Actor Jeff Bridges took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby senators in the fight against childhood hunger.
The Grammy and Oscar-winning Big Lebowski star met with lawmakers to lobby in support of Share Our Strength’s “No Kid Hungry” campaign, which aims to raise awareness for children who are unable to access meals during summer months, when school is not in session.
Bridges reportedly met with Senators John Boozman (R-AK), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Pat Roberts (R-KS). He later discussed his lobbying efforts in an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
“We’re hearing from teachers that the kids who don’t get fed properly during the summer are coming back to school and really having trouble retaining what they learned the year before,” Bridges told The Hill. “They don’t settle into the new school year as well as kids who have proper nutrition.Their reading suffers, and several years of this really takes a toll. They find that sometimes kids fall three grades behind their friends.”
Bridges called for increasing funding for school meal programs so that more children could qualify for them while on summer break.
“We haven’t updated the summer meal programs since 1968 when they came into being,” Bridges told the Hill. “And we’ve updated, certainly, our iPhones, our watches, our cars, our televisions, everything we have. But we haven’t updated the health of our kids during the summer.”
Bridges has been an advocate for Share Our Strength since 2010, a spokeswoman for the organization told the Washington Post.
Actress Sarah Michelle Geller has also advocated on behalf of the No Kid Hungry campaign.