A bipartisan group of lawmakers say they are teaming up to fix what they call Minnesota’s most “solvable problem” — child hunger.

State Reps. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, and Rod Hamilton, R- Mountain Lake, announced Thursday they were forming a child hunger caucus to raise awareness and find new ways to feed hungry kids.

“This has been a silent issue for far too long,” said Maye Quade, who noted that the rise in child hunger in her community inspired her to run for the Legislature.

A 2015 Pioneer Press report found the number of Minnesota students who qualify for free or reduced-priced meals, a federal poverty indicator, rose by 64 percent in suburban schools over the past decade. At one Apple Valley school, Greenleaf Elementary, students who qualified for subsidized meals jumped 380 percent between 2005 and 2015.

Statewide, 37 percent of Minnesota’s 862,160 students qualify for state-funded meals.

Greenleaf and other schools around the metro have partnered with nonprofits like the Sheridan Story to send food home with students on the weekends. Sheridan now provides food to more than 5,400 students at 144 schools by connecting donors with programs that fight child hunger.

Maye Quade and Hamilton hope to replicate those types of efforts and remove some of the barriers communities have to expanding programs that feed children. They acknowledged that it won’t necessarily require new laws although they are exploring ideas.

In addition to “backpack programs” like Sheridan, which send food home with students, there are local, state and federal efforts to feed students who cannot afford food. Minnesota spends about $25 million each year on school nutrition programs.

State leaders are working to expand the number of schools that offer breakfast at no cost to students. There also has been rapid growth of the state’s summer food program that provides meals to needy children when school is not in session.

Last summer, more than 200 schools and organizations fed children at nearly 1,000 sites across the state. Despite the expansion, just 18 percent of students who qualify have access to summer food programs.

Lawmakers said a big part of the new caucus’ efforts will be to simply connect all the organizations and local officials working to feed hungry kids. Hamilton added the coalition also needs to include farmers and others in the food industry.

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As MN schools reopen, parents urged to keep sick kids home to slow COVID spread “We in agriculture touch the lives of every single person every single day,” Hamilton said. “We want to make sure people have access to a safe, wholesome, great-tasting product at a reasonable price.”

Maye Quade added that if the Legislature considers a supplemental spending bill this session she’ll seek new resources to combat child hunger. She noted that proposed cuts to federal food programs would be “devastating” to Minnesotans in need.

“This really is the most solvable problem,” she said. “I’m glad in a polarized political environment we are putting politics aside to focus on the needs of the kids in Minnesota.”