{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-merkley-wyden-champion-fork-act-bipartisan-bicameral-legislation-to-keep-rural-kids-fed/", "Welch, Merkley, Wyden\u00a0Champion\u00a0FORK Act,\u00a0Bipartisan,\u00a0Bicameral\u00a0Legislation to Keep Rural Kids Fed", "2026-08-04", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "Nearly 1 in 6 children in Vermont face hunger\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, joined U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in reintroducing the Feeding Our Rural Kids (FORK) Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation which would help summer meal program sponsors purchase, retrofit, or repair vehicles that expand access to summer meals for children in rural communities. U.S. Representatives Andrea Salinas (D-OR-06), Mike Lawler (R-NY-17), and Val Hoyle (D-OR-04) introduced companion legislation in the House.\n\nIn Vermont, more than 83,000 people\u2014including more than 19,400 children\u2014face hunger.\n\n\u201cVermont has the highest percentage of rural students in the nation\u2014that means food-insecure students in our state have a harder time participating in summer meal programs. Investing in food delivery programs that transport students to and from summer meal sites has to be part of the solution,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cOur bill works to close the summer meal gap and ensure rural students in Vermont, Oregon, and across the country can access nutritious meals all year long.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery child\u2014everywhere\u2014deserves delicious and nutritious meals all year long,\u201d said Senator Merkley. \u201cCommunities in Oregon and across the United States are finding innovative ways to make sure students do not go hungry during the summer months. The bipartisan FORK Act builds on those efforts by helping rural communities expand meal delivery and meal pick-up at sites closer to where families live, so geography is never a barrier to feeding kids nationwide.\u201d\n\n\u201cThousands of Oregonians are being denied food assistance under Trump\u2019s draconian cuts to SNAP and other federal programs,\u201d said Senator Wyden. \u201cThis bill would help restore critical food assistance to kids, helping meet them exactly where they are to end the ongoing hunger crisis in Oregon\u2019s schools.\u201d\n\nThe Feeding Our Rural Kids Act would create a grant program to allow schools and Summer Food Service Program providers in rural districts to receive funding to purchase mobile food delivery vehicles for home delivery of meals. Especially because vehicle purchases are not otherwise allowed under the Summer Food Service Program, the bipartisan, bicameral legislation would establish a three-year pilot grant program to help summer meal program sponsors reduce transportation barriers and bring nutritious meals closer to children and families during the summer. The bill would also build on existing rural non-congregate summer meal flexibilities by helping sponsors acquire transportation infrastructure to fully utilize those options.\n\nThe FORK Act is endorsed by Hunger Free Vermont, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Alliance to End Hunger, FoodCorps, Marion Polk Food Share, Oregon Food Bank, Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, Save the Children, School Nutrition Association, Share Our Strength, Umatilla School District, Woodburn School District, and AASA, the School Superintendents Association.\n\n\u201cWe know that hunger doesn\u2019t take a vacation. The summer months can be some of the hungriest for children, which is why the nourishing, balanced meals offered by the USDA summer meals program are so important. We commend Senator Welch and his colleagues for leading on this common-sense legislation, which is the key to unlocking much needed, innovative improvements to this program. A few Vermont schools have already proven the success of hitting the road and delivering summer meals to our most rural communities, and this legislation would allow our more remote communities in Vermont and across the country to be better served by this program\u2014meaning more children would have full bellies throughout the summer to play, learn, and grow,\u201d said Ivy Enoch, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Hunger Free Vermont.\n\n\u201cFor too many children, summer break means losing access to the healthy school meals they count on all year. The Feeding Our Rural Kids (FORK) Act would provide critical funding to deliver nutritious summer meals to children in need, removing transportation barriers for families across rural America and ensuring students return to school nourished and ready to learn,\u201d said Ashley Powell, PhD, RD, FAND, SNS, School Nutrition Association President.\n\n\u201cThe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics strongly supports the Feeding Our Rural Kids (FORK) Act. This legislation will help ensure that children in rural and underserved communities have greater access to nutritious meals during the summer months by providing meal sponsors with the tools needed to reach families facing travel and access barriers. We applaud the bill\u2019s sponsors for advancing solutions that help children thrive by keeping them connected to nutritious food when school is out,\u201d said Tamara Randall, MS, RDN, LD, CDCES, FAND, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics President.\n\n\u201cWe need to help the children in our care, no matter where they live, in cities or rural areas, be able to access enough food every day, in every season, for a healthy life so they can learn to their fullest potential. Let\u2019s invest in making sure that children in rural areas have opportunities for meals to get to them,\u201d said Eric Mitchell, Alliance to End Hunger President.\n\n\u201cRural non-congregate meals have been a lifeline for families during the summer. Before this expansion, far too many kids missed out on nutritious meals because of barriers that made it difficult to access summer meals programs. Now this bill will unlock new opportunities so resources reach farther, rural communities are more connected, and more kids can be fed,\u201d said Claire Borzner, Director of Federal Government Relations of the No Kid Hungry Campaign at Share Our Strength.\n\nRead and download the full text of the bill.\n\nSenator Welch has been a leading advocate for protecting and expanding access to nutrition programs in the Senate. Earlier this year, Senator Welch\u2019s bipartisan Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would allow schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to offer students whole milk, was signed into law. The Senator has led bipartisan and bicameral legislation to help more Americans access SNAP and improve nutrition, including the COLAs Don\u2019t Count Act, Farm to School Act, Keep SNAP Funded Act, Local School Foods Expansion Act, Improving Access to Nutrition Act of 2025, and the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-05T07:37:37Z", "2026-08-05T07:38:44Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-merkley-wyden-champion-fork-act-bipartisan-bicameral-legislation-to-keep-rural-kids-fed/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4611301012337208, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}