House Budget Resolution: The Better Choice To Help Fight Hunger In America
Food Banks Advocate for At Least $20 Billion in New Farm Bill Spending Authority
CHICAGO --- April 11, 2007 --- The U.S. House and Senate are currently working on an agreement for a final Fiscal Year 2008 budget resolution that will serve as a blueprint for future federal spending and revenues over the next five years.
The House version of the budget resolution allows for $20 billion in new mandatory reserve spending for the Farm Bill reauthorization and includes sense of the House language on the importance of alleviating hunger in America. The Senate resolution allows for a $15 billion farm bill reserve. The use of reserve funds for new spending will require offsets, according to both resolutions. America’s Second Harvest supports the inclusion of at least $20 billion in the final concurrent budget resolution and urges that the Sense of the House language on hunger be revised to become the Sense of the Congress.
Federal nutrition programs as well as agriculture, conservation, research, trade, rural development and other programs will be under review when the Congress takes up a new Farm bill to replace and/or amend the permanent and expiring provisions of the 2002 farm bill. This includes the Food Stamp Program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) and related nutrition programs that are critical sources of nourishment for millions of hungry Americans.
“Federal nutrition programs are the first line of defense against hunger in America,” said Vicki Escarra, President and chief executive officer of America’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network. “I commend leaders in the House for their efforts to focus attention on the plight of hungry Americans in their budget resolution and for the rejection by both chambers of the President’s proposed funding cuts to end the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and reduce food stamp eligibility.
The next farm bill offers a perfect opportunity to invest in improvements to our federal food and nutrition programs that can have a sizable impact in reducing hunger in America.”
The budget resolution guiding spending for the 2002 Farm Bill allowed nearly $80 billion in new spending over its 5 year life span. Some $7 billion of this new money was used to improve food and nutrition programs over the past five years.
“The landmark investments in the 2002 Farm Bill and the new funding it provided to improve the Food Stamp Program has increased the numbers of eligible poor people served by this important safety net program to an average of 26 million Americans each month,” said Escarra. “Sadly, this represents only 60% of those who are eligible for this program.”
The nearly 70% decline in bonus commodity donations to the TEFAP and CSFP over the past 4 years has seriously eroded the capacity of private and public feeding organizations to serve those who fall through the cracks in the safety net for the needy. Together with stagnant funding for TEFAP and the CSFP, this has meant the loss of much needed monthly CSFP food packages for thousands of low-income elderly, and it has depleted the inventories of local food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other feeding agencies that rely heavily on federal commodity donations for emergency feeding.
“It is critically important that the Congress support sufficient funding for the farm bill to fight hunger in this richly blessed nation. We have the safest, most affordable and abundant food supply in the world and it is not too much to ask that this be shared with the less fortunate among us. No one in this nation should go to bed hungry at night,” said Escarra.
America's Second Harvest–The Nation's Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the country with a Network of more than 200 Member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually; and supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors. For more on the America's Second Harvest Network, please visit www.secondharvest.org.
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Contact:
Ross Fraser
312.641.6422
Maura Daly
312.641.6421
