A GOP-created task force to “end” childhood hunger in Tennessee started work this week, while state Democrats criticized GOP cuts to food assistance programs.
The “End Childhood Hunger Act” was passed unanimously by the Tennessee General Assembly earlier this year. It created a task force to broadly review ”the challenges of affordability and accessibility of high quality nutrition in this state.”
More narrowly, the group would review programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Summer Food Service Program. The task force would look to build partnerships with government agencies and nonprofits for solutions to “the state’s childhood hunger challenges.” It would also look at challenges with Electronic Benefit Cards (EBT), like theft and fraud.
“I have had some concern once the task force was authorized that the name of the task force may suggest that there are children who are currently going hungry in Tennessee.”
Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Clarence Carter
The task force met for the first time Tuesday. During the meeting, Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Clarence Carter, a veteran of managing state and federal assistance programs, spoke candidly.
“I have had some concern once the task force was authorized that the name of the task force may suggest that there are children who are currently going hungry in Tennessee,” Carter said to kick off the meeting. ”I would say we do all that we can across a number of different state agencies to ensure that’s not the case.”
State Rep. Mary Littleton (R-Dickson) co-sponsored the legislation to create the task force. She said during the meeting Tuesday that the goal is to “figure out how a child is going hungry and stop it.”
State government program leaders then outlined the many ways Tennessee is helping to feed hungry children, including the state and federal programs mentioned above.
Commissioner Carter said food production “is not the issue,” and that America produces enough to “actually feed the world.” Even Tennessee “produces enough health and nutritious foods.” Carter said getting that food to the right people — distribution — was the main issue.
While Carter wondered at the beginning of the meeting whether or not there were hungry children in Tennessee, data say there’s no doubt. Feeding America, the national nonprofit, said the child food insecurity rate in Shelby County was nearly 28 percent in 2023, according to its latest data. The group said it would cost an additional $106 million to feed those 65,140 food-insecure children here.
Nearly 40 percent of Tennesseans with children reported not having enough money for food last year, according to a survey by East Tennessee State University (ETSU).
“Tennesseans with children report more often that the food they purchased did not last in the last 12 months,” ETSU said. “When asked specifically about food lasting, 31 percent of those with children reported that it was often true that the food they bought did not last long enough compared to 13 percent of those without children.”
State Democrats criticized Republican lawmakers saying they “have only made hunger worse,” according to Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville). For this, they point to Gov. Bill Lee’s recent decision to reject federal funding for a food assistance program that would have fed 700,000 Tennessee children this summer. Lee said the $3 million to administer the program was too costly. Instead, Lee implemented a state-run summer food assistance plan to feed kids in 15 counties. Shelby was not one of them.
”We wouldn’t need a task force if Republicans stopped making policies that deepen the crisis,” Oliver said in a statement. “I welcome any serious effort to feed hungry children. But let’s be real: no task force can undo the harm being done in real time.
”We wouldn’t need a task force if Republicans stopped making policies that deepen the crisis.”
Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville)
”If lawmakers want to end childhood hunger, they can start by reversing their own damaging decisions.”
Further, Democrats said federal legislation passed earlier this year in President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will further cut food assistance programs.
Nancy Keil, the president and CEO of Middle Tennessee’s Second Harvest Food Bank, called Trump’s law the “largest rollback of hunger relief in U.S. history.” She said the bill will eliminate 300 million meals for Tennesseans over the next decade.
“Even more, SNAP brought $1.9 billion in federal food dollars into Tennessee last year, supporting more than 6,600 local grocery stores and farmers’ markets,” Keil said.