Power vs. hunger for state leaders
Published 9:00 pm Friday, August 10, 2001
Associated Press
SPOKANE — As Western governors look for solutions to regional energy and natural resources problems, community action groups plan to ask them to find ways to end hunger in their states.
The Western Governors’ Association plans to take up power transmission lines and wildfire control at its annual conference that starts Sunday in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth are scheduled to address the meeting, which continues through Tuesday at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.
A coalition of community activists hopes the governors will add hunger to their list of topics.
The Northwest Federation of Community Organizations planned to release a report Saturday that contends many Western families aren’t getting the nutrition they need and that some are able to afford only one to three nutritional meals a week.
The group plans to rally outside the governors’ conference Sunday to ask the state executives to support improvements in the federal Food Stamp program.
On the governors’ agenda are sessions devoted to preventing and managing wildfires, enhancing electricity transmission, and technology in education.
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