Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood) joined Timothy Christian Superintendent Matt Davidson to discuss her legislative career and thoughts on education issues.

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.

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.