Lightford: Child and Adult Care Food Program funding now available

SPRINGFIELD – Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) and the Illinois State Board of Education announced Wednesday that funding is available for the Child and Adult Care Food Program for Fiscal Year 2021. The program helps child care centers, Head Start programs, before- and after-school, emergency shelters and day care home providers by providing funding to offer healthy meals to children.

“Our children’s wellbeing continues to be a priority as we continue to face the current pandemic,” Lightford said. “This program will continue to provide thousands of children with healthy meals that may not be available at home.”

The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has caused even more families to depend on federally funded nutrition programs. More than 1,000 child care centers across Illinois will be able to provide children with healthy meals.

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Lightford discusses issues facing Illinois with WGN's Paul Lisnek

Lightford celebrates July 1 minimum wage increase

• Minimum Wage

CHICAGO – Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) is celebrating the July 1 increase to the state’s minimum wage, believing it will help working families navigate the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So many families are struggling right now,” Lightford said. “Though minimum wage workers may count themselves lucky to have jobs while a great deal are unemployed, they still deserve to make a living wage. This increase takes them closer to that goal.”

The state’s minimum wage increases to $10 per hour July 1, the second in a series of increases required by a law Lightford passed last year after many years of hard work. That law requires the wage to increase by $1 on Jan. 1 of each year going forward until it reaches $15 per hour in 2025.

Lightford also has pushed back against business leaders who have used the pandemic and its associated economic downturn to try to repeal or delay the law.

“Minimum-wage earners hadn’t seen a raise since 2010,” Lightford said. “While I understand and sympathize with struggling small businesses, we can’t ask these hard working women and men to wait for their pay to go up. They’ve been waiting too long already.”

Lightford’s law controls the statewide minimum wage. Some communities, including Cook County and Chicago, have set higher local minimum wages, a move Lightford commends.

Lightford appointed to the Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

CHICAGO – To better inform policymakers on the root causes of poverty and economic insecurity, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) was appointed to the Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security.

“I believe we have come to the precipice of a moment that can make the changes necessary to put us on track to eliminate poverty across Illinois,” Lightford said. “That effort starts with getting to the root causes of poverty, a major one being systemic racism, and no longer being shy about the way we approach them.”

The commission will consist of four members of the General Assembly, a member of the judicial branch and 20 members of the public, including people who have experienced deep poverty and advocates for youth, veterans, mental health, education equity, those experiencing homelessness, those differently abled and others.

“I look forward to the important work we’ll be doing through this commission, and even more to engaging my colleagues in a conversation that can create generational change, eliminate poverty and economic disparities across our state,” Lightford said.

The commission is tasked with educating policymakers on the impact poverty has on other measures of economic stability and economic outcomes, including educational attainment, rates of incarceration, lifetime earnings, access to health care, health care outcomes, and access to housing. The Department of Human Services will provide support for the commission to complete its work to produce a strategic plan that addresses poverty and economic insecurity in Illinois by November 30, 2021.