On September 30th, the Child Nutrition Act expired.

The Congressional Committee on Education and Labor, which oversees the Act, had the opportunity to improve the lives of our children and those that feed them.

But rather than pass a bill that would create a program that works far better, they simply decided to simply take a pass for the next few months.

The result is a year-long, temporary extension that keeps the program exactly as it is today: a program that leaves children hungry, places a burden on our school districts, and leaves school food workers without the resources to cook nutritious and healthy school meals.

We need to tell the Committee members that this isn't acceptable. In the midst of the Great Recession, there's no better time to fix these problems than right now.

In the next few months, the members of the Committee will once again take up this legislation. But we can't hold off until then. We need to tell them right now that a real Act - with real improvements - must be authorized.

We've laid out common-sense ideas like expanding enrollment, giving sick days to school food service workers at a time when the swine flu is spreading, supporting fresh and local foods, and better transparency in how taxpayer funds are spent. These are real solutions that can benefit our children each and every day.

Now, we need you to tell the Committee members why a real Child Nutrition Act is important to you. In the next few days, we'll hand-deliver your messages to the members of this Committee.

Write to the Congressional Committee on Education and Labor right now: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/cnaexpiration