In this Season of Giving...

Statement

Dear friends,

The last of the relatives have departed and the Thanksgiving leftovers are almost gone. As we turn our attention to tree cutting and gift giving, it is can be easy to forget about the people in our community who do not have a home to gather in, or the means to prepare a holiday meal. Often when we think of hunger and homelessness we imagine urban, high population centers like Madison or Milwaukee, but it is a very prevalent problem in rural communities across America and the 7th Congressional District is no exception.

Once again, I will host a Hunger & Homelessness Summit to bring community and government organizations together to tackle this issue in our own backyard. I hope you will join us.

Last year's summit proved to be both productive and necessary. It brought together community leaders from all sides of the district, many of which had never met before, and started a conversation about how we can stamp out hunger and homelessness in our state. Those talks translated into a legislative fix that I was glad to successfully fight to have included in an Appropriations measure this year. While it was a great start, there is still much work to be done.

I am very excited about the schedule for this summit. We will again bring together local government officials, economic development associations, non-profits, religious organizations, and government agencies, but it will also feature speakers from other states who have experienced success curbing homelessness in their communities.

Source