The Plan to End Childhood Hunger

Improve working families’ economic security

Family economic security is a means of preventing childhood hunger. The Partnership will support advocates who are working to:

• Train low-income people for living wage employment,
• Improve wages and benefits,
• Increase health care coverage for families,
• Make child care more affordable,
• Strengthen refundable tax credits, child support enforcement, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and other income supports.

In partnership with Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB), we will also work to produce immediate results by helping more low-income families take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. Even if they do not earn enough to pay federal income taxes, low-income workers pay Social Security and other taxes that can be partially refunded under these two programs.

We will also partner with CAAB to help EITC tax filers apply for SNAP (food stamps), simultaneously linking low-income District families to two federal assistance programs with proven track records of lifting people out of poverty.

Through our work with the Fair Budget Coalition, we will work to promote the needs of low-income families by advocating for a just and inclusive District budget that invests in anti-poverty programs.

Since 2006 we have:

• Provided support to the EITC campaign to increase the number of low-income wage earners that file for the federal and District EITC.
• Served on the D.C. Fair Budget Coalition’s Steering Committee to advocate for a budget that addresses the needs of low-income District residents through investments in social service and safety net programs.
• Advocated for increases in Temporary TANF benefits that provide a critical safety net for families with children.

2009-2010 Goals:

Each year, five percent more low-income households will file for Federal and/or District EITC at CAAB’s Earned Income Tax Campaign sites.

Each year, we will increase the number of households who receive SNAP information at EITC sites by five percent.

2009-2010 Action Plan

• Lead efforts to promote expanded and improved federal nutrition programs as a way to improve families’ economic security.
• Promote greater public awareness and advocate for the best use of income supports (e.g., food stamps, child tax credit, EITC, child care, child support benefits).
• Work for successful implementation of the District’s legislation to provide living wages, paid sick days, and first-source hiring practices (i.e., hiring D.C. residents vs. non-residents with equivalent qualifications).
• Participate on Fair Budget Coalition Steering Committee.
• Promote asset building strategies for low-income families (e.g., eliminating the asset test in public programs, promoting free checking accounts, and providing credit counseling services).

Measures of Success

• Annual increase in percentage of low-income households that file for federal or District EITC at CAAB’s Earned Income Tax Campaign sites.
• Annual five percent increase in the number of households who receive SNAP information at EITC sites.