Aurelia Butler

The pledges were announced as part of a White House summit on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the first since 1969, with participation from Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, as well as several lawmakers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.”If a parent can’t feed their child, there’s nothing else that matters to that parent,” Biden said. “This is something we should be rallying the whole country to work on together.” Biden aims to end U.S. hunger and reduce diet-related diseases in a majority of Americans by 2030 and has turned to the private sector to underwrite some of the spending after Congress failed to further extend school lunch aid.Pandemic assistance helped quell hunger rates for U.S. families, but hunger again climbed following the expiration of child tax credit payments in January, while soaring food prices stretch family budgets. Congress extended only through September 2022 aid that helped schools feed millions of U.S. children over the last two years. Contributions announced on Wednesday included a pledge by nonprofit FoodCorps to invest $250 million for free, healthy school meals and to expand nutrition education in schools. The Food Industry Association also promised to get members to donate 2 billion meals to food banks and other organizations next year while making it easier to use food stamp benefits online.Wholesale food distributor Sysco (NYSE:SYY) will donate 200 million meals to national hunger-related charities and food banks, worth about $400 million, over the next five years.Senior administration officials briefing reporters declined to offer a timeline for the new aid but said details would be forthcoming.The private sector commitments follow revelations of hundreds of millions of stolen federal dollars that were supposed to be spent on food aid during the coronavirus pandemic. The officials said the administration would work closely with the donors to ensure compliance. More

The one-day walkout is seen as a test of the unions’ ability to mobilise support and a barometer of potential social unrest as President Emmanuel Macron decides whether to push ahead with plans to reform the pension system.The more moderate CFDT union has shunned the strike call, but its boss Laurent Berger has promised street protests later this year if the government goes too far and too fast on pension reforms.Europe’s cost-of-living crisis is putting upward pressure on wage inflation as private and public companies across the continent face demands from workers to cushion the impact of rising prices.”Wages must be increased as there is a purchasing power problem in the country”, Philippe Martinez, whose CGT union is spearheading Thursday’s protests, told BFM television.The CGT, whose membership includes transport and energy sectors, backs raising the minimum wage to 2,000 euros ($1,947.80) per month, a 32-hour week and retirement at 60. Martinez called on other unions to support the strike action.”If we want to win, all the unions must be together,” he added.Striking CGT workers this week forced the shutdown of TotalEnergies Gonfreville refinery and disrupted deliveries at others.Nuclear power industry workers are expected to join Thursday’s industrial action, removing some capacity from the French power grid when France already faces a record number of nuclear reactor outages. In French primary schools, the SNUipp-FSU union expects one in every 10 primary schools to close in Paris. Disruption to commuter train services into the capital and metro operations should not be severe, according to strike participation forecasts. On average two out of three buses are expected to run in the capital.($1 = 1.0268 euros) More