Pittsburgh woman pushing for legislation to end child hunger

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Hundreds of thousands of children in our commonwealth go hungry every day.

There's been legislation to help reduce that number, but the need is still great. A Pittsburgh woman has been in Washington pushing for better legislation so children don't go hungry.

The child tax credit is something that has significantly helped families fight food insecurity, but people like Heather Taylor are fighting for more to help permanently end child hunger.

Taylor is part of a non-partisan advocacy group Bread for the World. She's traveled from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. fighting to keep families out of poverty.

Her goal is to persuade legislators to pass bills that would increase the number of schools that could serve free lunch and a summer EBT program for groceries.

"Summer EBT, what it does is specifically puts money on a grocery card so that they can be used to specifically supplement meals over the summer when programs aren't available," Taylor said.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, there are more than 400,000 children in the state who fight food insecurity and almost 1 million who would qualify for EBT benefits.

"If we can ensure that a greater number of schools that are serving low-income families are able to provide help, again it's literally ensuring that kids are able to put food in their stomachs," Taylor said. 

The number of children who are in danger of slipping below the pandemic enhanced child tax credit and into poverty is over 300,000, something Taylor says she hopes to have an impact on decreasing significantly in the coming years.