next President set a five year goal for ending child hunger in America and that one tool of accomplishing goal would be creating a grant program to fund innovative state hunger-reduction strategies. Freedman and Berg reinforced those themes in a DLC memo to President-elect Obama in January of 2009.

In a subsequent DLC paper, Freedman and Share our Strength Founder Bill Shore further elaborated on how the federal and states governments could forge partnerships to end child hunger.

“By combining federal-level resources and accountability with state-level innovation and implementation, the administration’s new hunger proposal is perfectly in-line with the DLC’s agenda of responsibility and reform,” said DLC CEO Bruce Reed. “We are honored that Secretary Vilsack, a former DLC leader, is moving from theory to reality an idea similar to the one we proposed.”

While the nation’s bedrock anti-hunger programs (such the SNAP Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, school meals, and WIC) are funded mostly by the federal governments, states have a great deal of flexibility in implementing them. “This is a smart step — leveraging federal programs and state innovation to reduce child hunger,” said Freedman, “this is a sensible approach by Secretary Vilsack to help our nation’s neediest kids.”

Said Berg, “The Obama administration is putting its money where it mouth is, funding new ideas to achieve its historic goal of ending child hunger in America. Too often, Washington decides how much money to hand to states based on how well they fill-out paperwork. By creating a new program based on how well states ensure proper nutrition for children, President Obama and Secretary Vilsack are taking a giant leap forward in both good government and good hunger fighting.”

For more information, or to speak with Bruce Reed, Tom Freedman, or Joel Berg, please contact Conor McKay at cmckay@dlc.org or (202) 608-1232.

The Democratic Leadership Council seeks to promote debate within the Democratic Party and the public at large about national and international policy and political issues. For additional information, web users may access the Democratic Leadership Council online at www.dlc.org.