42 U.S.C. § 1769e — State childhood hunger challenge grants

(a) “Child” means a person under 18. “Supplemental nutrition assistance program” means the program established under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. (b) Under conditions set by the Secretary, available money may fund competitive grants or cooperative agreements with Governors for broad, innovative strategies to end childhood hunger, including alternative service methods and benefit levels intended to reduce or eliminate it by 2015. (c) Projects may improve SNAP benefits for households with children; improve benefits or delivery in school meals, afterschool snacks, and child-and-adult-care food programs; target Federal, State, or local help such as emergency housing, family preservation, child care, or temporary assistance to hungry or food-insecure households with children where the governing law allows; improve outreach; and coordinate resources and services, including through State food policy councils. (d)(1) The Secretary may competitively award grants or cooperative agreements to Governors. (2) A Governor must apply in the required form, time, and manner. (3) Public selection criteria may include identifying a low-income group experiencing hunger, committing to rigorous evaluation, proposing a broad innovative strategy, and other criteria. (4) Each project must include baseline and yearly measures of very low food security among children; collaborative planning with State stakeholders resulting in a detailed, Secretary-approved agenda; an annual budget; measurable goals, including sharply reducing or eliminating child food insecurity by 2015 under the Secretary’s method; and an independent evaluation of at least one major strategy measuring its effect on child food insecurity and, when applicable, children’s nutrition-assistance participation. (e) The Secretary must consult the Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, and Housing and Urban Development Secretaries. (f) Each project must have an independent assessment using the Secretary’s method, with a pre-project baseline and yearly State food-insecurity measurements focused especially on children. It must independently evaluate at least one major strategy’s participation, food security, nutrition, and related behavior using rigorous, especially experimentally valid, methods. By December 31, 2011, and each December 31 until the last evaluation is complete, the Secretary must report project status and prior-year evaluation results to the named committees and share results broadly. (g) Congress may appropriate needed sums for fiscal years 2011 through 2014, available until spent. Money may pay Federal development, solicitation, award, monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination costs. No project may be funded over 5 years. Annual money depends on satisfactory implementation and progress. A project using or changing SNAP must comply with section 17(b)(1)(B) of the Food and Nutrition Act. Money may not support a project inconsistently with this chapter, the Child Nutrition Act, the Food and Nutrition Act, or the Emergency Food Assistance Act.