Sarah Huckabee Sanders Speaks About Importance Of Ending Childhood Hunger

Forbes Breaking News

In remarks at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Summer Nutrition Kickoff, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) spoke about programs to reduce childhood hunger.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. You can tell those who are ready to actually work and serve meals.

00:06No offense Jacob in a blazer. It's hot outside. I was told to be casual and

00:13ready to work and so I'm ready to work but don't worry we will get something

00:18out of our secretary here this morning still. But it is great to be here with

00:23this group and excited about participating in this program again. Last

00:28year this group was able to serve 293,000 meals. The problem is this year

00:35we're in early July and we've already served 325,000 showing what an insane

00:42need we have here in the state of Arkansas but also why programs like this

00:46are so incredibly important. We know that if kids in particular are hungry and not

00:53eating they're not learning they're not able to do anything during the summer

00:58if the number one thing they're concerned about is whether or not they're going to

01:02have a meal next and so programs like this programs like the summer EBT program

01:07and I see almost two full rows of our state legislators that are here. We work

01:13together in a bipartisan effort to pass legislation making Arkansas the first

01:19state in the south to offer free breakfast to every single student in our

01:23state making sure fewer kids are hungry. That type of activity and action doesn't

01:33happen by accident it's because of collaboration of the members of our

01:37legislature because of collaboration with groups like the Arkansas Hunger

01:42Relief Alliance and the incredible team that they have working here our

01:46districts and of course Mary and Jacob and a number of our State Board of

01:50Education members that are here several other members of our cabinet that are

01:54working in lockstep to make sure that people across the state of Arkansas are

02:00not going hungry. It's one of the biggest challenges that we have in our state but

02:04it's something that we are not going to ignore and refuse to take on and tackle. I

02:09know that we can move Arkansas from being at the bottom of this list by

02:13utilizing programs like this. As we're gathered here I'm reminded of a story of a

02:19very good friend of mine who she and her husband they live in Pine Bluff Arkansas

02:25and for a long time they were coaching their son's baseball team and they could

02:30see on the baseball team that these kids were incredibly talented however they

02:35couldn't seem to ever win a game and the husband was smart enough to enlist his

02:42wife and say hey can you help me figure out what's going on these kids are

02:45obviously talented but we never seem to win a game. She shows up at practice she

02:50starts visiting with each of the kids and she finds out it wasn't that they

02:54couldn't play it's that they were hungry. Most of these kids were coming from school

02:59where they hadn't eaten and weren't having dinners and snacks and things so

03:04she started getting meals and feeding this team they actually added more

03:07practices and for four nights a week she was bringing meals for the entire team.

03:12turned it around they started winning went on to win three state championships

03:17showing what a difference a kid who is fed can make. We can't count on a mom like

03:24that showing up and feeding every single baseball team across the state of

03:28Arkansas so that's why programs like this that's why partnerships like this are

03:33so important so that we can step up and make sure that that is not the

03:38exception but that's the rule that every kid in the state of Arkansas has access

03:43to good healthy nutritious meals and so proud to be here and be part of this

03:47partnership and I really appreciate the leadership of all of this group and

03:52everybody working together and Jacob you may want to ditch the blazer because

03:56we're about to make you work a little bit so thank you all for being here today.

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