Letter to Clinton on Hunger & 99 Budget Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Wed, 22 Oct 1997 11:12:52 tsteege@uuscdc.org Anti-Hunger Priorities in the FY 1999 Budget The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has signed on to the following letter from the Food Policy Working Group to President Clinton regarding the FY 1999 Budget. This letter contains greater detail than the other material already posted here. Please feel free to draw upon it as you direct your own comments to the President. October, 1997 The President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Clinton: Many congregations and charities across the country are finding their food pantries and food banks bare and their soup kitchens full of hungry people for the first time in their existence. We are extremely concerned about this increase in demand and ask that the federal government do its part by restoring food stamps to legal immigrants who were cut off of assistance on August 22, 997. Children, the working poor, persons with disabilities and the elderly have all been placed at great risk of hunger. We ask you to demonstrate your commitment to the needs of immigrants by including funding for the restoration of food stamps to legal immigrants in your FY 1999 budget. While churches, synagogues, and charities work in partnership with the government, we cannot fulfill the government's necessary role in helping legal immigrant families overcome poverty and meet their children's basic needs. We simply cannot do it alone and are already overwhelmed. Even with increased giving, we do not have the means to make up for the deep cuts in federal food programs. For example, reports from nonprofit agencies around the state of Pennsylvania indicate an increased demand for emergency food assistance of between 20 - 63 percent over the last year depending on the area. The September 3, 1997 edition of the Miami Herald reports that calls are flooding the Switchboard of Miami and other agencies providing food. "Sometimes the voices on the other end of the line are shredded with tears. Others are the low, guarded tones of quiet desperation. Ever increasingly, they are the voices of hunger," the paper reports. An editorial in the October 7, 1997 Philadelphia Daily News begins, "Free to worship - and now free to starve," and goes on to tell about two children who came to Community Legal Services asking for food. The children and their mother had fled religious persecution in the Ukraine seven years ago, and now the mother is bedridden with cancer. In addition, Governor George W. Bush stated in an October 8, 1997 news release, "Food stamps are a federal program and a federal responsibility, but the federal government is shirking its responsibility." We help because of our deep religious conviction that it is right to help. We believe that programs to help poor people should be the last to be cut and the first to be restored. Our entire community is diminished when even one member is deprived of basic human needs such as food and shelter. The Food Stamp Program has been the only major public benefit program for which eligibility is based solely on need and is this nation's primary safety net against hunger. Food Stamps are targeted to the poorest people in the country. Almost 16 percent of food stamp households include seniors and 62 percent of households include children. The Food Stamp Program is vital to this nation and its most vulnerable residents. Many legal immigrants - especially immigrants with children, the working poor, persons with disabilities, and the elderly - are in desperate need for food. At a time when our economy is doing so well and surpluses are being predicted, it only seems appropriate that the benefit of such a strong economy be used to help those in need. Please include funding for food stamps for legal immigrants in your FY 1999 budget. In addition, the Child Nutrition programs are up for reauthorization next year. We are supportive of child nutrition programs which help young children and preschoolers come to school ready to learn. Studies show that children do much better in school when they receive proper nutrition. In particular, we wish to call your attention to bipartisan legislation (H.R. 1507) introduced under the rubric, "Hunger Has A Cure" which now has over 130 co-sponsors. This legislation calls for an increase in the Summer Meals Program reimbursement rate from $1.97 to $2.23, outreach and start-up funding for the school breakfast and summer feeding programs ($5 million per year), and restoration of the fourth "meal" to child care centers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program so essential to the day care needs of persons attempting to work their way off public assistance. We urge you include funding for these programs as well as increases in the WIC programs sufficient to serve 7.5 million women infants and children in your FY 1999 budget. The Food Policy Working Group is a coalition of religiously affiliated and anti-hunger advocacy organizations concerned with the development of a comprehensive U.S. food policy that ends hunger and promotes a healthy and productive population. Sincerely, Bread for the World Catholic Charities USA Food Research and Action Center Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, ELCA Unitarian Universalist Service Committee [and other members of the Food Policy Working Group] 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-10.22.97-20:13:17-30591