Hunger Advocacy Network Elected Officials’ Breakfast
The Hunger Advocacy Network (HAN) hosted their annual legislative breakfast on June 20th, featuring Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins. The event brought HAN members together with elected officials and their staff to participate in an informative presentation on the interrelatedness of the cost of living, low wages, and hunger in San Diego.
In her keynote speech, the (Honorable) Toni Atkins, Speaker of the California State Assembly and member representing the 78th district, outlined the State’s new $156.3 billion spending plan which was signed by the Governor on June 20th in San Diego. The new budget, which has been hailed as taking historic steps to address poverty, includes a repeal on the ban for food assistance for past drug offenders, renews funds for affordable housing, and increases the budget for early childhood education and childcare for low income families.
In a panel presentation, Center on Policy Initiatives, Housing on Merit, and County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency shared local poverty data and what each agency is doing to address the issue. HAN also provided an update on its state policy priorities and current advocacy efforts.
The Hunger Advocacy Network is a collaborative of San Diego hunger stakeholders who conduct state-level anti-hunger and food security advocacy. HAN partners annually develop a food security-focused legislative agenda to support through year-long advocacy activities. The group is convened by Jewish Family Service and funded by the Leichtag Foundation.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.