Greetings and happy new year. I’m Heatherly Conway, Ed.D., an author, speaker, educator, social worker, and a consultant for my book Collaboration for Kids. For more than 30 years I have promoted passionately the rights of children to be safe, nurtured, loved, and educated.

If this meets with your political convictions, you may want to take action.

There is a bill currently before the U.S. Senate that could make an enormous difference to the children and families we serve.

House bill H.R. 5012, the Weekends Without Hunger Act, has now passed the House of Representatives and has been sent to the Senate for a vote. This bill covers not only feeding children on weekends but on holidays also. The Senate is not totally pleased with spending more money to feed hungry children, and this bill needs your help to pass the Senate.

I am asking all people to call or write their senators and tell them to support this bill. The easiest way to do this is to call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard and ask for your senator’s office. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. If you feel strongly about feeding children in poverty, you also can call the switchboard and ask for the Senate Agriculture Committee; ask them to log in your support for this bill.

Sending a strong message to your senator is important. Be sure to ask your senator to log in your message of support for this bill, and give the senator exact information (H.R. 5012, the Weekends Without Hunger Act).

Statistics demonstrate that there are 14 million children in poverty in the U.S., and many of them are hungry, as we all know. Please call, and please also give this information to others who might help out with a call to their senators.

The children of poverty will reap the advantage.