Bearing Witness

The Children’s Health Fund Making America Stronger Child By Child

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The Children’s Health Fund founded by the visionary Irwin and Karen Redliner and now led by Dennis Walto is one of the most inspiring organizations in the country, providing access to quality health care to our most vulnerable children. In my keynote to their annual conference in Washington yesterday, I shared five strategies for them to adopt in making America stronger child by child. They included:

• Reinforcing the connection between child hunger and child health and mobilizing to oppose cuts to SNAP and other vital child nutrition programs
• Recognizing that child hunger and child health are among our most solvable problems in a nation that has no shortage of food or medicine
• Remember that children are not only vulnerable but voiceless and need us to be their voice in policy and politics
• Supporting children to lead as we are seeing thousands do on sensible gun safety in the wake of the Parkland, FL tragedy
• Being cathedral builders who may work on something their whole lives without seeing it finished but who are part of something larger than themselves and building something that will endure.

Every time a school serves lunch or breakfast to a kid who can’t afford it, every step that makes health care more accessible, every improvement in our schools, makes Americas stronger child by child.