Actor Jeff Bridges makes pitch to combat childhood hunger

The Western Governors’ Association received some star power Wednesday when Academy-award winning actor Jeff Bridges joined the legislators in a panel discussion on efforts to fight childhood hunger at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

Bridges, who serves as the national spokesman for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, has been an activist in combating childhood hunger since the 1980s when he founded the End Hunger Network.

Bridges joined No Kid Hungry in 2010, intrigued with the campaign’s approach in seeking out the leadership of governors at the state level as opposed to the federal government.

While Bridges may be known for movie roles such as “Bad Blake” in “Crazy Heart,” and “The Dude” in “The Big Lebowski,” he also keeps pace with his passion to end childhood hunger by starring in “A Place at the Table,” a 2012 documentary that delved into the topic of hunger and food insecurity in America.

In addition to Bridges, panel participants encompassed nine Western governors, Montana First Lady Lisa Bullock and moderator Lisa Davis of Share our Strength.

When asked why Bridges had championed the cause of improving children’s access to food over the decades, brought to his mind the statistic that one in six children face food insecurity.

“The enormity of the problem first caught my attention, and then [it’s] such a solvable problem. It’s not that we don’t have the food, or the money, or even that we don’t know how. All those things are in place,” Bridges said.

“It’s just a matter of getting our wills together and that’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about being up here today because, I mean, look at this team we got here man,” Bridges said — the Dude-esque candor met with laughter from the audience.

Bridges posed a question, “How can we have a strong country when we have hungry kids?”

The conversation turned to how No Kid Hungry initiatives and other free meal programs have impacted states.

“Not only is this a problem we can solve, but it’s a problem we must solve,” Lisa Bullock said. “Thousands of kids in Montana and millions across the country face the school day without the proper meals they need to learn and grow. We have a moral obligation as leaders of our states to ensure that every child who shows up for school is well-fed and ready to learn.”

Awareness plays a critical role in ending childhood hunger according to many panelists. Acknowledgment that childhood hunger exists in America is crucial to getting funding and support, according to Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval.

Lisa Bullock later in the conversation echoed a similar sentiment.

“I think in a country so successful as ours, it’s hard to grasp that we do have problem with childhood hunger — that the statistics are there.”

Montana and Nevada have implemented several initiatives such as “Breakfast After the Bell,” where breakfast is served in the classrooms and offered to all students, not just children eligible for free or reduced meals. This helps remove stigmas and increases participation according to Gov. Bullock.

States such as Montana also offer free summer meals to youth in participating communities through the USDA Summer Food Service Program.

“Hunger doesn’t end at the school year,” Gov. Bullock said.

Gov. Bullock and Sandoval spoke about initial resistance to starting these programs from school staff and legislators based on time, cost, equipment as barriers.

Both governors have found different ways to address funding. In Montana, partnerships with businesses have helped fund about $260,000 in grants for equipment purchases like carts or coolers to bring breakfast into the classroom, according to Gov. Bullock.

In Nevada, a law provides grant funding along the lines of $2 million to support breakfast in the classroom with 70 percent or more of students eligible for free or reduced lunch is supported to start breakfast.

Since the Bullock’s partnered with Montana No Kid Hungry in 2014 there are more than 145 schools participating in breakfast initiatives. Some schools with the free breakfast program have noted a decrease in disciplinary problems when students are fed and “can think about school rather than hunger,” Gov. Bullock said.

Sandoval later added, “Let’s face it. Kids don’t learn if they’re hungry. None of us do well when we’re hungry,” Sandoval.

During the discussion Bullock talked about the measurable success in Montana.

“You know so many facets of the jobs that we have we won’t know the impact until long after we’re out of office,” Bullock said. “I can tangibly say of 142,000 kids in our K-12 system 41,000 more kids are eating breakfast than when Lisa and I took office. A very tangible difference.”

While other governors on the panel talked about tackling problems such as homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and workforce training in their state, some wondered if these issues are causing childhood hunger.

The root of childhood hunger isn’t clear-cut according to Davis.

“What we’ve found is that there’s no easy answer to why kids are living in hunger,” Davis said. “We see a lot of families where the parents are working sometimes two jobs, but the cost of housing and transportation and all the other expense outpace what they’re making and so food is usually the easiest thing to cut back. If you don’t pay the rent you’re likely to end up homeless. You don’t pay your transportation costs you can’t get to work, so that’s where people make the tradeoff.”

At a point in the discussion Sandoval said, “At the end of the day — the bottom line issue is it’s not the kid’s fault.”

Unlike poverty, resolving childhood hunger isn’t complex, according to Bridges.

“We have solutions right in front of us. We can solve this right away,” Bridges said.

He later capped his thoughts by adding, “I think the health of our children can serve as a wonderful compass letting us know if we’re on the right course as a country. And one in six kids hungry in our country tells us we’re a little bit off course. We can correct this. Let’s do it. And the team new got up here we can do this.”

For more information visit www.nokidhungry.org.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.