Hotline update for 10/17/97 HUNGER LEGISLATION id WAA24058; Sun, 19 Oct 1997 22:55:22 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: Ted Steege UUSC LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE 1-800-364-4456 Friday, October 17, 1997 The President will be putting together his 1999 budget proposal soon; act now to ensure that the struggle against hunger is high on his list. Hi! You have reached UUSC's toll-free hotline, home of the Promise the Children Legislative Update and the place to file a confidential human rights violation report. You may file your report now by pressing 300, or you can do so after listening to the update. This is Ted Steege, your Washington Associate for US Programs, recording this message on Friday, October 17, 1997. If at any time during or after this message you wish to reach national advocacy coordinator Kim McDonald, press 217. Hundreds of thousands of hungry people, including many children, elderly, and persons with disabilities, are going without food stamps as a result of the 1996 welfare "reform" act. You can do something about it by contacting the President now, as he prepares his budget request for Fiscal Year 1999. Ask President Clinton to include funding necessary to secure the nutritional well-being of children, the elderly, the disabled, and adults willing to work but unable to find a job. Three issues belong at the top of the President's list as he proposes his budget: 1.) Restoring Food Stamp benefits to vulnerable legal immigrants, 2.) Providing adequate funding for child nutrition programs, and 3.) Ensuring that no person willing to work is denied food stamps. The Department of Agriculture said last month that 11 million people in the United States, including over 4 million children, experience moderate or severe hunger. In a nation as rich as ours, that's unacceptable. The Hunger Has a Cure Act of 1997 attempts to protect children, the elderly and other vulnerable populations from facing the harsh realities of hunger. Private charities cannot do the job alone. Contact the President now and urge him to put enough money into his budget request to restore food stamps to legal immigrants, provide adequate nutrition for children, and make sure nobody willing to work is denied the right to food stamps. For further information, press 217 for Kim McDonald now. Ask about how to participate in our national conference calls and keep in touch with other Promise The Children advocates from coast to coast. If you have access to the email on the Internet, you can find further action suggestions in UUSC-HOT, the Promise The Children listserve. (Ask Kim for copies of you don't have email.) This week you'll find a "dear colleague" letter to the President from sponsors of Hunger Has a Cure. You can use this letter as a model for your own, and there's a list of sponsors who have not yet signed the letter, so you can urge them to sign on. To subscribe to UUSC-HOT, send an email note to listproc@uua.org, with the subject "subscribe" and the message "subscribe UUSC-HOT Firstname Lastname." Use your real name. This hotline will be updated in the second week of November. 'Bye now! Ted Steege, Washington Associate for U.S. Programs Unitarian Universalist Service Committee 2000 P St.,NW, Suite 505 - Washington, DC 20036 202/466-7400 fax 202/775-2636 email: tsteege@uuscdc.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-10.19.97-22:55:24-25152