Please encourage support of Farm Bill

As Congress begins the process of crafting new farm bill legislation this year, there are both increased challenges and new opportunities that must be considered and addressed. America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network has been working to ensure that the opportunity to reduce hunger in America is not overlooked in the budget discussions and to encourage support for a strong nutrition title in the 2007 Farm Bill reauthorization that improves the Food Stamp Program and bolsters the efforts of emergency food providers. As members of Congress consider the 2008 budget resolution, we respectfully request that members provide an adequate level of resources so that these urgent national priorities can be effectively carried out.

Far too many people in our communities lack resources to put food on their tables consistently for themselves and their families. According to the most recent survey of food security conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, in the United States live in households that face a constant struggle against hunger.

Providing an adequate level funding for the nutrition title will allow the Food Stamp Program to maintain its basic entitlement structure and will allow more resources to be devoted to the program so that it will not only be able to expand access, but also to provide for greater program simplification.

Providing adequate funding for the nutrition title will also assist the nation’s emergency food providers – the food banks, the food pantries, and the soup kitchens – who are stretched to serve more and more people whose food stamp benefits have run out mid-month or whose income and resources put them just above the food stamp eligibility threshold. Currently, more than 25 million unduplicated people are accessing emergency food annually through food banks. In any given week, some 4.5 million people access food through pantries and soup kitchens throughout the United States. Requests for emergency food assistance are outstripping the resources provided through The Emergency Assistance Food Program (TEFAP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).

Since the enactment of the last Farm Bill, there has been a troubling decrease in commodity donations through TEFAP, a program which serves an estimated 15 million low-income people. At the same time, requests for emergency food assistance have increased by 8 percent or more. Moreover, inventories held to support CSFP and support its costs have virtually disappeared, leaving the program under-funded when appropriations are not sufficient to offset the shortfall.

The reauthorization of the Farm Bill provides an opportunity to strengthen and support critical nutrition programs like TEFAP, CSFP, and the Food Stamp Program. We urge you to ensure that, at a minimum, not less in new funding for nutrition programs is provided in the upcoming Farm Bill than was provided for in the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act. A strong nutrition title will allow the most vulnerable among us to share in the blessing of this nation’s agricultural bounty.

Rick: We are approaching difficult times for many Americans. We all know that there is going to many increased costs for everything that we use from fuel to apples. It's all connected in one way or another. These are staggering statistics.