Episcopal, ELCA bishops plead for Tennessee to renew summer program addressing child hunger
[Episcopal News Service] East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole joined his counterpart in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in writing a column in the Nashville Tennessean pleading for the state to commit to distributing federal food assistance to address child hunger this summer.
The state has until Feb. 15 to decide whether to use the federal funds. The program helps feed low-income children in the summer, when they no longer have access to the free or reduced-cost meals they receive during the school year.
“The program is a lifeline at a time when inflation in food prices makes it impossible for too many families to provide adequate nutrition for their children,” Cole said in the column with the Rev. Kevin Strickland, who leads the ELCA’s Southeastern Synod, with congregations in Tennessee and three other states. Cole’s Knoxville-based diocese has congregations in the eastern third of the state.
The full column can be read here.
