WASHINGTON (DTN) -- With people lining up at food banks for food and prices for some farm products low, a coalition of farm and anti-hunger groups is asking Congress to include an additional $253 million for commodity purchases for food banks in the jobs bill Congress is considering, or in another piece of legislation.
At a Capitol Hill briefing Thursday, Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks around the country, released a report showing the recession has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people who are "food insecure," a sociological term that means they are worried about not having enough food each month. The reports showed the biggest increase in food insecurity is in the suburbs, which have generally been considered among the richer areas of the country, but have experienced an unusually high level of unemployment in this recession.
The release of the report reinforced a letter that a coalition including the National Farmers Union, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Chicken Council and the National Milk Producers Federation and Feeding America sent on Jan. 29 to House and Senate agriculture appropriations leaders asking for an additional $253 million in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a USDA program that buys food and ships it to the states for use in food banks and other programs that directly provide food to hungry people.
TEFAP provides one-fourth of the food distributed by food banks, according to Feeding America.
"The number of Americans facing hunger has increased dramatically as economic conditions have worsened and millions have lost their jobs. Food banks and emergency feeding organizations are seeing more unemployed individuals and families coming to them for help, many of them for the first time," the coalition wrote. "While the Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in fiscal year 2009 generously provided significant levels of supplemental foods and funds for emergency food assistance, more federal funding is critically needed to help our nation's food banks replenish their rapidly depleting inventories and be able to serve this increasing demand."
The coalition's letter stated in fiscal year 2009 the farm bill provided $253 million in mandatory spending for commodities purchases, the economic stimulus package provided another $100 million, and the USDA used its authority to keep commodity prices up by buying another $400 million in commodities. But in fiscal year 2010, the coalition stated, TEFAP will get $248 million in mandatory spending, $60 million in cheese and other dairy products from appropriated funds and is expected to get only $200 million in special USDA purchases.
"We strongly believe that prompt enactment of this proposal is critical to ensuring that USDA can intervene in struggling agricultural markets while also ensuring that emergency food assistance continues to be available to hungry Americans in these difficult economic times," the coalition's letter stated.
The study showed that 38 percent of the clients served by Feeding America are children, that 36 percent of the households include at least one employed adult and that a growing number of elderly people have gone to food banks as their retirement savings have gone down.
Jerry Hagstrom can be reached at jerry.hagstrom@telventdtn.com
(CZ/AG)
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