Hunger Action Day 2010

On Friday, I was in Olympia for Hunger Action Day along with some 150 other anti-hunger and nutrition activists from across the state of Washington. We were there to meet with our legislators and senators and share our insight and stories with them. This year's state budget is brutal and our elected officials have some very difficult decisions facing them. 

The group of 150 activists is by far the largest number of participants to decend upon the capital. In fact, our meeting room wasn't big enough for all of us! We started the day going over the agenda together and then we broke up into groups to learn about advocacy depending on our comfort level.  Most of us are beginners and while we may have emailed or called our representatives before, not too many of us have taken the time to meet with them. 

Our agenda had four major points:

1. protect the funding already in place for hunger related programs
2. give an additional $250,000 to fund Washington's summer food programs for kids
3. preserve support for food banks and tribal food programs
4. support prompt and accurate access to the Basic Food Program

There is a lot of information on each topic and each of us picked one or two subjects to talk about during our meetings. I had three meetings set with my legislators and will update this blog and share my stories shortly.

So far my initial impression is how easy it is to get active. Make your voice heard to make change!