According to the Food Insecurity and Hunger in the U.S. report, released in February 2016 by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and Children’s Health Watch, food insecurity among immigrants, refugees, and asylees living in the United States is greater than for U.S. born children. It also describes research to support that the longer these families are in the U.S., though their food security may increase, their health declines with increased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases.

Today, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing to markup the “Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016” a bill that reauthorizes and amends the child nutrition portion of the National School Lunch Act (NSLA).

Over the past 18 months, Child Care Aware® of America staff and Public Policy committee has surveyed, interviewed, and conducted focus groups with parents of young children, grandparents, national child advocacy organizations, and state and local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies. During those conversations it was underscored that child care is an essential building block of any community and that investments in child care are investments in our children, our economy, and our future.

Early childhood education (ECE) is in the spotlight as never before. Being in the limelight, however, has highlighted the field’s fragmentation and the variability in the quality of children’s formal early learning experiences. This reality is unlikely to change, though, unless the ECE field comes to terms with its lack of organization as a unified field of practice with defined accountabilities for a competent and responsible workforce.

The reauthorization of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) has a congressional Fall deadline. The CACFP is a federal program serving more than 3 million children in child care, Head Start, and after school programs across the country. With more science and academic reports explaining the benefits of healthy diets for kids, Congress will need to appropriately fund the program in order to ensure access to quality and nutritious foods for all children.