Rep. Fitzpatrick and Rep. Bonamici Honored with Hunger Leadership Awards

We are pleased to announce that Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) are the two recipients of this year’s Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Leadership Awards.

This award is presented to Members of Congress who have demonstrated commitment to ending hunger and a practical, bipartisan approach to reaching solutions.

Bonamici and Fitzpatrick are being honored for introducing the MODERN WIC Act in the 119th Congress, and for their support of improving food security for older Americans.

The MODERN WIC Act would make the virtual services implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic a permanent fixture of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. Without virtual check-ins and electronic benefits transfers, WIC participants must travel to appointments to be certified to receive services and WIC benefits, requiring mothers to take time off work. The MODERN WIC Act would bring efficiency and 21st century technology to a program serving almost 7 million women and children in the U.S., including 41 percent of American infants.

Bonamici and Fitzpatrick have also demonstrated their commitment to ensuring older Americans do not go hungry, co-sponsoring the 2020 Supporting Older American Act and other legislation to improve senior food security, and regularly meeting with and volunteering at agencies serving seniors in their respective districts.

Bonamici and Fitzpatrick’s track record of partnering across the aisle demonstrates the positive change that can emerge from coming together to find practical bipartisan solutions to hunger, echoing the strong professional relationship between the award’s namesakes, Reps. Bill Emerson (1938-1996) and Mickey Leland (1944-1989), co-chairs the House Select Committee on Hunger from 1984 to 1989.

Bonamici and Fitzpatrick will receive their awards at the Hunger Leadership Awards on June 24 in Washington, D.C.