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Thanksgiving: Not the time to take food from the poor

Tuesday: November 22, 2011

By: Frank Tamborello, Executive Director of Hunger Action Los Angeles and Co-Chair of the California Hunger Action Coalition

With Thanksgiving just days away, the feast day looms large for low-income families. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the cost of a traditional 10-person Thanksgiving dinner jumped by $5.70 or 13 percent this year to a total of $49.20, the biggest increase in the 26-year history of their annual study on meal costs. Unfortunately, the number of households who have lost jobs and have run out of unemployment benefits has also increased over the past year. As we enter the holiday season, the prevalence of food insecurity and the number of families living in poverty remains alarmingly high, leaving nearly four million Californians (only half of those who are eligible) trying to feed their families with only the $1.50 per meal, per person that they get from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), called CalFresh in California.

Now, even the minimal nutrition safety net available to Americans who are down on their luck is in danger in the name of deficit reduction. Proposals to make significant cuts to SNAP surfaced during the deficit reduction “Supercommittee” process, and though avoided for now, they represent an unconscionable attempt to balance the deficit at the expense of the poor and most vulnerable. And now, other equally important safeguards against hunger like the Women Infants and Children (WIC) program and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) will be hit by budget sequestration (cuts) that will be triggered automatically because the Supercommittee process failed.

Any proposal to cut nutrition programs turns a blind eye to the current realities of a significant portion of Americans who depend on this critical safety net to weather the ongoing hardship caused by the recession. For families who rely on benefits from SNAP, EFAP or WIC to prevent hunger each month, setting even a modest Thanksgiving table may not be possible. In fact, most households receiving SNAP will already have run out of their monthly allotment by the time the 24th of November arrives (Source: Feeding America, Hunger: Faces and Facts). Some families will find their way to free meals at soup kitchens and pantries where generous volunteers will don aprons to help fill the need. These efforts will offer inspiration and hope to both the hungry and the volunteers, who are sometimes one and the same, and will temporarily resolve the food budget shortfalls afflicting some during the holiday season. But charity food distributions are unable meet the ongoing needs of so many families during the prolonged economic downturn.

Cutting the nutrition safety net for families who are struggling to make ends meet is in no way a fair or balanced approach to reducing our nation’s deficit. With millions of people struggling to pay for food, housing, health, and energy costs in this tough economy, now is the time to strengthen the safety net, not cut it. Previous bi-partisan efforts, including the Simpson-Bowles and “Gang of Six” plans, proposed significant deficit reduction without cutting SNAP or risking an increase in hardship. There is no reason to abandon that principle now. The increased cost of a Thanksgiving meal is just one indicator of how difficult it can be take make ends meet these days. With costs and need rising and with all indications that the economic recovery will be slow and long-term unemployment will linger in the double digits, it is imperative that our leaders remain committed to reducing the deficit without increasing poverty and inequality.

Before we all sit down for our holiday meals, our nation’s leaders will be considering new strategies to balance the budget in the wake of the Supercommittee’s failure. The California Hunger Action Coalition asks them to do so without putting the meals provided by nutrition safety net programs at risk. We urge the California Congressional delegation not to support any budget balancing legislation that will increase hunger or poverty by making cuts to nutrition or other safety net programs.   We hope you will join us! 

Contact your Member of Congress Today: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

The California Hunger Action Coalition (CHAC) is a broad-based membership organization of emergency food providers, consumers, and anti-hunger advocates. United in the belief that access to adequate, nutritious, and safe food is a fundamental human right, the coalition advocates for freedom from food insecurity and hunger for all Californians. For more information, contact Co-Chairs Frank Tamborello at Frank@hungeractionla.org or Tim Shadix at Tim@cafoodbanks.org. Find us online at: http://www.hungeraction.net

OPPOSE THE SECRET FARM BILL

A small group of Congressmembers is trying to force provisions costing billions of dollars that affect everything you eat through the closed-doors budget reduction process—with no public input whatsoever. This is an affront to democracy.

Call : Rep. Nancy Pelosi 202-225-4965
And: Rep. Xavier Becerra 202-202-225-6235

Tell Them: “I object to a Farm Bill being passed with no public input, behind closed doors, in an undemocratic process. America needs healthy, safe food grown sustainably with fair wages and treatment for workers. America needs to end hunger.” (dated info)

What’s happening with the Farm Bill?

“With no public input whatsoever, a congressional supercommittee of four people plans to pass legislation that would gut food stamps, favor industrial-scale commodity farming quenched with GMOs through funding. If passed it will defund transitions to organic farming and funding to help communities start farmers markets.”

“The Farm Bill, a piece of legislation that gets reauthorized every five years, is being rushed ahead of schedule to squeeze it into the deficit reduction plan. According to The Nation, the Farm Bill is “sometimes called the food bill because of its enormous influence over what Americans (especially children) eat,” what our food costs at the grocery store and when exported, what foods are safe (GMOs), “and whether 45 million impoverished Americans (again, about half of them children) continue to receive food stamps.” http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/156608/supercommittee-passing-farm-bill-that-subsidizes-highest-bidders/

What’s a policy that we can get behind instead?

SUPPORT LOCAL FARMS, FOOD AND JOBS ACT: Senator Brown (Ohio) and Representative Pingree (Maine) and 35 co-sponsors have introduced the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act that would support ending hunger: assistance for organic farmers: promotion of fruits and vegetables: conservation: support for small producers and beginning farmers, increased access to local food for low income communities, and increased research funding on sustainable food systems Add your voice in support of this bill via Democracy in Action: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7106/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8664

The bill numbers are:
Senate: S 1773
House: HR 3286

IMPORTANT ITEMS RELATED TO THE FARM BILL:

MORE ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE ON THE FARM BILLSample Letter to Xavier Becerra Against a Super Committee Writing the 2012 Farm BillRead The City Council's Resolution to Rebuild L.A.’s Local and Regional Food System