Wrapped in the Farm Bill: Funding to Feed our Hungry

Houston Chronicle, July 15, 2007, 6:11PM

By BRIAN GREENE

Decisions are being made in Washington in the coming weeks that will have direct dinner table consequences for the low-income mother who wants to fill her children's tumblers with milk, or the impoverished senior who longs for, but cannot afford, the simple sweetness of canned peaches.

There is real reason for concern about the fate of the 2007 Farm Bill, which is due for consideration by the House Agriculture Committee. The bill holds a sweeping set of funding measures that go far beyond agricultural subsidies for farmers. It also controls the direction of federal funds for hunger relief.

While our lawmakers move toward a vote on the Farm Bill, the Houston Food Bank and our allies in the fight against hunger urge Congress to take action that translates into filled stomachs for the women, men and children of all ages who suffer from hunger.

Specifically, we urge Congress to embrace and approve recommendations made through the McGovern/Emerson "Feeding America's Families Act" (HR 2129), which calls for an increase in food stamp benefit levels and access; an increase in The Emergency Food Assistance Program that helps many food banks purchase USDA food; and reauthorization of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which provides monthly food boxes for low-income seniors, mothers and children.

Last year, through a supplemental appropriation, the Houston Food Bank enrolled 8,500 seniors in CSFP for a six-month period. A box of food made a tremendous difference in the quality of life for these seniors, many of them living on incomes as low as a few hundred dollars a month. Unfortunately, this program was ended for Houston when Congress failed to pass a new budget last year: $157.4 million is needed to keep CSFP going and to reinstate it in Houston and other Texas communities.

In Texas, 532,000 people are eligible for food stamps, but only 55 people of that number receive them. Each year, more than $168 million in food stamp benefits go unused here. Part of the reason for the low participation rate is the low monthly benefit.

On average, a food stamp recipient gets $21 in weekly benefits. Have you ever tried to live on only $3 a day? Recently, I and 50 people who work at hunger relief agencies served by the Houston Food Bank took on the challenge of living on a weekly $21 food budget.

For us, this challenge is a choice. In fact, at first, it was almost fun: sitting down with grocery store ads, looking for the best prices and ways to stretch a dollar. Then, as the days passed, the reality began to sink in. We were in a very nominal way getting a taste of what millions of Americans experience daily: food cravings, wondering if our $21 grocery purchase would last for the week, obsessing about whether we could afford to make it through the week.

In southeast Texas in the 18 counties served by the Houston Food Bank, 809,000 people live in poverty by Census Bureau figures. Of that group, 33,000 experience hunger on a daily basis.
Hunger has cruel implications. Many people living in hunger have to make very tough, heartbreaking choices every day: Eat or pay the rent? Buy food or get medicine?

I recognize that under the "pay as you go" budget rule, members of Congress have to make some tough choices as well. But our responses to tough choices define us as a people. The Houston Food Bank calls on Congress to step up to the plate — the empty plate — and fill it with programs that conquer hunger.

Greene is president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank.