Lobbying Post #2: Healthier School Lunches

I live in the second council district of Philadelphia, which is represented by Democrat Anna Verna.  As luck would have it, Verna also happens to be serving her third term as City Council President.  First elected in 1999, Verna was the first woman to become the City Council President of Philadelphia.  She has generally won her elections by a wide margin, and examiner.com called her "Philadelphia's Number One Employee."

Verna has a history of fighting on behalf of Philadelphia's low-SES families.  While working on the City Council Finance Committee, she investigated Philadelphia Gas Works and saved endangered programs that helped needy people pay their gas bills.  She also froze tax rates for low-income seniors, and has successfully fought for more funding for police, recreation, fire facilities, and public education, as well as the renovation of housing stock.  She has said that affordable housing for Philadelphians is her "top priority."

Unfortunately, President Verna has decided that at the end of her term as City Council President, she will retire.  For this reason, she may not be the most helpful person to lobby.

I think that Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey would be more helpful.  He has identified helping children as a top priority.  In fact, he used to teach 5th grade, and at one point he coached 8th grade basketball in inner-city Philadelphia with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.  This tells me that he cares not just for children but for low-income children in particular.  He has also supported funding for education and children's health, especially for low-income children.  On his website, he expresses support for quality healthcare for everyone, "particularly children for whom health care in the earliest years is so critical."  Most notably, he added an amendment to the Senate health care reform bill that would continue full funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2019.

Since obesity is a huge problem among low-income children in Philadelphia, I think he'd be very much in favor of healthier school lunches.