Sesame Street's 'Food Insecure' Puppet Promotes Gov't-Funded Food Programs: 'Free Breakfast and a Lunch

The Blaze first told you about Lily, Sesame Street's new "food insecure" puppet, back in October. Back then, she made her debut with a one-hour television special to raise awareness about American families with limited food access.

Now Lily's back, and she's helping to promote Sesame Workshop's national "Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget" campaign, an English-Spanish initiative to help families with young children cope with "uncertain or limited access to affordable and nutritious food."

During an appearance Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Lily extolled the virtues of government-funded food programs for schoolchildren.

"You see, well, it's just that sometimes we can't always afford to buy all the food that we need," Lily said. "I mean, but we've been finding lots of ways that we can get help...Yeah, for example, at school, at school I get a free breakfast and a lunch...part of the meal plan."

According to CNS News, Lily's "message" is being circulated through schools, hospitals and food assistance programs with materials to teach families how to access "services that can assist your family" and "referrals to social service agencies." Food for Thought organizers say they have produced millions of kits, also available online.

CNS:

At the National Press Club on Thursday, the Rev. Douglas Greenaway of the National WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Association lauded Sesame Street’s ‘Food For Thought’ campaign – even linking it to federal deficit-reduction.

“What ‘Food For Thought’ does is remind people that eating healthy now gives them a good health outcome in the long term. So the folks you’re looking at up here, the programs that they represent, what ‘Food For Thought’ does is really a deficit reduction strategy, and we hope policymakers will take notice of that,” Greenaway said.

Greenaway didn't elaborate further on how this would work towards deficit reduction.

Food for Thought is a joint venture between Sesame Workshop -- the nonprofit behind "Sesame Street" -- UnitedHealthcare and the Merck Company Foundation.

Lily's "comments" come days after questions were raised about the supposed anti-business "brainwashing" contained in the new Muppets movie.

In May, The Blaze told you about Sesame Street executives who admitted to slipping liberal messages into their storylines.