[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                       HUNGER AMONG VETERANS AND 
                    SERVICEMEMBERS: UNDERSTANDING THE
                    PROBLEM AND EVALUATING SOLUTIONS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                SUBCOMMITTEE ON NUTRITION, OVERSIGHT, AND 
                            DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS

                                 OF THE

                        COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                           NOVEMBER 10, 2021

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-21
                           
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]                           


          Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture
                         agriculture.house.gov
                         
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
47-307 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                        COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE

                     DAVID SCOTT, Georgia, Chairman

JIM COSTA, California                GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania, 
JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts     Ranking Minority Member
FILEMON VELA, Texas                  AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia
ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina, Vice  ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, 
Chair                                Arkansas
ABIGAIL DAVIS SPANBERGER, Virginia   SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut            VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York            DOUG LaMALFA, California
BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois              RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois
CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine               RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,      DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina
Northern Mariana Islands             TRENT KELLY, Mississippi
ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire         DON BACON, Nebraska
CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois               DUSTY JOHNSON, South Dakota
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York       JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana
STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands   JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona              CHRIS JACOBS, New York
SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California        TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
RO KHANNA, California                MICHAEL CLOUD, Texas
AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida              TRACEY MANN, Kansas
J. LUIS CORREA, California           RANDY FEENSTRA, Iowa
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota               MARY E. MILLER, Illinois
JOSH HARDER, California              BARRY MOORE, Alabama
CYNTHIA AXNE, Iowa                   KAT CAMMACK, Florida
KIM SCHRIER, Washington              MICHELLE FISCHBACH, Minnesota
JIMMY PANETTA, California            JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana
ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
SANFORD D. BISHOP, Jr., Georgia

                                 ______

                      Anne Simmons, Staff Director

                 Parish Braden, Minority Staff Director

                                 ______

    Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations

                 JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut, Chairwoman

JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts     DON BACON, Nebraska,  Ranking 
ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina        Minority Member
BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois              ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, 
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN,      Arkansas
Northern Mariana Islands             SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California        VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri
AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida              JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana
ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire         CHRIS JACOBS, New York
JIMMY PANETTA, California            MICHAEL CLOUD, Texas
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York       KAT CAMMACK, Florida
                                     JULIA LETLOW, Louisiana

             Katherine Stewart, Subcommittee Staff Director

                                  (ii)
                                  
                             C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Bacon, Hon. Don, a Representative in Congress from Nebraska, 
  opening statement..............................................     3
    Submitted statement on behalf of Stephen Rossetti, President, 
      American Logistics Association.............................    56
Hayes, Hon. Jahana, a Representative in Congress from 
  Connecticut, opening statement.................................     1
    Prepared statement...........................................     2
    Submitted statement on behalf of Brittany Dymond, Associate 
      Director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign 
      Wars of the United States..................................    55

                               Witnesses

Hubbard, Mia, Vice President of Programs, MAZON: A Jewish 
  Response to Hunger, Los Angeles, CA............................     5
    Prepared statement...........................................     6
    Submitted question...........................................    58
Hollywood, Lt. Col. Denise, (Ret.), U.S. Air Force; Chief 
  Community and Programs Officer, Blue Star Families, Port 
  Jervis, NY.....................................................    18
    Prepared statement...........................................    20
    Submitted question...........................................    60
Kamdar, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC, Nipa, Cypress, TX...................    26
    Prepared statement...........................................    28
    Submitted question...........................................    60
Keefe, Timothy, veteran, U.S. Navy, Rockland, ME.................    31
    Prepared statement...........................................    33
    Submitted question...........................................    60

 
      HUNGER AMONG VETERANS AND SERVICEMEMBERS: UNDERSTANDING THE.
                    PROBLEM AND EVALUATING SOLUTIONS

                              ----------                              


                      WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2021

                          House of Representatives,
      Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department 
                                                Operations,
                                  Committee on Agriculture,
                                                   Washington, D.C.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 12:00 p.m., via 
Zoom, Hon. Jahana Hayes [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] 
presiding.
    Members present: Representatives Hayes, McGovern, Adams, 
Rush, Sablan, Carbajal, Lawson, Kuster, Panetta, Bishop, Bacon, 
DesJarlais, Baird, Jacobs, Cammack, and Letlow.
    Staff present: Lyron Blum-Evitts, Chu-Yuan Hwang, Katherine 
Stewart, Caleb Crosswhite, Jennifer Tiller, Erin Wilson, and 
Dana Sandman.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAHANA HAYES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
                   CONGRESS FROM CONNECTICUT

    The Chairwoman. This hearing of the Subcommittee on 
Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations entitled, 
Hunger Among Veterans and Servicemembers: Understanding the 
Problem and Evaluating Solutions, will come to order.
    Welcome, and thank you to everyone for joining this hearing 
today.
    After brief opening remarks, Members will receive testimony 
from our witnesses today, and then the hearing will be open to 
questions.
    Members will be recognized in order of seniority, 
alternating between Majority and Minority Members and in order 
of arrival for those Members who have joined us after the 
hearing was called to order.
    When you are recognized, you will be asked to unmute your 
microphone and will have 5 minutes to ask your questions or 
make a comment.
    If you are not speaking, I ask that you remain muted in 
order to minimize background noise.
    In order to get as many questions as possible, the timer 
will stay consistently visible on your screen.
    In consultation with the Ranking Member and pursuant to 
Rule XI(e), I want to make Members of the Subcommittee aware 
that other Members of the full Committee may join us today.
    I will now begin with my opening statement.
    Thank you all for joining me today for this very important 
hearing which will help our Subcommittee better understand the 
food security challenges that our nation's veterans and 
servicemembers face. This conversation is especially 
significant, given that, tomorrow, we observe Veterans Day, a 
day for us to honor those who serve and their willingness to 
protect our nation.
    I hope this hearing helps to highlight the reality that too 
many veterans face when their service has ended. Food 
insecurity is disturbingly rampant among our veteran 
population. On average, about 1.2 million households with 
veterans participate in SNAP each year. Tragically, studies 
estimate that a substantial portion of eligible veterans, as 
high as 60 percent, do not participate in the program.
    Food insecurity particularly impacts veterans who have 
recently left service, had lower final pay grades, or live in 
rural or low-income areas that have limited access to food. 
Their hunger can also be exacerbated by mental and physical 
health challenges, including service-related disabilities. It 
is unacceptable that in America today we cannot ensure that 
veterans do not struggle with food insecurity after the 
completion of their service.
    This problem does not spare our Active Duty servicemembers 
either, who, despite working every day to serve this country, 
face the same challenges with food insecurity. According to 
USDA, 22,000 SNAP households included servicemembers in 2019, 
and it is likely that that number is only the tip of the 
iceberg, as many military families face barriers to accessing 
SNAP.
    Servicemembers and veterans who face different barriers and 
situations--I am sorry. Servicemembers and veterans face 
different barriers and situations that can cause or worsen food 
insecurity. Some of these barriers are common among food-
insecure Americans, while others are unique and may require 
targeted solutions.
    No person should ever go hungry in America. However, it is 
especially galling to see those who have dedicated their lives 
to serving our nation struggle to put food on the table.
    Today is not a hearing to review or investigate any 
particular bill or piece of legislation. But, rather, we will 
gather information from the witnesses in our efforts to search 
for solutions to ensure no veteran or servicemember feels the 
sting of hunger.
    I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our 
veterans and servicemembers. Please let me extend a heartfelt 
thank you and the gratitude of myself, and I am sure every 
Member of this Subcommittee, today and every day for all you 
have done.
    We look forward to hearing from each of you and are 
committed to working to address this important issue.
    [The prepared statement of Mrs. Hayes follows:]

 Prepared Statement of Hon. Jahana Hayes, a Representative in Congress 
                            from Connecticut
    Thank you all again for joining me today for this important 
hearing, which will help our Subcommittee better understand the food 
security challenges that our nation's veterans and servicemembers face.
    This conversation is especially significant given that tomorrow we 
observe Veterans Day, a day for us to honor those who have served for 
their willingness to protect our nation.
    I hope this hearing helps to highlight the moral dissonance between 
rhetoric about honoring veterans, and the reality far too many face 
when their service has ended. Food insecurity is disturbingly rampant 
among our veteran population. On average, about 1.2 million households 
with veterans participate in SNAP each year. Tragically, studies 
estimate that a substantial proportion of eligible veterans--as high as 
sixty percent--do not participate in the program.
    Food insecurity particularly impacts veterans who have recently 
left service, had lower final paygrades, or live in rural or low-income 
areas that have limited access to food. Their hunger can also be 
exacerbated by mental and physical health challenges, including 
service-related or exacerbated disabilities. It is unacceptable that in 
America today--a country that spends $725 billion on national defense--
we cannot ensure veterans do not struggle with food insecurity after 
their service.
    Make no mistake--this problem does not spare our active duty 
servicemembers, who, despite working every day to serve our country, 
are too often unsure of where their next meal will come from. According 
to USDA, 22,000 SNAP households included servicemembers in 2019. And it 
is likely that that is only the tip of the iceberg, as many military 
families face barriers to accessing SNAP.
    Servicemembers and veterans, while related populations, face 
different barriers and situations that can cause or exacerbate food 
insecurity. Some of these barriers are common among food-insecure 
Americans, while others are unique and may require targeted solutions.
    No person should ever go hungry in America. However, it is 
especially galling to see those who have dedicated their lives to 
serving our nation be left behind as they struggle to put food on the 
table. Today, we will search for solutions to ensure no veteran or 
servicemember feels abandoned by the country they served when they are 
in a time of need. To all our brave veterans and servicemembers, please 
let me extend thanks for your service from every Member of this 
Subcommittee, today and every day.
    We look forward to hearing more from each of you today and we are 
committed to working to address this important issue.

    The Chairwoman. I would now like to welcome the 
distinguished Ranking Member, the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. 
Bacon, for any opening remarks he would like to give.

   OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DON BACON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
                     CONGRESS FROM NEBRASKA

    Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I will keep my 
comments fairly short.
    I echo your comments about Veterans Day. I thank all our 
veterans who are listening, and I am one myself. It is about 
six percent of our population, our veteran community. And there 
are always going to be problems in the world. We need people to 
serve to defend this great country, and we thank those who 
have. I appreciate that.
    And referencing one of the Chairwoman's comments, I am also 
concerned we have veterans come out and are having a hard time 
making ends meet. I think we should be trying to do everything 
we can to help transition these folks with trades, with such a 
shortage of trade programs right now, whether it is truck 
drivers, welders, carpenters, there are opportunities to put 
our veterans into these really great-paying jobs. And so I 
support a lot of programs to help with making that connection.
    And when it comes to our servicemen and -women who may be 
needing SNAP, I really would like to hear from the military 
itself: is this really a problem? We could have one of our 
chief master sergeants of the Air Force or the equivalent in 
the Army or Navy just to hear from them, what are they hearing 
with their E-1s, E-2s, and E-3s in this area? Or we could have 
someone from the personnel like the A1s or the J1 from the 
Joint Staff, just to give us the ground-level truth of what the 
military is seeing here, because if this is a more rampant 
problem, well, the military needs to address it.
    And in the HASC, (House Armed Services Committee), we can 
adjust pay levels to make this right. And there has been some 
discussion about doing that, but this is really an area where 
the HASC and the Military Personnel Subcommittee probably needs 
to be boring into get the ground truth and then find solutions 
within the military to solve.
    So, with that, I will yield back. I look forward to hearing 
what our panelists are saying.
    By the way, I did try to invite someone from DOD here, and 
they did not take the invite, but I think it is important to 
get their perspective on this.
    So, with that, I yield back, and I thank you, Madam 
Chairwoman, for the opportunity.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you. Thank you, Ranking Member.
    And we will continue to look for solutions to get the 
information that you are seeking. I do believe that DOD has a 
policy that they don't testify on mixed panels, so we will 
collect information from this group and see what we can do 
moving forward.
    I am not sure if the Chairman or the Ranking Member are 
here and would like to offer any opening statements. I don't 
see either Chairman Scott or Mr. Thompson, so I will move on.
    The chair would request that other Members submit their 
opening statements for the record so witnesses may begin their 
testimony and to ensure that there is ample time for questions.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized at any time to 
declare the Subcommittee in recess, subject to the call of the 
chair.
    And now I will introduce the witnesses.
    I am pleased to welcome such a distinguished panel of 
witnesses to our hearing today. Our witnesses bring to our 
hearing a wide variety of experience and expertise, and I thank 
you all for joining us.
    Our first witness today is Mrs. Mia Hubbard, who is the 
Vice President of Programs for MAZON: A Jewish Response to 
Hunger. She provides leadership for MAZON's advocacy, 
grantmaking, and strategic program efforts, and has been with 
the organization since 1993.
    Our next witness is Ms. Denise Hollywood, the Chief 
Community and Program Officer for Blue Star Families, a 
nonprofit that serves military families. In her role, Ms. 
Hollywood manages membership and volunteer programs, program 
design and delivery, policy decision and evaluation, and more. 
She received her Air Force commission from Cornell University 
and proudly served for 20 years.
    Our third witness is Dr. Nipa Kamdar, a nurse practitioner 
and nurse scientist, who has published several peer-reviewed 
studies on food insecurity affecting veterans. She is employed 
by the Veteran Health Administration and holds a faculty 
appointment at Baylor College of Medicine but is testifying 
today as a private citizen.
    I hope I said your name right.
    Our final witness today is Mr. Tim Keefe. He is a veteran 
who served in the United States Navy. After being injured at 
work and completing all measures included in the workers 
compensation process, Mr. Keefe found himself unable to return 
to work and fell on hard times. SNAP has served as a lifeline 
for him, as it does for many other veterans in similar 
situations.
    Welcome to all of our witnesses.
    We will now proceed to hearing your testimony. You will 
each have 5 minutes. The timer should be visible on your screen 
and will count down to zero, at which point your time has 
expired.
    Mrs. Hubbard, please begin when you are ready.

          STATEMENT OF MIA HUBBARD, VICE PRESIDENT OF 
 PROGRAMS, MAZON: A JEWISH RESPONSE TO HUNGER, LOS ANGELES, CA

    Mrs. Hubbard. Well, thank you, Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking 
Member Bacon, and the distinguished Members of the 
Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before 
you today representing MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
    Let us step back for just a moment and reflect on how 
absurd it is that we actually even need to discuss this 
problem, one that should never have been allowed to happen in 
the first place, let alone to persist with little to no 
attention or action to address it. There is simply no reason 
that military families and veterans should experience the 
painful reality of hunger.
    As I will share with you, there are several straightforward 
actions that Congress, the Administration, and Federal agencies 
can take to address this preventable problem.
    MAZON's work is grounded in Jewish values: to pursue 
justice and to respect the inherent dignity of every person. We 
are guided by a central belief: Regardless of a person's 
circumstance, no one deserves to go hungry.
    We have made it a priority to spotlight issues of the 
populations where large organizations and the government have 
yet to turn their focus. For nearly a decade, we have 
diligently led the national efforts to call attention to and 
address military and veteran food insecurity.
    In 2012, when we first became aware of the alarming number 
of military families struggling with food insecurity, we made 
it a priority to understand the issue and explore policy 
solutions. We thought it would be a quick fix, but here we are, 
nearly a decade later, facing a crisis.
    Time and again, my colleagues and I have been criticized, 
dismissed, ignored for raising this issue, both by policymakers 
and, frankly, by some in the anti-hunger community. We 
recognize this is an issue that is often hidden, which is 
understandable since struggling military and veteran families 
do not want to call attention to their situation. But it is a 
crisis nevertheless, and we, therefore, call on you to 
immediately advance policy solutions.
    Your leadership and that of the Administration and agency 
officials is urgently needed to chart a different course. 
Military and veteran families have been allowed to go hungry on 
your watch, and your inaction has allowed this situation to 
persist for years and to grow worse over the course of the 
pandemic, which has contributed to the worsening of diet-
related diseases, loss in productivity, and even spikes in 
suicide rates.
    While this hearing and my testimony will address the issue 
of food insecurity for both currently serving military and 
veteran families, we must be clear that these are two different 
populations with distinct challenges, needs, and opportunities 
for policy change, so my proposals are twofold.
    For military families, Congress and the Administration must 
support and prioritize inclusion of a full military family 
basic needs allowance provision in the 2022 National Defense 
Authorization Act (H.R. 4350).
    In 2019, following years of responding to objection about 
military families' access to SNAP, my colleague, Josh Protas, 
MAZON's VP of Public Policy, devised and created this proposal 
to address those objections, and it has worked. The proposal 
now has broad bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, 
as well as support from countless military service and anti-
hunger organizations across the country. We just need your help 
to get it across the finish line.
    In addition, the Administration must take executive action 
to ensure that servicemembers' basic allowance for housing does 
not count as income in determining eligibility for Federal food 
programs.
    Congress must study and document, in collaboration with the 
Administration, the full scope of military hunger and publish 
comprehensive data. And Congress should reexamine military pay 
levels, acknowledging that the composition and needs of 
America's military has changed significantly over time and that 
changes to pay and benefits have not responded adequately.
    For veterans, Congress must protect and improve SNAP and 
encourage the VA to connect veterans to this essential program. 
Success should not be measured by how many food pantries 
operate at VA centers; but, rather, how many food pantries are 
unnecessary because veterans are getting the access to SNAP.
    We should integrate information about Federal food programs 
into the Transition Assistance Program and the new Solid Start 
veteran suicide prevention program.
    And, finally, we should listen to the voices of veteran and 
military families. Real stories from people like our witness 
who we will hear from today, Tim Keefe, are essential to 
understanding the needs and barriers so that we can craft the 
right solutions.
    For MAZON, this is a matter of mission readiness, troop 
retention, and future recruitment. And, as policymakers, your 
role is essential and urgent.
    We welcome the opportunity to work with you on advancing 
these recommendations, and I look forward to your questions.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mrs. Hubbard follows:]

Prepared Statement of Mia Hubbard, Vice President of Programs, MAZON: A 
               Jewish Response to Hunger, Los Angeles, CA
    Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, and distinguished Members 
of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before 
you today representing MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger at this 
hearing on the topic of hunger among veteran and military families. 
Let's take a step back for just a moment and reflect on how absurd it 
is that we need to discuss this problem--one that should never have 
been allowed to happen in the first place, let alone to persist for 
many years with little to no attention or action to address it by our 
military leaders and public officials. There is simply no reason that 
military families and veterans should experience the painful reality of 
hunger. As I will share with you, there are several simple, 
straightforward actions that Congress, the Administration, and Federal 
agencies can take to make a meaningful difference in addressing this 
preventable problem.
    Fundamental to all of these actions is the basic recognition of the 
hardships that far too many of our military and veteran families must 
endure. MAZON has diligently led the national efforts to call attention 
to and address military and veteran and food insecurity for nearly a 
decade. During this time, there has been far too little acknowledgment, 
analysis, and action in response to these problems. More frequently, 
leaders look the other way, failing to even dignify the suffering of 
those who bravely serve our country because the reality of this problem 
is inconvenient, uncomfortable, and embarrassing to our nation. Even 
worse are attempts to blame the problem on the veteran and military 
families who struggle with food insecurity. Members of Congress, 
Committee staff, and Pentagon leaders have repeatedly told MAZON to 
stop pushing this issue because, as they claimed to us, ``this is just 
an issue of personal financial mismanagement.'' Or: ``People are in 
this situation because they don't know how to budget their money and 
make foolish purchases that put them in financial trouble.'' Enough is 
enough! We need to stop the wrongheaded accusations, harmful myths, and 
misinformation that pervade much of the public discourse about safety 
net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) 
and the specific reality of food insecurity for far too many of our 
veteran and military families.
    Your leadership--and that of the Administration and agency 
officials--is urgently needed to chart a different course, one that 
starts with acknowledging this problem and owning that this is your 
responsibility. Military and veteran families have been allowed to go 
hungry on your watch. Your inaction has allowed this situation to 
persist for years and to grow worse over the course of the pandemic.
    So, I urge you: make a change and muster the political will to act 
to end this solvable and unfortunate problem. Drop the empty platitudes 
of how much you love the troops. Instead, back up the rhetoric and 
prioritize support for those who bravely serve or have served and yet 
struggle amidst hardship. Don't wrap yourselves in the American flag to 
proclaim your patriotism and thank veteran and military families for 
their service if you won't have their backs in a time of real need.
    In Deuteronomy 15:7-8 we are commanded, echoing a directive and 
basic value that is shared across all faith traditions:

          ``If there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen 
        in any of your settlements in the land that the L-rd your G-d 
        is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand 
        against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your hand and 
        lend him sufficient for whatever he needs.'' 

    All of the witnesses here today are imploring you to look, to 
acknowledge that there are needy veteran and military families among 
us, and to act. And we are reminding you, as leaders of our country, on 
behalf of all of us, as a fulfillment of our collective responsibility 
to care for one another, to generously open your hearts, extend your 
hand, and provide for what is badly needed by our struggling military 
and veteran families.
Background
    Inspired by Jewish values and ideals, MAZON takes to heart the 
responsibility to care for the vulnerable in our midst, without 
judgement or precondition. For over 36 years, MAZON has fought to end 
hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds, and for nearly 10 
years, we have prioritized addressing the long-overlooked issue of food 
insecurity among military and veteran families. MAZON's groundbreaking 
project, This is Hunger, centered around the stories of real people who 
have struggled with hunger also includes powerful accounts from veteran 
and military families who faced food insecurity; you can find some of 
these stories included in the addendum at the end of this testimony.
    This is not MAZON's first time appearing before Congress on this 
topic. Nearly 6 years ago, Abby J. Leibman, MAZON's President and CEO, 
spoke as a witness before the House Committee on Agriculture 
Subcommittee on Nutrition to discuss the problem and propose solutions 
to military and veteran hunger.\1\ In 2015, MAZON sponsored the first-
ever Congressional briefing on the issue of veteran food insecurity. 
Also in 2015, I had the opportunity to testify about military and 
veteran hunger before the National Commission on Hunger established by 
Congress.\2\ In January 2018, MAZON coordinated and moderated a 
Congressional briefing, ``Veterans in the Farm Bill.'' \3\ In 2020, 
Josh Protas, MAZON's Vice President of Public Policy testified before 
the House Veterans Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Economic 
Opportunity about veteran hunger.\4\ Earlier this year, Ms. Leibman 
participated in a Congressional roundtable hosted by the House Rules 
Committee entitled ``Examining the Hunger Crisis Among Veterans and 
Military Families.'' \5\ Each of these occasions shined a more 
prominent spotlight on these long-ignored issues and resulted in 
incrementally positive steps, including Federal agencies collecting new 
data about and addressing veteran and military food insecurity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, 
Testimony of Abby J. Leibman. Jan. 2016, https://republicans-
agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ajl_final.pdf.
    \2\ National Commission on Hunger, Testimony of Mia Hubbard 
(https://mazon.org/wp-admin/upload.php?item=2128). June 2015.
    \3\ ``Bipartisan Group of Representatives Holds Congressional 
Briefing on Veterans in the Farm Bill.'' U.S. Representative Chellie 
Pingree, 19 Jan. 2018, https://pingree.house.gov/news/
documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=174.
    \4\ U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on 
Economic Opportunity, Testimony of Josh Protas. Jan. 2020, https://
docs.house.gov/meetings/VR/VR10/20200109/110350/HHRG-116-VR10-Wstate-
ProtasJ-20200109.pdf.
    \5\ U.S. House Committee on Rules, Testimony of Abby J. Leibman. 
May 2021, https://mazon.org/wp-content/uploads/MAZON-Written-Testimony-
for-5.27.21-House-Rules-Cte-Roundtable.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The world has changed so much since MAZON first brought 
Congressional and public attention to these issues nearly 10 years ago, 
but our institutions have moved too slowly and there has been too 
little progress during the intervening time to adequately address 
military and veteran hunger. In some ways, the problems have grown 
worse; veteran and military families were severely impacted by COVID-19 
and the resulting economic downturn. Food insecurity exacerbated in 
these populations during this time, contributing to the worsening of 
diet-related chronic disease, lost productivity, and even spikes in 
suicide rates.
    Some positive steps, through both programmatic and policy change, 
have helped. Most notably, the recent adoption of the Hunger Vital 
Signs screening tool at all VA outpatient facilities as well as 
increases to SNAP benefits through the temporary boost included in 
COVID-19 relief legislation and the recent update to the Thrifty Food 
Plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been very 
helpful.
    However, while most of the suggestions and recommendations made by 
MAZON in recent years continue to be relevant, and often urgent, they 
remain unfulfilled.
    As such, my statement today includes citations and links to reports 
and testimonies offered by MAZON's leadership at previous Congressional 
hearings exploring the topics of food insecurity among veteran and 
military families. By calling renewed attention to these resources, 
which include extensive information, historical context, and details 
about the challenges and opportunities, MAZON hopes to highlight our 
previous policy and programmatic recommendations and urge you to 
carefully consider them as the foundation of a more comprehensive 
approach to ending military and veteran hunger.
    While this hearing and my testimony address the issue of food 
insecurity for both currently serving military and veteran families, we 
must be clear that military families and veteran families are different 
populations, each with distinct challenges, needs, and opportunities 
for policy change. There are some overlapping areas of concern around 
the transition period, but generally, the circumstances and need for 
solutions look different for each population. In addition, this 
testimony does not address all military populations facing food 
insecurity, particularly among the National Guard and Reserve 
components, and these issues warrant additional attention and 
investigation. Further, because of the way that Congress handles 
authorizations and appropriations for the U.S. Coast Guard, separate 
legislative actions are needed to address the challenges of food 
insecurity among Coast Guard families. This problem received media 
coverage during the last Federal Government shutdown, when food 
pantries quickly popped up at numerous installations to support Coast 
Guardsmen and Guardswomen who missed their first paychecks and found it 
difficult to make ends meet and feed their families.
Hunger Among Currently-Serving Military Families
    Across America, food banks have experienced unprecedented demand. 
Families struggling to put food on the table during the COVID-19 
pandemic turned to food pantries, charities, and Federal benefits as 
they endured the painful reality of hunger. Among those who sought--and 
continue to seek--help are military families unsure from where their 
next meal will come. Servicemembers who enlisted to fight for our 
country already sacrifice so much and are struggling to feed themselves 
and their families.
    This is not a new problem. Sadly, even before the COVID-19 pandemic 
and ensuing economic crisis, military families faced food insecurity. 
These currently-serving members of the Armed Forces--often junior 
enlisted servicemembers (typically enlisted ranks E-1 through E-4) with 
multiple dependents--have turned in desperation to emergency assistance 
for years, surviving with the help of the food pantries that operate on 
or near every military installation in the United States. At Camp 
Pendleton alone, there are four food pantries serving the base 
community, each one routinely assisting hundreds of military families 
each month. Due to the lack of transparency from the Department of 
Defense (DOD) in collecting data on food insecurity among 
servicemembers and their families and its reluctance to publicize any 
information they do have, the true scale of this crisis is unknown. 
However, the data that are publicly available from both government and 
military interest group surveys indicate that the scope of the crisis 
is broad and affects military families across the country.\6\ This 
matches anecdotal accounts reporting increases in the number of 
military families seeking assistance to put food on the table.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ McFadden, Cynthia, et al. ``Why Are Many of America's Military 
Families Going Hungry?'' NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 14 July 
2019, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/why-are-many-america-s-
military-families-going-hungry-n1028886.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Key findings from MAZON's extensive work on this issue are 
highlighted in our report, ``Hungry in the Military: Food Insecurity 
Among Military Families in the U.S.,'' published in April 2021.\7\ They 
include:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Leibman, Abby J., and Josh Protas. ``Hungry in the Military: 
Food Insecurity Among Military Families in the U.S.'' MAZON: A Jewish 
Response to Hunger, Apr. 2021, https://mazon.org/wp-content/uploads/
MAZON-Military-Hunger-Report-April-2021.pdf.

   Addressing military hunger is a matter of readiness, 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        retention, and recruitment.

   Food insecurity among military families disproportionately 
        impacts military families of color and failure to address it 
        adds to the challenges around racial equity in the military and 
        the lack of diversity among officer and leadership ranks.

   There is a correlation between food insecurity and negative 
        mental health outcomes, including suicide; responding to 
        military food insecurity is a critical action as part of the 
        effort to address the crisis of increasing rates of military 
        suicide.

   At least part of this problem stems from an unintended 
        barrier to assistance for struggling military families by 
        counting a servicemember's Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as 
        income in determining eligibility for Federal nutrition 
        programs like SNAP.

   Junior-enlisted members are more diverse in race, ethnicity, 
        and gender than higher military ranks. They also support 
        families at much higher rates than previous cohorts of junior-
        enlisted servicemembers. The DOD has not adequately adjusted 
        the base salary to reflect the reality of our modern military 
        force.

   The circumstances that give rise to food insecurity among 
        military families are complex, yet simplistic responses based 
        on unfounded stereotypes are often pursued in lieu of more 
        meaningful solutions.

   In the last year, COVID-19 exacerbated the unique financial 
        challenges of military families, such as high rates of spousal 
        unemployment, lack of access to affordable childcare, and costs 
        associated with frequent relocations.
Hunger Among Veteran Families
    MAZON was proud to recently sign a Memorandum of Agreement with the 
Veterans Health Administration to work collaboratively to address 
veteran food insecurity. While we are excited about this opportunity to 
provide input and collaborate on innovative program ideas and 
solutions, the limited commitments to date by the U.S. Department of 
Veterans Affairs (VA) and slow pace of response to a preventable crisis 
with multiple negative consequences is deeply distressing. 
Additionally, the sporadic oversight by Congress combined with a lack 
of urgency to hold Federal agencies accountable to a proactive, robust, 
and measurable solution to end veteran food insecurity must be 
rectified. There is great bipartisan concern expressed in Congress 
about veteran food insecurity, but the commitment to mandate and 
provide funding for proven solutions has unfortunately not matched the 
lofty rhetoric.
    Recent research emphasizes the urgent need for more proactive 
responses to prevent and address veteran food insecurity and highlights 
particular challenges.

   Calling attention to the significant SNAP participation gap 
        among veteran households, a recent study noted that among food-
        insecure veterans, less than \1/3\ were in households receiving 
        SNAP; among veterans in households with incomes below the 
        poverty threshold, only about four in ten were SNAP-recipient 
        households.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ Pooler, Jennifer, et al. ``Issue Brief: Veterans and Food 
Insecurity.'' IMPAQ International, Nov. 2018, https://impaqint.com/
sites/default/files/issue-briefs/Transitional%20Empoyment
%20Programs_Program%20Overview_Compnents_andModels.pdf.

   Between 2005 and 2019, [working-age] veterans were predicted 
        to be 7.4 percent more likely to live in a food-insecure 
        household than nonveterans. The elevated risk is concentrated 
        among veterans whose most recent period of military service was 
        during the pre-9/11 Gulf War era (August 1990 to August 2001) 
        and the interwar period between May 1975 and July 1990.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ Rabbitt, Matthew P., and Michael D. Smith. ``Food Insecurity 
Among Working-Age Veterans.'' U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic 
Research Service, May 2021, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/
publications/101269/err-829_summary.pdf?v=9153.

   A new study found that veterans with PTSD and/or a history 
        of military sexual trauma are at significantly increased risk 
        for food insecurity. Of women veterans who were food-insecure, 
        nearly half (48.9%) had a history of military sexual 
        trauma.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ Cohen, Alicia J., et al. ``Risk Factors for Veteran Food 
Insecurity: Findings from a National U.S. Department of Veterans 
Affairs Food Insecurity Screener.'' Public Health Nutrition, 2021, pp. 
1-26., doi:10.1017/S1368980021004584.

    It is time to recalibrate the Federal Government's goals and 
priorities to provide a comprehensive response to veteran food 
insecurity. The VA's news and partnership email updates are well-
intentioned, but the focus is too often on supplemental help, like 
veteran food distributions or food pantries organized by VA facilities 
and community partners, rather than connecting veterans with needed, 
long-term government support. The implicit abdication of responsibility 
by the government to the charitable sector is unsustainable and 
dangerous as it shifts attention away from the need to strengthen and 
improve access to SNAP and other Federal programs that serve as the 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
most effective, frontline response to veteran food insecurity.

    Success should be measured not by how many food pantries operate at 
VA centers, but rather by how many food pantries become unnecessary due 
to veteran households receiving the support they need and are entitled 
to through programs like SNAP.

    In addition, we are particularly concerned about the impacts of 
racial injustice on veterans and the ongoing tragedy of heightened 
suicide rates among veterans. While there is growing public awareness 
and concern about both, few viable policy proposals exist to address 
either. The disproportionate impact of food insecurity on households 
with veterans of color highlight racial inequities that are perpetuated 
through public policies and program implementation. Closing the SNAP 
participation gap for veterans and improving the program to better 
reach and serve food-insecure veterans of color not only signals a 
commitment to meaningful efforts to address racial justice--it 
concretely contributes to efforts to achieve greater racial equity in 
Federal policy.
    As noted by Dr. Thomas O'Toole during his testimony before the 
House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity on January 
9, 2020, a growing body of research sheds light on the relationship 
between food insecurity and risk factors for poor mental health and 
suicide.\11\ A new study, ``Association between Food Insecurity, Mental 
Health, and Intentions to Leave the U.S. Army in a Cross-Sectional 
Sample of U.S. Soldiers'' by researchers at the USDA Economic Research 
Service and the U.S. Army Public Health Center offers additional 
insight about linkages between food insecurity, mental health, and 
military service.\12\ To achieve the VA's stated top clinical priority 
to end veteran suicide and implement a comprehensive public health 
approach to reach all veterans, the VA must bolster their leadership 
and implement a robust effort to address veteran food insecurity 
through proactive SNAP outreach to veterans, both within and outside of 
the VA system.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ ``Statement of Dr. Thomas O'Toole, Senior Medical Advisor 
Office of the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Clinical 
Operations, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Department of Veterans 
Affairs (VA).'' (https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VR/VR10/20200109/
110350/HHRG-116-VR10-Wstate-OTooleT-20200109.pdf) 2020.
    \12\ Beymer, Matthew R, et al. ``Association between Food 
Insecurity, Mental Health, and Intentions to Leave the U.S. Army in a 
Cross-Sectional Sample of U.S. Soldiers.'' The Journal of Nutrition, 
vol. 151, no. 7, 12 May 2021, pp. 2051-2058, https://doi.org/10.1093/
jn/nxab089.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additionally, a recommendation made by Dr. Colleen Heflin during 
her testimony at the May 27, 2021 House Rules Committee roundtable 
examination of the hunger crisis among veterans and military families 
holds great promise to decrease the risk of food insecurity during the 
transition from military service to civilian life, when many households 
are more at risk of food insecurity.\13\ MAZON urges this Subcommittee 
to explore her suggestion for the Federal Government to provide a 
targeted transitional benefit to all families leaving military service 
below a certain rank. Such a benefit would act as a stabilizing 
mechanism and provide much-needed additional assistance to veterans and 
their families during a time when they may experience a greater level 
of financial need. In addition, MAZON supports the distinct, yet often 
related, recommendations by Dr. Heflin to better protect veterans with 
disabilities from food insecurity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ ``Written Statement of Colleen Heflin, Professor of Public and 
International Affairs, Maxwell School at Syracuse University before the 
Rules Committee, United States House of Representatives, Examining the 
Hunger Crisis Among Veterans and Military Families.'' (https://
rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/HRDT-117-RU00-
WState-HeflinC-20210527.pdf) 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Policy Recommendations
    We all can agree that those who make great personal sacrifices for 
our country should not have to struggle to provide regular, nutritious 
meals for themselves or their families. Therefore, MAZON urges this 
Subcommittee to consider the following specific policy recommendations 
to address military and veteran hunger.

    To address hunger among currently serving military families:

  1.  Congress and the Administration should support and prioritize 
            inclusion of the full Military Family Basic Needs Allowance 
            provision in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense 
            Authorization Act (NDAA). In order to reach all military 
            families experiencing food insecurity and provide them with 
            a sufficient level of assistance, it is critical that this 
            Basic Needs Allowance exclude a servicemember's BAH as 
            counted income. Additionally, a similar provision to 
            support low-income Coast Guard families should be 
            separately authorized and funded, as their needs would not 
            be addressed through the NDAA legislation. This targeted 
            and temporary assistance program must be structured in a 
            streamlined and efficient manner to eliminate common 
            barriers to nutrition assistance including shame, stigma, 
            and fear of retribution.

        To effectively implement and administer the Military Family 
            Basic Needs Allowance, there must be a permanent single 
            point of contact at DOD to coordinate with other agencies, 
            Congress, and civil society partners like MAZON. The 
            Executive Branch and Congress must continue to emphasize 
            that permanent solutions to military hunger are an urgent 
            national priority and fundamentally influence readiness, 
            recruitment, retention, and morale among the Armed Forces.

  2.  The Administration must take executive action to ensure that a 
            servicemember's BAH does not count as income in determining 
            eligibility for Federal nutrition safety net programs. 
            President Biden and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack must utilize 
            existing administrative authorities to exclude the BAH as 
            income for all Federal nutrition programs including SNAP, 
            WIC, and free and reduced-price school meals. This action 
            would ensure that military families are not prevented from 
            qualifying for assistance and that there is a clear and 
            consistent consideration of the BAH across all Federal 
            programs that treats low-income military families in a way 
            comparable to civilian counterparts. Now more than ever, 
            struggling military families must be able to access these 
            programs so that they do not have to turn in desperation to 
            food pantries simply because they cannot get the government 
            assistance they need.

  3.  Congress must study and document, in collaboration with the 
            Administration, the full scope of military hunger and 
            publicly publish comprehensive data. Despite strong 
            anecdotal evidence and survey information collected by 
            military service organizations, food insecurity among 
            military families is not adequately documented or monitored 
            by government agencies, and this has allowed the problem to 
            be ignored, obscured, and misrepresented. Data are often 
            withheld from the public or are excessively difficult to 
            obtain. Available data and agency reports are often 
            contradictory, out of date, or simply incomprehensible.

        While the recent 13th Quadrennial Review of Military 
            Compensation documented SNAP usage by military households, 
            DOD asked the wrong question. Rather than how many 
            servicemembers are accessing SNAP, we must explore how many 
            military families struggle without the assistance of 
            Federal safety net programs, quietly visiting food pantries 
            on our military bases.

  4.  Congress should re-examine military pay levels, acknowledging 
            that the composition and needs of America's military have 
            changed significantly over time and that changes to pay and 
            benefits have not responded accordingly. Policymakers 
            should seek to better understand the unique lifestyle and 
            financial challenges that military personnel with families 
            experience and consider raising the base pay rates for 
            junior enlisted servicemembers.

  5.  Anti-hunger advocates, government agencies, community 
            organizations, and media outlets must reset the narrative 
            around hunger and address the persistent shame and stigma 
            that prevent so many Americans--especially members of the 
            military and their families--from seeking the nutrition 
            assistance they need. Collectively, we must acknowledge 
            that there is often an unspoken stigma associated with 
            applying for and accepting government benefits, 
            particularly among military ranks. Some servicemembers are 
            understandably resistant to ask for help because of the 
            shame of their situation and the fear of retribution. This 
            attitude can persist as a servicemember transitions into 
            civilian life, clearly contributing to the related barriers 
            to assistance among America's veterans.

        The broader anti-hunger community must work together to 
            prioritize a justice-centered approach to ending military 
            hunger that appropriately centers systemic changes and 
            policy priorities. Leaders in government, as well as the 
            media, can play an important role in moving the public's 
            focus away from charities straining to meet the needs of 
            people facing hunger. This will allow us to ensure that 
            public assistance programs appropriately fulfill our 
            collective responsibility to care for the vulnerable, 
            support people in times of need, and expand opportunities 
            so that all Americans--including all military families--can 
            reach their full potential.

    To address hunger among veteran families[:]

  1.  Protect and Improve SNAP

        Food insecurity can often trigger a downward spiral of economic 
            hardship and despair, which unfortunately can lead to 
            suicide. Improving access to SNAP for struggling veterans 
            is an important strategy in the campaign to end veteran 
            suicide.
        We must work together to ensure that struggling veterans and 
            those who serve them know that SNAP exists, that they might 
            be eligible, and where and how to apply.

  2.  Connect Veterans to SNAP

        After years of advocating for mandatory food insecurity 
            screenings at the VA, MAZON was pleased that the VA took 
            our advice and recently began implementing the Hunger Vital 
            Signs screener to identify food-insecure veterans. But the 
            current process is not doing enough. For veterans who 
            screen positive, the VA must provide on-site SNAP 
            eligibility and application assistance. Veteran-specific 
            SNAP enrollment efforts, such as peer-to-peer veteran 
            outreach, can also help to reduce stigma, normalize the 
            idea of getting help from SNAP, and reach the struggling 
            veterans who fall through the cracks--both within and 
            outside of the VA system. It is imperative that we close 
            the sizable SNAP participation gap for veterans.

  3.  Federal agencies, including DOD, USDA, VA, and the Department of 
            Homeland Security (agency of jurisdiction for U.S. Coast 
            Guard) must work collaboratively to share data and 
            resources about food insecurity among veteran and military 
            families and work together to proactively find solutions, 
            such as integrating information about Federal nutrition 
            programs like SNAP as part of the Transition Assistance 
            Program and the new ``Solid Start'' veteran suicide 
            prevention program.

        The VA should work with USDA, veteran service organizations, 
            and community partners like MAZON to develop veteran-
            specific programs and resources about SNAP and other 
            nutrition programs. Innovative and successful pilot 
            programs, like the Veteran Farmers['] Market Nutrition 
            Program that provides vouchers to veterans with diet-
            related chronic health conditions to incentivize purchases 
            of fresh produce at farmers markets, should be scaled-up 
            and replicated nationwide.
        New and promising initiatives should be explored and supported, 
            such as establishing a targeted transitional nutrition 
            assistance benefit as a way to express gratitude to junior-
            enlisted military families for their service and provide a 
            temporary measure of assistance for food purchases during 
            an initial designated period when many veterans experience 
            challenges transitioning to civilian life.

  4.  Listen to Veteran and Military Families

        Negative public perceptions of SNAP are only worsened by 
            proposals to restrict the program for only certain 
            Americans. This creates a chilling effect and adds to the 
            stigma that makes veteran and military families and others 
            reluctant to seek help. This Subcommittee should solicit 
            and gather personal stories from veteran and military 
            families who have lived experiences with food insecurity to 
            help inform policy proposals and ensure that they are 
            appropriately suited to the circumstances on the ground. 
            The perspectives from veteran and military families should 
            also be centered in the design of education and training 
            programs for VA, DOD, and other personnel who work with 
            individuals experiencing food insecurity. Such training 
            should recognize and appropriately account for heightened 
            stigma and reluctance to seek or accept help in these 
            populations and promote specifically-designed approaches to 
            build trust and comfort for those in need of assistance.

    Hunger among veteran and military families--indeed, all food 
insecurity--is a solvable problem, and the solution lies in mustering 
the political will to prioritize and address it. MAZON welcomes the 
opportunity to continue to work as a partner with this Subcommittee, 
others in Congress, all relevant Federal agencies, military service 
organizations and veteran service organizations, and other community 
partners to build this political will and support those who have 
bravely served our country. No servicemember or veteran should ever 
have to worry about being able to feed themselves or their family. We 
owe them much more than the half-measures and broken promises of our 
policies and programs to date.

    Hungry military and veteran families cannot eat another report or 
hearing transcript.

    MAZON urges this Subcommittee to immediately identify concrete 
steps that Congress and the Administration can take now to end the 
crisis of military family and veteran food insecurity. We stand ready 
with suggestions and with resolve to work in partnership.
Addendum
    MAZON's groundbreaking project, This is Hunger, centers around 
stories of real people who have struggled with hunger. Included in this 
powerful, immersive exhibition are stories of real veteran and military 
families who faced food insecurity. Below are some of these stories.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


 
 
 
                                  Ashley from San Diego, California
 
                                    ``If they separated base pay from
                                   allowances, that would help our
                               circumstances, because we could then go
                               back and apply for food stamps, and more
                              than likely be approved because they would
                                only be considering the base pay. That
                               would free up our food budget because we
                               could actually buy some of the things we
                               don't get to have regularly because they
                               are expensive. I could afford to feed my
                                family more healthy, homecooked foods.
                             Because it is cheaper just to open up a box
                              of mac & cheese instead of buying all the
                                 ingredients separately and making a
                              healthier version of it. So they would be
                               better fed and have better choices. And
                             then in turn some of the debt that we still
                              have would be able to be paid off, so that
                              we could get off of food stamps and still
                             afford to have better quality food, but not
                             having to forego other bills in order to do
                                                that.
 

          * * * * *
    Standing in the line at the food pantry with all the other 
families, it's just more sad than anything. You look around and see so 
many people in the same boat as you. You don't know why they're there 
or anything like that, but there's obviously a need for them to be 
there.
    Some food pantries are just helping anyone; some are only for 
military. But it is really sad to see how many people, especially how 
many military families, need help. And I come across military families 
quite often who don't even know that there are services that they can 
utilize. They've been struggling for months, and they don't know that 
there is a source out there that could potentially help them, because 
it's not directly affiliated with the military. The military doesn't 
have any say in putting that information out there. So really the only 
way the military families can find out about any food pantry programs 
is through word of mouth.''
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                                          Rebecca from San Diego,
                                           California
 
                                              ``I heard a Sergeant Major
                                           in the Marine Corps say, `oh
                                           my Marines won't mind taking
                                           these cuts, they are better
                                           doing more with less, the
                                           families will learn to
                                           adapt.' I wanted to smack
                                           him. The upper echelon of the
                                           military doesn't understand
                                           what the enlisted go through.
                                              A lot of families that
                                           weren't struggling before
 

have started struggling when the military started cutting benefits a 
few years ago. Medical benefits were cut, salary increases for being 
stationed in more expensive places were pretty much been eliminated, 
and the BAH was reduced. Plus, prices in general have gone up and 
salaries for enlisted stayed pretty much the same. And in our case, 
while we've always lived by a strict budget and plan, we certainly 
didn't plan on having twins when we planned on one more child. And we 
certainly didn't plan on one of them developing autism and extenuating 
medical problems, and things like that.
    When my husband's Command found out that he didn't have the money 
to pay for all the extras he was expected to--tickets for this, 
someone's retirement, etc.--they called our finances into question. 
They couldn't understand how an E-6 Staff Sergeant wouldn't have the 
money, unless he was being irresponsible. I think the military really 
needs to look at some of their stellar Marines and ask why those 
families can't make ends meet.
    Before we moved to California from North Carolina, we were doing 
well. We could save. But the same amount of food that costs $250 in 
North Carolina costs $800 here. The medical benefit is different and 
we're required to take out additional health insurance for our kids. In 
the year we've been here, we've had to use our savings to pay our bills 
and make up the difference between the higher cost of living here and 
my husband's paycheck, which is the same as it was before.
    We used up the last of our saving a few months ago so we could buy 
school supplies for the kids. I did the worksheet to apply for food 
stamps and we were above the income limit. They don't consider many 
things, like our extraordinary medical costs. We've cut out everything 
we can from our budget. My husband wears shoes with holes and faded 
uniforms, even though it's against the rules. But what can we do if we 
don't have the money? I don't refill my medication regularly. We are 
eating less healthy. My husband and I are down to a meal or two a day. 
The only way we can make it is to go to the food distributions, but 
that's not how I want my kids to remember how mom and dad provided for 
them. I'm gonna do what it takes to take care of my kids. Period. End 
of story. But there is a backlash that comes when using any programs, 
like FSSA. Don't get me wrong, if there was a death in the family, 
nobody thinks twice about you getting assistance from Navy-Marine 
Relief for that. That attitude needs to change. Definitely.
    I'd love to be in a position where we didn't have to use those 
types of services. If I could work, it would be different. But doing a 
regular job is not an option with a moderate to severely autistic 
child. What I'd earn wouldn't offset the cost of specialized home care. 
I'm looking for a way to make extra income at home. Maybe I'll become a 
notary because you know how hard it is find a notary?"
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                                  Astrid from San Diego, California
 
                                 ``I'm from Haiti and my husband is from
                             Columbia. We have a daughter who's 12 and a
                               son who's 9. My husband has a degree in
                                engineering and a MBA. I was a fashion
                               designer before I had kids. We're just a
                                       regular family I think.
                                 After 9/11, my husband joined the Navy
                              because America `opened its doors' to him
                               and he wanted to do something in return.
                              But the person I married isn't the person
                              my husband is today. He has been deployed
                              four times and when he returned from Iraq,
                                 he was different, like so many guys.
                               Aggressive, broken. The military doesn't
                                try to mend them; they give then free
                              tickets to LEGOLAND as if that is going to
                               make the hurt go away. I don't think my
                               children need to go to LEGOLAND anymore.
                                                 They
 


need a good stable food allocation, but that's not possible anymore on 
the salary of a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy.
    Military salaries haven't kept up with the economy. Food and gas 
prices have skyrocketed and we've already cut what we can from our 
monthly budget, mainly groceries. I shop at the 99 store and garage 
sales. We've moved out of military housing to a cheaper rental and have 
an extra $120 a month from our BAH to spend on essentials. But my 
daughter needed braces and they cost $2,000, which has been a big dent 
in our budget. My husband went back to school a year ago to get a 
doctorate to teach in the military, and that's another $600-$700 a 
month because the military doesn't pay for a Ph.D. So, we have to rob 
Peter to pay Paul.
    It's a vicious circle. We don't qualify for food stamps because of 
my husband's rank and income, but his salary isn't enough, especially 
for the job he does. I know that the Navy says that there's support for 
spouses through Fleet and Family, but showing me how to rewrite my 
resume doesn't pay the bills. And if I work, who is going to pick up 
the kids when my husband is deployed or off on other missions at sea? 
I've seen so many military families disintegrate, and so many children 
fall into drugs, because their parents aren't around.
    I've started looking at how to make up the difference in our 
expenses and what my husband gets paid. He's is going to transfer his 
GI benefits to me so I can go back to school and learn something where 
I can have flexible hours and still be there for my kids. We're making 
every effort to give our kids the best. We make sacrifices. I go to the 
food distributions not by choice, but to make sure my children have 
every single thing they need. When I first heard about the civilian-run 
food distribution from a friend, I felt so ashamed to go. I thought `oh 
my god everybody is gonna know I don't have money,' or that `I'm 
gambling away at a casino.' But the volunteers at the distribution made 
me feel so special. Why do people outside the military know that 
military families are needy, but the DOD and Congress don't seem to?''
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


 
 
 
                                Gabriel from San Diego, California
 
                               ``After I got my B.A. from Houston State
                               University I went to work in personal
                            finances. I taught people how to get out of
                           debt, apply for retirement, things like that.
                           I really liked that job, but I always wanted
                           to serve my country, so a year and a half ago
                            I join the Marines. I'm a Corporal based in
                                          Camp Pendleton.
                             I work in ground support for all the Marine
                               helicopters. It's the equivalent of a
                           logistics manager for a company like Amazon.
                             In the civilian world, that person with a
                           degree like mine, would get paid about three
                             times more than I am. I like being in the
                              Marines, but with a wife and child, and
                            another one on the way, my paycheck of less
                           than $2,000 a month isn't enough to make ends
                            meet. It was easier when my wife worked in
                          insurance, but the cost of day care is so high
                              that it doesn't make sense. Anyway, we
                          sacrifice for the United States, why shouldn't
                           my wife stay home to take care of our child?
                              We're on a strict budget and pinch pennies
                          where we can, but I can't cut the gas to go to
                                             work, the
 

car insurance, and the dry cleaning for my uniforms, which has to be 
done so I pass inspection. We don't even have the money to buy our 2 
year old daughter a bed, so she's sleeping on an air mattress on the 
floor.
    I'm doing all I can and serving my country, and I have to worry 
about how I'm going to buy food? I am not ashamed to say, `hey I need 
help' to be able to feed my family. We got WIC when our daughter was a 
baby, but recently when we applied for food stamps we were denied 
because our BAH counts as income. The only reason we are even getting 
by is because our neighbor told us about the food distributions. We're 
going twice a month and it saves us about $200 on groceries. That means 
I don't have to put things such as shampoo and soap on a credit card. 
It stresses me out when I have to. I won't get sucked in by the credit 
card companies who say, `oh purchase whatever you want and you'll have 
no interest for 12 months,' but afterwards you're hit with a huge debt.
    I don't think the government protects military families enough 
because so many of us need to go to a food distributions run by outside 
groups. There's a real disconnect between the command and the troops. I 
went to my commander asking about assistance and he didn't tell me 
there was a food distribution on base or tell me about FSSA. He sent me 
to the Navy-Marine Relief Society and all they did was show me how to 
do a budget. But that was no help because I already knew how to do a 
budget; I'm a certified financial counselor. I even teach other Marines 
how to manage their money. I know the Navy-Marine Relief sometimes give 
one time loans, but that won't help me with monthly expenses.
    I don't really know how you go about fixing the problem, but it 
would really help if the military paid us more or the Commissary was 
less expensive, and if the housing allowance was not considered part of 
our paychecks. We are the only job where we have to give up our lives 
to protect the Constitution of the United States, so shouldn't the 
government make sure we can properly feed our families?''
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


 
 
 
                                     Judith from Phoenix, Arizona
 
                                   ``When the military denied my request
                               for financial help, it was like putting a
                                  dagger in my back. I spent almost 30
                                  years in the Air Force. When Saddam
                                 invaded Kuwait, I had to explain to my
                                son, I could be sent to war and I'd have
                               to find somebody to take care of him. His
                                        whole face just dropped.
                                     What children of the military go
                                  through stays with them their whole
                               lives. That's why I get angry when people
                                 say I'm pampering my son. Since he got
                                laid off after the economy went down the
                                toilet, I have helped him out But he has
                                 essentially become my caregiver. It's
                                 cheaper to pay my son's bills than to
                                      hire a full-time caregiver.
                                      We used to be comfortable. But
                                  supporting two households is a real
                                   struggle. I don't buy big fabulous
                                things--I'm not Wilma Flintstone--but my
                                monthly VA benefits and Social Security
                                 are no longer enough. I've used up my
                                    savings to keep us from becoming
                               homeless. One month, I came within 3\1/2\
                                hours of losing my son's house. I begged
 

the bank, saying, `Look we're doing the best we can; I don't want it to 
go into foreclosure,' and the bank came through. It was really 
embarrassing to ask for help, because I was the one always helping 
others.
    My medical is pretty well taken care of by the VA. But there are 
months when I have to skip paying certain bills, and I can no longer 
afford food like I used to. Where I used to have two or three chicken 
thighs in a meal, now I make soup out of them and spread it over the 
week. I can't get much from the local food pantry because it doesn't 
carry lactose- and gluten-free food, which my doctor told me I must 
eat.
    Feeding my young grandson properly is the priority, so I'll eat 
peanut butter and celery for lunch rather than fix myself a real meal. 
You can get a bunch of celery for $0.88 and a jar of peanut butter for 
$1.50 at the military commissary. Three jars of peanut butter last me 
about a month. I guess my body will adapt to eating less, and I can get 
nutrition from the vitamins the doctors have me taking for my medical 
problems.
    My son is trying very hard to get into the solar business, and if 
he does, we'll be OK again. I'd like to eat something besides peanut 
butter and celery. But my goal is to get out of debt so that when my 
time comes, my children won't have to worry. I'd like to leave my kids 
something for them to remember me by."
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


 
 
 
                                        Emery from Brandon, Mississippi
 
                                            ``We were one of those
                                         couples that purchased the
                                         house we could afford, so we
                                         could have that slice of the
                                         American Dream: our own home.
                                         We didn't just jump into it
                                         blind--we had two stable
                                         incomes.
                                            I was working for a
                                         gentleman in home renovations
                                         and when his business was hit
                                         by the recession, he started
                                         paying me late. Then he just
                                         stopped paying me altogether. I
                                         had to quit the job to look for
                                         a new one that paid me for my
                                         work. I've been
 

applying for jobs I'm qualified for, that have openings, but I've 
gotten no response. Being unemployed has cut our household income in 
half, and my wife and I are having to make decisions every day on how 
to allocate what little monies we have: are we going to eat or are we 
going to pay the light bill? We never lived extravagantly, but there 
are no luxuries now, no more vacations. We are fighting to hold on to 
what little we still have.
    In the 6 years since we bought our house, this month is the first 
time that the mortgage wasn't paid on time. I had to borrow from one 
place to give to another. I pawned the title to my truck to supplement 
income. We don't qualify for mortgage assistance or food stamps. That's 
frustrating because you hear about all these programs to help people 
like us, but then they tell you you're not eligible. I'm not out to 
shirk my responsibility or take something that's not mine, but I just 
don't want to keep sliding further down. Choices have to be made. We've 
changed how we feed ourselves. I like fish a lot, but now we can't 
afford it. What we buy is limited to more processed foods. Last night 
for dinner, I ate some crackers and cheese and some kind of, shall we 
say, processed meat. There are many times that instead of making myself 
a salad, I'll have ramen noodles. Granted, ramen is full of sodium and 
other things that aren't good for you, but it's just basic sustenance 
and you can buy a case of them for a dollar and change.
    It's a tough, tough time, and sometimes it feels insurmountable. I 
just re-enlisted in the National Guard to do right by my family. I mean 
the military is one job that as far as I know is always going to be 
there. It gives us health insurance and a part-time steady income. My 
wife worries because I am scheduled to go to Afghanistan in 2015, but 
that could change.
    I have been working ever since I was fifteen. To wake up and 
realize you are among the unemployed is a shock. But we will get 
through it. My wife and I are a team.''

    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Mrs. Hubbard. And right under 5 
minutes. Good job.
    I now recognize Ms. Hollywood. If you would unmute and 
please begin when you are ready.

STATEMENT OF LT. COL. DENISE HOLLYWOOD, (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE; 
CHIEF COMMUNITY AND PROGRAMS OFFICER, BLUE STAR FAMILIES, PORT 
                           JERVIS, NY

    Ms. Hollywood. My name is Denise Hollywood, and I am the 
Chief Community and Programs Officer for Blue Star Families, 
the largest national nonprofit organization supporting military 
and veteran families. We are nationally recognized for our 
annual military family lifestyle survey, the largest and most 
comprehensive survey of its kind, covering a wide variety of 
topics that impact military and veteran families.
    Today, I am here to share with you what our surveys have 
revealed about food insecurity.
    In 2020, 14 percent of enlisted Active Duty family 
respondents and 12 percent of veteran family respondents 
reported low- or very-low-food security. While a greater 
proportion of junior enlisted family respondents indicated that 
they were food-insecure, this issue was not limited to the 
junior enlisted ranks.
    Our data also suggests that military families of color are 
struggling with food insecurity at higher levels than their 
White peers.
    Blue Star Families' early findings align with existing 
research regarding wealth inequality in the United States. It 
is worth emphasizing that, in the military community, food 
insecurity is an issue that primarily affects families rather 
than single, unattached servicemembers.
    We know from our research that several intersecting 
structural challenges contribute to military families' 
financial stress, including military spouse unemployment, the 
lack of affordable childcare, and high out-of-pocket housing 
expenses. Each of these factors and others can undermine a 
military family's financial readiness and contribute to food 
insecurity.
    Military spouses face significant barriers to employment. 
The unemployment rate for military spouses was nearly seven 
times greater than the national unemployment rate pre-pandemic 
and has not decreased significantly since 2012. Crucially, the 
lack of affordable childcare continues to be a major 
contributor to military spouse unemployment, with 34 percent of 
Active Duty spouses who are unemployed but needed or wanted to 
work citing the high costs of childcare as a barrier to their 
employment.
    Military family financial stress is further complicated by 
out-of-pocket housing expenses. Today, the basic allowance for 
housing is pegged to 95 percent of local area rent. We see in 
our data that families that prioritize their children's school, 
which are most military families, often end up paying 
significantly more out of pocket than DOD's cost-share 
estimates.
    Additionally, our data shows that barriers, both 
bureaucratic and psychological, exist that prevent military 
families from accessing Federal nutrition assistance programs.
    Financial stress and the stigma surrounding needing support 
does not end when a family leaves the military. To the 
contrary, a military family's financial difficulties can be 
compounded by transition-related challenges, thereby leading to 
veteran food insecurity. Creating the conditions for Active 
Duty family financial resilience and destigmatizing the need 
for assistance will therefore help prevent veteran hunger 
downstream.
    The need is great. Between May 2020 and October 2021, Blue 
Star Families hosted 50 food security related events, including 
drive-thru food distributions, grocery store gift card 
distributions, sustainable gardening events, and holiday meals 
for families in need. We helped to increase the immediate food 
security for over 7,000 military and veteran families through 
these programs.
    However, we must work to address the underlying factors 
that contribute to food insecurity among military families. 
These issues are persistent and will take time to resolve. We 
encourage you to amend section 403(k), Title 37 of the United 
States Code to exclude the Basic Allowance for Housing, BAH, 
from being counted as income when calculating eligibility for 
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, and other 
Federal nutrition assistance benefits.
    Including BAH in the evaluation of SNAP eligibility creates 
an artificial and unnecessary barrier for military families, as 
the allowance is a nontaxable portion of a servicemember's pay 
that allows for equitable housing compensation. Addressing this 
barrier, which many military families face in accessing food 
assistance, would help those struggling to make ends meet 
during this unprecedented pandemic and would boost the 
financial resilience of those military families.
    I would like to thank again the distinguished Members of 
the Subcommittee for their efforts to eliminate military and 
veteran hunger. Those who make significant sacrifices for our 
country should never struggle to put food on the table for 
their families.
    [The prepared statement of Lt. Col. Hollywood follows:]

   Prepared Statement of Lt. Col. Denise Hollywood, (Ret.), U.S. Air 
 Force; Chief Community and Programs Officer, Blue Star Families, Port 
                               Jervis, NY
    Chair[wo]man Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, and distinguished Members 
of the House Committee on Agriculture, thank you for the opportunity to 
testify before you today.
    My name is Denise Hollywood, and I am the Chief Community and 
Programs Officer of Blue Star Families (BSF)--a national nonprofit 
organization dedicated to supporting military and veteran families from 
all ranks and services. With over 150,000 members, BSF is the nation's 
largest grass-roots military family support organization, and touches 
more than 1.5 million military family members every year. By 
cultivating innovative programs and partnerships, BSF seeks to ensure 
that our military and veteran families always feel connected, 
supported, and empowered to thrive.
    BSF's groundbreaking research calls attention to the unique 
experiences and challenges faced by military and veteran families. Our 
annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey (aMFLS)--developed in 
partnership with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families 
(IVMF)--is the largest annual comprehensive survey of military and 
veteran families, and is widely regarded as the gold standard among 
military family surveys. Data from the aMFLS has been used at every 
level of government to help inform those tasked with making policy 
decisions that impact our military-connected communities.
Military & Veteran Family Food Insecurity Findings
    Blue Star Families' research has revealed alarming rates of food 
insecurity \1\ among military and veteran families. Prior to the COVID-
19 pandemic, 7% of active duty family respondents and 12% of veteran 
family family respondents to the 2018 MFLS answered ``yes'' to the 
question ``Has anyone in your household faced food insecurity (the 
state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of 
affordable, nutritious food) within the past year?'' Similarly, 9% of 
active duty family respondents and 18% of veteran family respondents 
answered ``yes'' to the question ``Has any member of your household 
sought emergency food assistance through a food bank, food pantry, or 
charitable organization?'' \2\ Due to an oversampling of senior 
enlisted and officer families in the 2018 MFLS, it is possible that the 
actual percentage of military and veteran families experiencing food 
insecurity pre-pandemic was higher than this data suggests.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Food insecurity and hunger are distinct concepts. According to 
the USDA, food insecurity is defined as a household-level economic and 
social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. 
Hunger Is defined as an individual-level physiological condition that 
may result from food insecurity. [U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
``Definitions of Food Security,'' Economic Research Service, September 
9, 2020, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/
food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-security.aspx.]
    \2\ Blue Star Families, ``2018 Military Family Lifestyle Survey,'' 
https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2018MFLS-
ComprehensiveReport-DIGITAL-FINAL.pdf.
    \3\ For example, the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) has 
reported that one in eight military family respondents to their survey 
on the subject (pre-pandemic) was food-insecure. [Military Family 
Advisory Network, ``Military Family Food Insecurity,'' Accessed on 
March 4, 2021, https://militaryfamilyadvisorynetwork.org/wp-content/
uploads/MFAN-117-Food-Insecurity-One-Pager-pf-1.3-002_LA.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level of Food Security by Enlisted Rank
Active-Duty Enlisted Family Respondents Food Security Levels by Ranking 
        Grouping
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
        
    Blue Star Families uses a non-scientific, convenience sampling 
method in our surveys.
    As such, we are unable to track statistically-significant changes 
within the same population overtime. That said, we posit (on the basis 
of our own data and that of civilian research) that the COVID-19 
pandemic has aggravated military and veteran family food insecurity in 
the United States. In our 2020 MFLS, one in ten (9%) active-duty family 
respondents reported that they had experienced food insecurity (low- 
\4\ or very-low-food security \5\) in the 12 months preceding the 
survey's September-October fielding. That figure rose to 14% for 
enlisted active-duty family respondents. While a greater proportion 
(29%) of junior enlisted (E-1-E-4) family respondents reported food 
insecurity, this issue was not limited to junior enlisted ranks: 16% of 
mid-grade enlisted (E-5-E-6) and 8% of senior enlisted (E-8-E-9) 
respondents reported low- or very-low-food security. Meanwhile, 12% of 
veteran family respondents in the 2020 MFLS reported that they had 
experienced food insecurity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ ``Low-food security (old label=Food insecurity without hunger): 
reports of reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet. Little or 
no indication of reduced food intake.'' [U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, ``Definitions of Food Security,'' Economic Research 
Service, September 9, 2020, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-
nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-
security.aspx.]
    \5\ ``Very-low-food security (old label=Food insecurity with 
hunger): reports of multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns 
and reduced food intake.'' [Ibid.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Underlying Causes of Active-Duty Family Financial Stress and Food 
        Insecurity
    In the 2020 MFLS, 39% of active-duty families reported ``financial 
issues'' as a top stressor during their time affiliated with the 
military. Respondents reported intersecting challenges as top 
contributors to their financial stress, including: high rates of un/
underemployment among military spouses, limited availability and high 
costs of child care, and out-of-pocket housing and relocation expenses. 
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated each of these underlying factors.
High Rates of Un/underemployment Among Military Spouses
    Spouse employment has been identified as one of the top concerns 
for active-duty families since the inception of the aMFLS in 2009. 
Despite multiple cross-sector hiring efforts, the military spouse 
unemployment rate has not decreased significantly since 2012,\6\ and 
was nearly seven times the rate of the national unemployment rate pre-
pandemic (22% \7\ vs. 3.5% \8\).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Office of People Analytics, ``2012 Survey of Active Duty 
Spouses,'' https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Surveys/
ADSS1201-Briefing-Support-Deployment-Reintegration-PCS-WellBeing-
Education-Employment.pdf.
    \7\ Office of People Analytics, ``2019 Survey of Active Duty 
Spouses,'' December 2, 2020, https://download.militaryonesource.mil/
12038/MOS/Surveys/ADSS1901_MOS-Briefing-508-Revised.pdf.
    \8\ Bureau of Labor Statistics, ``Civilian Unemployment Rate,'' 
December 2020, https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/
civilian-unemployment-rate.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In the 2020 MFLS, more than \1/2\ (52%) of active-duty spouse 
respondents and \1/3\ (31%) of active-duty service member respondents 
listed military spouse employment as a top issue of concern. While 
nearly half of active-duty military spouse respondents were employed, 
either full time (30%) or part time (17%), \2/3\ of employed active-
duty spouse respondents (68%)reported they were underemployed in some 
way (indicating their current employment did not match their desires, 
education, or experience). Furthermore, 35% of active-duty spouse 
respondents reported they were not employed but needed or wanted to 
work.
    Our research revealed an association between spouse unemployment 
and food insecurity. In the 2020 MFLS, 10% of enlisted active-duty 
spouse respondents who were employed were food-insecure (with low- or 
very-low-food security), compared to 20% of those who were not working 
but needed or wanted to work. The Department of Defense likewise 
reports slightly higher rates of food pantry usage (pre-pandemic) by 
military spouses who were unemployed in 2019 (7%) or not in the labor 
force (6%), when compared to employed military spouses (4%).\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ Office of People Analytics, DOD (2020). 2019 Survey of Active-
Duty Spouses. Unpublished email correspondence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    While the causes of military spouse un/underemployment are myriad 
and complex, military spouse respondents report a lack of affordable 
child care, the unpredictability of service-member day-to-day job 
demands, hiring/promotion discrimination, and frequent Permanent Change 
of Station (PCS) moves as key barriers to employment.\10\ Other 
important, but less common factors include state licensure barriers and 
gaps in resumes due to frequent PCS moves.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ ``Active-duty spouse respondents who are not in the labor 
force most often reported they are not working because of the 
difficulty of balancing household and work obligations, such as 
homeschooling or supervising children's education (35%), or that their 
service member's day-to-day work schedule is too unpredictable (33%) or 
too long to balance work and home demands (30%). An additional but 
related barrier is the cost of child care (34%), which may quickly 
overwhelm a spouse's take-home pay, particularly if they are 
underemployed, resulting in a situation in which active-duty spouses 
can't afford to work. The lack of affordable, available child care is 
not new nor unique to active-duty families, but it is exacerbated by 
families' frequent relocation, which may disrupt both the spouse's 
employment and existing child care arrange-
ments . . . Spouses who seek work often perceive reluctance from 
employers. More than half of active-duty spouse respondents (51%) 
agreed their military affiliation prevented them from receiving a 
promotion at some point in their career.'' [Blue Star Families, ``2020 
Military Family Lifestyle Survey: Finding 13,'' https://
bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/
BSF_MFLS_CompReport_FULL.pdf.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limited Availability and High Costs of Child Care
    According to the Department of Defense, 37.8% of military children 
are 5 years old or younger.\11\ The DOD recognizes that childcare is a 
``workforce issue that directly impacts the efficiency, readiness, 
retention, and lethality of the Total Force,'' which is one of the 
reasons it is the largest employer-sponsored child care provider in the 
United States.\12\ Yet, challenges obtaining affordable child care in a 
timely manner continue to have cascading impacts on military family 
financial well-being.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ Department of Defense, ``2018 Demographics Report: Profile of 
the Military Community,'' https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/
MOS/Reports/2018-demographics-report.pdf.
    \12\ Congressional Research Service, ``Military Child Development 
Program: Background and Issues,'' March 19, 2020, https://fas.org/sgp/
crs/natsec/R45288.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Many military families have trouble finding child care that meets 
their needs. In the 2020 MFLS, most active-duty family respondents had 
children under the age of 18 (80%) at home, and among those, 65% needed 
child care at least some of the time. Of those with a need, 23% 
reported always being able to find child care that works for their 
situation; however, that number fell to 19% for respondents with a 
child who has special needs.
    In addition to limited availability, child care affordability 
continues to be a major concern for military families. Among active-
duty family respondents to the 2020 MFLS who reported being financially 
stressed and having a need for child care, ``out-of-pocket child care 
costs'' were the most commonly reported contributor to their financial 
stress (31%). Unfortunately, having a higher level of income did not 
seem to completely resolve this issue. Although active-duty military 
family respondents in lower income brackets had greater difficulty 
finding affordable child care, respondents across all income levels 
reported child care as being a need that was often out of reach.
    Child care expenses likewise remain a top barrier to military 
spouse employment with 34% of active-duty spouse respondents to the 
2020 MFLS who were not working but needed/wanted to work stating 
``child care is too expensive.'' Similarly, in the 2019 MFLS, 54% of 
service member respondents with children reported that the lack of 
affordable child care negatively impacted their pursuit of employment 
and/or education post-service. (Female service members, in particular, 
were particularly affected by the lack of affordable child care, with 
62% of female service member respondents saying that childcare 
``moderately'' to ``completely'' prevented their pursuit of education 
compared to 51% of their male counterparts.)
Out-of-Pocket Housing and Relocation Expenses
    Most active-duty family respondents in the 2020 MFLS (64%) live off 
installation and use their basic allowance for housing (BAH) to rent 
(27%) or purchase (37%) housing. Starting in 2015, BAH \13\ was 
incrementally reduced to 95% of local area rent,\14\ making it a matter 
of policy for military families to pay out-of-pocket for quality 
housing, though they rarely have full control over where they are 
stationed or when they move. According to the Department of Defense, 
the 5% of housing cost that military families are expected to cover 
out-of-pocket should range from $70 to $158 per month in 2021.\15\ Yet, 
of those active-duty family respondents who reported paying out-of-
pocket housing expenses (83%), more than \3/4\ (77%) reported the costs 
exceeded the anticipated range (>=$200).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ Budget Office, ``Reduce the Basic Allowance for Housing to 80 
Percent of Average Housing Costs,'' December 13, 2018, https://
www.cbo.gov/budget-options/2018/54767.
    \14\ Ryan Guina, ``BAH Rate Cuts: 95% BAH--The New Reality & The 
Future of BAH,'' The Military Wallet, April 21, 2019, https://
themilitarywallet.com/bah-rate-cuts/.
    \15\ Department of Defense. (2020, December 15). DOD Releases 2021 
Basic Allowance for Housing Rates. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/
Releases/Release/Article/2447343/dod-releases-2021-basic-allowancefor-
housing-rates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    All of these factors--out-of-pocket expenses, the lack of 
affordable childcare, military spouse un/underemployment, and others--
can contribute to food insecurity among active duty military families. 
Unfortunately, this food insecurity does not end when service members 
leave the military. To the contrary, the financial difficulties of many 
military families can be further compounded by transition-related 
challenges--thereby leading to veteran family hunger.
Financial Inequity
    There is reason to believe that military families of color might be 
struggling with food insecurity at higher rates than their white peers. 
In the 2020 MFLS, 15% of active duty family members of color reported 
low- or very-low-food security, compared to only 7% of white, non-
Hispanic active duty family members.\16\ Furthermore, in line with 
civilian research which finds that Black and Hispanic/Latinx families 
have fewer financial resources to navigate uncertain financial times 
than white families,\17\ data from the COVID-19 Military Support 
Initiative (CMSI) Pain Points Poll \18\ indicates that Black and 
Hispanic/Latinx military families may be in greater need of financial 
assistance than their white peers. On average, 40% of Black and 33% of 
Hispanic/Latinx active-duty family respondents reported relying on 
savings or credit cards during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 29% 
of white active-duty family respondents. As one Black military spouse 
told CMSI:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ Please contact Blue Star Families for more information: 
[email protected].
    \17\ Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson, ``Black workers face two of 
the most lethal preexisting conditions for coronavirus-racism and 
economic inequality,'' Economic Policy Institute, June 1, 2020, https:/
/www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/.
    \18\ The CMSI Pain Points Poll garnered 7,421 respondents from 
March 18 to May 26, 2020. [COVID-19 Military Support Initiative, ``Pain 
Points Poll Deep Dive: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Black 
and Hispanic/Latinx Families,'' July 2020, https://bluestarfam.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/09/BDG-PPP-DeepDive-Black-Hispanic-
Respondents.pdf.]

          I [took on] a loan to fly home to bury my mother-in-law in 
        New Orleans. I'm using credit cards to stock up on food, paper 
        goods, etc. . . . [and all of our] bills are going up to keep 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        the house running.

    These findings align with existing research around wealth 
inequality in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center 
(April 2020), 73% of Black and 70% of Hispanic Americans reported they 
did not have enough savings to cover expenses for 3 months of financial 
hardship.\19\ When we consider that the net worth of a typical white 
family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family,\20\ it 
is unsurprising that Black and Hispanic/Latinx families are more 
reliant on savings and credit cards to pay expenses than their white 
counterparts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ Pew Research Center, ``Hispanic and black Americans have been 
hardest hit in COVID-19 wage, job losses; most do not have rainy day 
funds,'' May 5, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/05/05/
financial-and-health-impacts-of-covid-19-vary-widely-by-race-and-
ethnicity/ft_2020-05-05_covidrace_01/.
    \20\ Kriston McIntosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh, 
``Examining the Black-white wealth gap,'' Brookings Institution, 
February 27, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/
examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To make matters worse, the CMSI Pain Points Poll suggests that 
Black and Hispanic/Latinx military family respondents may not be 
receiving effective communication about available community resources. 
``Communication about resources/services available'' was the second 
most commonly cited ``unmet local community need'' among Black (25%) 
and Hispanic/Latinx (20%) respondents--and both groups reported this 
need at higher rates than their white peers (16%). Similarly, in CMSI's 
Resilience Under Stress Study (RUSS), only 46% of Black military family 
respondents felt as though they could easily locate information about 
local resources, compared to 67% of white, non-Hispanic military family 
respondents who said the same.\21\ These findings might suggest that 
some military families of color are less aware of and/or connected to 
resources that might help alleviate their financial difficulties.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ COVID-19 Military Support Initiative, ``Resilience Under 
Stress Study'' (Blue Star Families, 2020), https://bluestarfam.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/11/RUSS-Report-11.4.20_FINAL.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barriers to Help-Seeking
Bureaucratic
    While 14% of active-duty enlisted family respondents to the 2020 
MFLS reported some level of food insecurity in the past year, only 2% 
of active-duty enlisted family respondents reported utilizing 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits within the 12 
months preceding the survey's fielding. One reason might be that 
bureaucratic barriers are currently preventing food-insecure military 
families from accessing SNAP.
    As detailed in a 2016 report by the Government Accountability 
Office (GAO), service members' BAH is currently treated as income for 
the purpose of determining eligibility for SNAP benefits.\22\ 
Meanwhile, housing vouchers for low-income civilians are not treated as 
income for the purposes of determining SNAP eligibility.\23\ Current 
eligibility policy for SNAP thus establishes an unnecessary and harmful 
barriers to nutrition assistance for struggling military families.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\ Government Accountability Officer, ``DOD Needs More Complete 
Data on Active-Duty Servicemembers' Use of Food Assistance Programs,'' 
Report to Congressional Committees, July 2016, https://www.gao.gov/
assets/gao-16-561.pdf.
    \23\ Cornell Law School, ``7 CFR  273.9--Income and deductions,'' 
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/7/273.9#c_1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Psychological
    In Blue Star Families' November 2020 Pulse Check poll of active-
duty and veteran families' financial needs, respondents were asked in 
an open-ended question ``what barriers, if any, would prevent [them] 
from seeking financial assistance in the event that [they] required 
it.'' Among those who provided a response, the greatest proportion--28% 
of active-duty family respondents and 27% of veteran family 
respondents--wrote that emotional barriers, such as shame and 
embarrassment, would prevent them from seeking support. In Blue Star 
Families' March 2021 poll, this same question was included with a 
multiple choice response. Roughly the same proportion of respondents 
selected ``pride, shame, or embarrassment'' as a barrier (25% of 
active-duty, 23% of veteran, and 22% of National Guard family 
respondents).\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ Blue Star Families, ``Pulse Check: Military and Veteran 
Families' Financial Needs,'' March 2021, https://bluestarfam.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/05/BSF_PulseCheck_Report_Mar
2021.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additional barriers to help-seeking reported in the November 2020 
and March 2021 polls include: the desire to avoid chain of command 
involvement, an incohesive assistance network, confusing application 
processes, and qualification requirements that can make it difficult to 
justify the effort required to apply.\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \25\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Congress Can Do To Help
Upstream Solutions
    Food insecurity is a real, but preventable, experience for many 
military and veteran families. As a society, we must collectively work 
to destigmatize help-seeking behavior--among those seeking help and 
those who facilitate it. The Federal Government must also work to 
expand its data collection around military and veteran family food 
insecurity, so as to better inform policy responses to these issues.
    In the long-term, we must also work to relieve financial inequity 
and address the underlying causes of military family financial 
insecurity (outlined above). One way to do this is by implementing 
policies that align with a Total Family Force model.\26\ For example, 
Congress could:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\ To ensure optimal mission readiness, resilience, and 
retention, the military ought to adopt a ``Total Family Force'' model. 
This is an extension of the ``Total Force'' concept that the military 
pioneered in the 1970s, which was designed to break down barriers 
between service branches to create one ``total'' force with similar 
goals and objectives. Blue Star Families wants to build upon this 
concept to acknowledge the fact that military family well-being is 
inextricably linked to mission readiness, and that military personnel 
policies ought to reflect that reality.

   Work with the Department of Defense to ensure military 
        families have more control over their careers--including when 
        and where they relocate. This would allow them to make 
        decisions that support their families' financial stability, and 
        may necessitate a reconsideration of current ``up-or-out'' 
        talent management policies.\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\ See, for example: Bipartisan Policy Center, ``Building a 
F.A.S.T. Force: A Flexible Personnel System for a Modern Military, 
Recommendations from the Task Force on Defense Personnel,'' March 2017, 
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/building-a-fast-force/.

   Support a fixed period of Federal student loan deferment for 
        military spouses who leave a job in order to relocate due to 
        military orders.\28\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ In the 116th Congress, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced 
the Military Spouse Student Loan Deferment Act of 2020 (H.R. 7433). 
This bill would have allowed certain military spouses to defer payment 
on their Federal student loans for 90 days. Specifically, borrowers 
would be eligible to receive this deferment if (1) their spouse is an 
active duty service member of the Armed Forces, (2) they lost their 
employment due to a permanent change of station move, and (3) they 
could provide certain documentation to the Department of Education. 
Loan interest would not accrue during the deferment period. Blue Star 
Families supported this proposal. [Blue Star Families, ``2020 Military 
Family Lifestyle Survey: Finding 13,''

   Support incentives for employers to make retirement savings 
        plans more accessible and portable for military spouses.\29\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ In the 116th Congress, Rep. Jason Crowe (D-CO) introduced the 
Military Spouse Retirement Security Act of 2020 (H.R. 7927). This bill 
would have allowed a small business employer to take a tax credit for 
each of their employees who is a military spouse and is eligible to 
participate in the employer's defined contribution retirement plan. 
Blue Star Families supported this proposal. [Ibid.]

   Commission a report on discrimination against military 
        spouses in employment, housing, and public [accommodations] due 
        to their military affiliation. The report should include an 
        assessment of the viability of policy solutions to prevent such 
        discrimination (e.g., expanding USERRA to cover military 
        spouses, making military spouses a protect class, etc.).\30\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \30\ Blue Star Families included a deep dive on this recommendation 
in our 2020 MFLS comprehensive report. [Blue Star Families, ``2020 
Military Family Lifestyle Survey: Recommendations,'' https://
bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BSF_MFLS_CompReport_REC
OMMENDATIONS.pdf.]

   Enhance and expand access to fee assistance programs. For 
        example, direct the Services to expand fee assistance 
        eligibility under the Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood 
        (MCCYN) program to military families who wish to enroll their 
        child in a childcare facility that is state licensed, even if 
        it is not accredited.\31\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ Blue Star Families, ``2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey: 
Finding 11,'' https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/
BSF_MFLS_CompReport_FINDING_11.pdf.

   Commission a report on the demand for various child care 
        options among military families, and to assess the pros/cons of 
        requiring families to first seek care at their local CDC before 
        being authorized to use MCCYN fee assistance.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ Blue Star Families included a deep dive on this recommendation 
in our 2020 MFLS comprehensive report. [Blue Star Families, ``2020 
Military Family Lifestyle Survey: Recommendations,'' https://
bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BSF_MFLS_CompReport_REC
OMMENDATIONS.pdf.]

   Standardize, expedite, and simplify the Career Intermission 
        Program (CIP) application process for service members who are 
        unable to implement their family care plans due to an 
        unexpected extended emergency (such as virtual schooling during 
        a pandemic).\33\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ Blue Star Families included a deep dive on this recommendation 
in our 2020 MFLS comprehensive report. [Ibid.]

   Explore different ways to calculate BAH to reduce out-of-
        pocket costs, such as pegging it to the median rent/housing 
        cost in the best local school district and/or restoring 
        payments to 100% of local area rent.\34\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \34\ Blue Star Families included a deep dive on this recommendation 
in our 2020 MFLS comprehensive report. [Ibid.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downstream Solutions
    It is no doubt critical that we work to address financial inequity 
and alleviate the underlying causes of military family food insecurity 
(by reducing out-of-pocket expenses, increasing the availability of 
affordable child care, and improving spouse employment outcomes). 
However, these issues are persistent and will take time to resolve. In 
the interim, Congress can tackle military food insecurity and hunger 
downstream by removing a legislative barrier that prevents many 
military families from qualifying for Federal nutrition assistance, 
despite being food-insecure.
    In 2018, Blue Star Families endorsed an amendment to the farm bill 
which would have excluded BAH as counted income when calculating SNAP 
eligibility. That effort failed.\35\ Undeterred, BSF then endorsed the 
Military Family Basic Needs Allowance (MBNA),\36\ which would have 
alleviated military family food insecurity by supplementing the base 
pay of military family members at or below 130% of the Federal poverty 
line.\37\ BAH would not have been treated as income when calculating 
eligibility for the Basic Needs Allowance. Moreover, the Defense 
Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) would have automatically notified 
service members of their eligibility--thereby removing the need to 
disclose one's financial circumstances to command. The MFBNA was thus 
structured in a streamlined and efficient manner to eliminate common 
barriers to nutrition assistance, including shame, stigma, and fear of 
retribution. Unfortunately, the MFBNA was removed from the final 
versions of the FY20 and FY21 National Defense Authorization Acts 
(NDAA).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \35\ Blue Star Families continues to support the exclusion of BAH 
as counted income from SNAP eligibility calculations in the next farm 
bill. [Blue Star Families, ``2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey: 
Recommendations,'' https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/
BSF_MFLS_CompReport_RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf.]
    \36\ The 2018 Farm Bill amendment and military family basic needs 
allowance were also endorsed by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the 
National Military Families Association (NMFA) and many other military 
and veteran support organizations.
    \37\ Note that to qualify for SNAP, you must be at or below 130% of 
the Federal poverty line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We encourage you to amend Section 403(k), Title 37 of the United 
States Code to exclude the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) from being 
counted as income when calculating eligibility for the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other Federal nutrition 
assistance benefits. Including BAH in the evaluation of SNAP 
eligibility creates an artificial and unnecessary barrier for military 
families, as the allowance is a non-taxable portion of a service 
member's pay that allows for equitable housing compensation. Addressing 
this barrier, which many military families face in accessing food 
assistance, would help those struggling to make ends meet during this 
unprecedented pandemic, and would boost the financial resiliency of 
those military families.
    I would again like to thank the distinguished Members of the 
Committee for their attention to this critical issue. Those who make 
significant sacrifices for our country should never struggle to put 
food on the table.
            Sincerely,

Denise Hollywood,
Chief Community and Programs Officer,
Blue Star Families.

    The Chairwoman. Thank you for your testimony.
    I now recognize Dr. Kamdar. Please begin when you are 
ready.

   STATEMENT OF NIPA KAMDAR, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC, CYPRESS, TX

    Dr. Kamdar. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking 
Member Bacon, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. 
Thank you for allowing me to share my work with you.
    As a nurse practitioner and researcher, I recognize food 
insecurity or the lack of access to healthy food as a threat to 
the well-being of veterans who have served our nation. Nearly 
all the veterans who participate in my research ask what I will 
do with the information they openly and bravely share. This 
opportunity to testify before the Members of this Subcommittee 
allows me to directly communicate what I learned from them with 
those who have the power to make change.
    Before I begin, I would like to clarify that, although I am 
employed by the Veterans Health Administration and have a 
faculty appointment at Baylor College of Medicine, today, I am 
presenting to you as a private citizen. The views and opinions 
expressed in this testimony are mine and do not necessarily 
express the official policy or position of Baylor College of 
Medicine or the Veterans Health Administration.
    One approach to understanding the problem of food 
insecurity is to place a quantifiable number to capture its 
scope. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition 
Examination Survey, I learned that veterans who are food-
insecure are almost three times more likely to suffer from 
very-low-food security compared to nonveterans who share 
similar socioeconomic characteristics, like age, gender, and 
income.
    My team and I also found that veterans dealing with very-
low-food security have an almost fourfold increase in odds of 
suicidal ideation. Although these statistics provide evidence 
that food insecurity is a serious threat, they do not capture 
the struggles of veterans who are food-insecure. For that, I 
listened to veterans who have experienced food insecurity. I 
will share some of what I learned. Any names I use are 
pseudonyms to protect their identity.
    I will start with Ed. Ed is a 39 year old Marine veteran 
who reminded me that no one is ever just food-insecure. Nearly 
all the veterans I have met in my studies struggle with other 
basic needs, like housing, transportation, and childcare. They 
are making hard decisions on how to spend their next $20.
    As Sheila, a 34 year old single mother of three and Army 
veteran explained: ``How much [I am] spending on gas affects 
how much [I have] left over for food . . . gas comes over 
food.'' Following this statement, I asked Sheila if she ever 
skipped a meal. She looked at me and said: ``I skipped out on 
meals plenty of times, plenty of days.''
    Too many veterans ration their personal food intake to 
ensure that their children and others in their family do not go 
hungry. Some, like Haley, a 35 year old Army veteran and single 
mother of three, have tried to increase their food supply. 
Haley applied for SNAP four times but never qualified. 
Ultimately, she stopped applying. She said: ``I have been 
burned so many times, I don't try it anymore.''
    Her sense of desolation was shared by other veterans when 
their attempts to find help fell short.
    For many veterans like Sarah, a 33 year old Army veteran, 
finding help was a matter of luck. Years ago, when she was 
homeless and pregnant, Sarah's life was gratefully rescued by a 
fellow veteran on the bus one day when he noticed her Army T-
shirt. After asking if Sarah needed help, he directed her to a 
veterans center, where she was fed and connected to much-needed 
resources.
    This event was a major turning point in her life. What 
would have happened if Sarah and her fellow veteran were not on 
the same bus that day?
    The experiences that these veterans share point to the 
complex nature of food insecurity and the challenges of finding 
effective solutions. One approach to finding effective 
solutions is to use the public health model of prevention. This 
model consists of three levels of prevention: primary, which is 
focused on preventing the problem in the first place; 
secondary, which is identifying the problem as early as 
possible; and tertiary, which is reducing the damage and 
preventing the problem from getting worse.
    Most efforts to reduce food insecurity focus on tertiary 
prevention with food distribution from the USDA food assistance 
programs. There is also increased attention on screening for 
food insecurity, which is a form of secondary prevention. 
However, the most effective, but also the most complex 
solutions, address the root causes of food insecurity.
    So far, research indicates that veteran--[inaudible] with 
physical and mental health, housing instability, and financial 
instability. This means that efforts to address food insecurity 
need to tackle these.
    Additionally, veterans have described the initial 6 to 12 
months post-separation from Active Duty as being a time of high 
risk for food insecurity. This is also a time when they run out 
of money, may still be looking for a job, and may not have yet 
received care for health-related issues.
    Thus, another proactive approach to reduce the risk of food 
insecurity is to leverage the Transition Assistance Program to 
facilitate registration into the Veterans Health Administration 
so that veterans have access to healthcare and auxiliary 
support, like social work. This is also a prime opportunity to 
encourage transitioning servicemembers, especially those who 
are enlisted grade 7 or below, to apply for SNAP.
    Moving forward, I encourage all who strive to reduce food 
insecurity among veterans to balance the need to address 
immediate food shortages with the need to address contributing 
factors.
    Once again, I thank the Subcommittee. And I wish all 
veterans in the Subcommittee and abroad a very happy Veterans 
Day.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Kamdar follows:]

  Prepared Statement of Nipa Kamdar, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC, Cypress, TX
    Good afternoon, Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, and 
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. As a nurse practitioner and 
researcher, I recognize food insecurity as a threat to the health and 
well-being of Veterans who have served our nation. Now it is my honor 
to serve them and work towards finding solutions to address food 
insecurity that affects too many of them.
    Before I begin, I would like to clarify that although I am employed 
by the Veterans Health Administration and hold a faculty appointment at 
Baylor College of Medicine, today I am presenting to you as a private 
citizen. The views and opinions expressed in this testimony are mine 
and do not necessarily express the official policy or position of 
Baylor College of Medicine or the Veterans Health Administration. I do 
not speak for either entity today.
    Thank you for allowing me to share my work with you. Nearly all the 
Veterans who participate in my research ask what I will do with the 
information they openly and bravely share. This opportunity to testify 
before the Members of this Subcommittee allows me to directly 
communicate what I learned from them with those who have power to make 
change.
Understanding the Problem
    Food insecurity is the lack of access to healthy food often due to 
financial limitations and is a complex issue.
    To grapple with an understanding of the problem, I approach it in 
two ways. One is to place a quantifiable number to capture its scope. 
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 
(NHANES), I learned that Veterans who are food-insecure are almost 
three times more likely to suffer from very-low-food security compared 
to non-veterans with similar socioeconomic characteristics (i.e., age, 
gender, race/ethnic background, level of education, marital status, and 
income).\1\ Very-low-food security is associated with decreased food 
intake and skipping meals which could result in feelings of hunger. 
Adding to this concern, in another study using data from NHANES, my 
team and I found that Veterans dealing with very-low-food insecurity 
have an almost a four-fold increase in odds for suicidal ideation.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Kamdar N., Lester H.F., Daundasekara S.S., et al. Food 
insecurity: Comparing odds between working-age veterans and nonveterans 
with children. Nurs. Outlook. 2021; 69(2): 212-220. doi:10.1016/
J.OUTLOOK.2020.08.011 (https://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/S0029-
6554
(20)30625-4/fulltext).
    \2\ Kamdar N., Horning M., Geraci J., Uzdavines A., Helmer D., 
Hundt N. Risk for depression and suicidal ideation among food-insecure 
U.S. veterans: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination 
Study. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 2021; 1:3. doi:10.1007/
s00127-021-02071-3 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33770225/).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Although these statistics provide evidence that food insecurity is 
a serious threat, they do not capture the daily struggles of Veterans 
who are food-insecure. For that, I listened to Veterans who have 
experienced food insecurity.
    Since 2018, I have been learning directly from Veterans who have 
lived with food insecurity to better understand their day-to-day 
challenges, and--importantly--work with them to identify how to assist 
them. Some of themes I am about to share come from research that is 
still in progress. Any names I use are pseudonyms to protect the 
identity of the Veterans.

  1.  Getting food to the table is much more than having the ability to 
            buy food.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Kamdar N., True G., Lorenz L., Loeb A., Hernandez D.C. Getting 
Food to the Table: Challenges, Strategies, and Compromises Experienced 
by Low-Income Veterans Raising Children. J. Hunger Environ. Nutr. 
Published online December 7, 2020: 1-21. doi:10.1080/
19320248.2020.1855284 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/
19320248.2020.
1855284).

        Other factors to consider in effort to ensure Veterans have the 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            ability to get food to the table include:

         Access to resources like time, transportation, kitchen 
            tools and equip-
                ment, social support (e.g., friends and family).

         Personal capacity including physical and mental 
            health.

         Military training/experience and life experiences 
            prior to joining the mili-
                tary. These experiences often shape Veterans' 
            willingness to ask for and/
                or accept help. For example, many Veterans describe a 
            military ethos of 
                ``making do with what they got'' and may not ask for 
            help even if they 
                need it. As a Marine Veteran explained: ``We can't show 
            weakness. We 
                have to show we have everything under control even if 
            we have strug-
                gles.''

        Attempts to address food insecurity that do not account for 
            these factors will be inadequate.

  2.  Mental health and well-being play heavily into the Veteran's 
            capacity to care for themselves and their basic needs like 
            food.

        Carl is a 55 year old Air Force Veteran. He separated from 
            active duty in 2015. On his return home from deployment his 
            life spiraled down. His wife left him and took their son. 
            In his effort to pay child support, he ended up living in 
            his car and was food-insecure. His ``head was messed up'' 
            and he did not have the capacity to help himself. Finally, 
            in 2019, he walked into a VA clinic and got connected with 
            a case manager who helped him.
        His take-away message was that ``Veterans have lots going on 
            and if their head is not in the right space and things are 
            hard, they'll give up . . .''

  3.  ``No one is ever just food-insecure.'' (Ed, 39 year old Marine 
            Veteran)

        Nearly all the Veterans I have met in my studies struggle with 
            other basic needs like housing, transportation, and 
            childcare. They are making hard decision on how to spend 
            their next $20: groceries or gas?
        As Sheila, a 34 year old, single mother of three and Army 
            Veteran explained: ``How much [I am] spending on gas 
            affects how much [I have] left over for food, because even 
            though food is a necessity, gas is one too. So, when it 
            comes to deciding between food and gas, gas comes first 
            over food. I can't lessen the gas.''

  4.  Sense of desolation when the request for assistance is turned 
            down.

        Haley is 35 year old Army Veteran and single mother of three 
            children. She has applied for SNAP four times but never 
            qualified. Even when she was in a shelter, her application 
            was denied because she was a few dollars over the 
            eligibility line. Ultimately, she stopped applying. She 
            said, ``I have been burned so many times that I don't try 
            it anymore.''

  5.  Many Veterans who are food-insecure implement survival skills 
            like rationing of personal intake.

        To ensure that their children did not experience hunger, Haley 
            and Sheila are just two of many parents who, when food 
            supply is low, will cut back on their personal consumption 
            to make sure their children have enough food to eat. In 
            Sheila's words: ``I've skipped out on meals plenty of 
            times, plenty of days. I've actually fed all of my family, 
            and there's no meat left, because, 
            like . . . so I would give my portion [to the children], so 
            everyone can get full. And just would tell them, `Oh, I 
            ate.' '' Too many Veterans adopt this coping strategy.
        It is unclear how the stress of living in this sort of survival 
            mode/stress affects the health and well-being of Veterans 
            overtime but getting them access to assistance as soon as 
            possible needs to be part of the solution.

  6.  Finding assistance is often a matter of chance or luck.

        Sarah is a 33 year old Army Veteran with three children. Years 
            ago, when she was homeless and pregnant, Shannon's ``life 
            was gratefully rescued by a fellow veteran on the bus one 
            day''.\4\ The fellow Veteran noticed her Army T-shirt. He 
            asked if she needed help and she said yes. He directed her 
            to a Veteran Center where she was fed and connected to 
            other much needed resources. This event was a major turning 
            point in her life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ Downey S., Helmer D., Kamdar N. Shannon's ETS (Expiration of 
Term of Service) Experience: How Engaging with Veterans Informs 
Researchers and Shapes Practice. Journal of Veterans Studies. 2021; 
7(1): 241-4. doi.org/10.21061/jvs.v7i1.237 (https://journal-veterans-
studies.org/article/10.21061/jvs.v7i1.237/).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        What would have happened if Sarah and her fellow Veteran were 
            not on the same bus that day? She, and other Veterans, 
            cannot afford to leave finding assistance to luck.

    The experiences that these Veterans share point to the complex 
nature of food insecurity. This complex nature also adds to the 
challenges of findings effective solutions.
Finding Effective Solutions
    Ultimately, the goal in understanding the problem is to apply the 
findings towards developing and evaluating effective solutions.
    An initial step to this difficult task is to organize the various 
solutions using the Public Health Model of Prevention. This model 
consists of three-levels of prevention: primary (focused on preventing 
the problem in the first place), secondary (identifying the problem as 
early as possible), and tertiary (reducing damage and preventing the 
problem from getting worse).
Tertiary Prevention of Food Insecurity
    I start by describing tertiary prevention because most efforts to 
address food insecurity focus on tertiary prevention through charitable 
food distributions and/or USDA food assistance programs like SNAP, 
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children 
(WIC), and the National School Lunch Program. These programs are 
essential for Veterans who are suffering from food insecurity as they 
directly address the immediate lack of food. Increasing awareness of 
and accessibility to the USDA programs, in particular, would benefit 
many of the Veterans who are food-insecure.
Secondary Prevention of Food Insecurity
    Screening using validated tools like the Hunger Vital 
SignTM, if implemented correctly, will help identify 
Veterans who are struggling with food shortages. There is increasing 
awareness among healthcare clinics about the need to screen for food 
insecurity. Yet, many Veterans who have unmet food needs may not seek 
healthcare. Their first point of contact may be community 
organizations. Therefore, we need to facilitate screening and referral 
systems where Veterans are.
Primary Prevention of Food Insecurity
    Finally, the most effective, but also the most complex solutions, 
address the root causes of food insecurity in effort to not let it 
happen in the first place. To achieve this level of prevention, we need 
to move upstream and examine what places Veterans at risk for food 
insecurity. What are those contributing factors?
    So far, my current study and that from prior research indicates 
that food insecurity is highly intertwined with physical and mental 
health, housing instability, and financial instability. This means that 
efforts to address food insecurity need to also tackle issues like 
access to healthcare, stable housing, and financial stability.
    Additionally, Veterans have described the initial 6 to 12 months 
post-separation from active duty as being a time of high risk for food 
insecurity. This is about the time that they run out of money, may 
still be looking for a job, and may have not yet received care for 
health-related issues.
    Thus, another proactive approach to reduce their risk for food 
insecurity is to leverage the Department of Defense Transition 
Assistance Program (TAP) curriculum to facilitate registration into the 
Veterans Health Administration. This will help transitioning Service 
Members have access to healthcare and auxiliary support like social 
work. This is also a prime opportunity to encourage transitioning 
Service Members to apply for SNAP. The target group for such an effort 
would be transitioning Service Members who are enlisted grade 7 (E-7) 
or below.
Conclusion
    I appreciate the Subcommittee's recognition that to have effective 
solutions, we need to understand the problem--however complex it may 
be. I also thank the Subcommittee for the opportunity to share how 
current and future solutions fit in the public health model of 
prevention.
    Moving forward, I encourage all who strive to reduce food 
insecurity among Veterans to balance the need to address immediate food 
shortages with the need to address contributing factors.
    Efforts to prevent food insecurity need to start prior to 
separation from active duty (primary prevention). For those Veterans 
who have already separated, early identification of Veterans with unmet 
food needs (secondary prevention) and assistance to access programs 
that will meet their immediate food needs and contributing factors will 
be critical to reduce the negative outcomes like sense of desolation 
and suicidal ideation (tertiary prevention).
     Our nations' Veterans served and protected us. Now we need to 
serve them.

    The Chairwoman. I don't think I was unmuted.
    Thank you for your testimony.
    I now recognize our final witness, Mr. Keefe. Please unmute 
and begin when you are ready.

  STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY KEEFE, VETERAN, U.S. NAVY, ROCKLAND, ME

    Mr. Keefe. Good morning or afternoon. Now I am confused 
with all the Zoom stuff. But, Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member 
Bacon, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, my name 
is Tim Keefe, and I would like to start by saying that I worked 
since I was 11 years old. I never had to worry about being 
hungry. I would just work and I would eat. It wasn't until I 
couldn't work that I experienced real hunger. Boy, that was a 
blow.
    I suffered an injury at work, as the Chairwoman said. And 
after 2 years of surgeries and physical therapy, occupational 
therapy, it was another 2 years before I could get even the 
status to get back to work, as the Department of Labor had me 
medically unable to work. So, with no income or address by that 
time, I became homeless.
    I applied for SNAP benefits and received $194 worth of 
food. This was crucial. However, because of work restrictions, 
I was cut off after 3 months.
    I brought all my paperwork to SNAP and a declaration by the 
Department of Labor that I was medically unable to work. I was 
told that this did not qualify me for disabled status in which 
the work restriction would be waived. I showed my doctor's 
paperwork, which basically cleared me from work, although the 
Department of Labor wasn't reading it that way. This was to no 
avail.
    I then asked for the paperwork I needed to volunteer to 
satisfy the work restrictions that way. The screener told me he 
didn't feel comfortable putting me into a volunteer situation 
with my injury. So, I asked, ``What do I eat?'' He said there 
was an appeal process that I could go through and appeal the 
decision. So, I asked, ``What do I eat until then?'' I waited 
in silence for a solid minute as he stared blankly back at me 
and finally said there was nothing he could do for me.
    In the year that followed, I filed appeals to both SNAP and 
the main Department of Labor for a change in status, but I lost 
all of them. In the meantime, I had to add seven holes to the 
belt I was wearing to keep my pants up. My conditions devolved 
into that of a caveman. That is all I could think of. I am 
living like a caveman, nothing better than that.
    Foraging took up a lot of my time. But once a month, I 
could hitchhike 25 miles to visit--in either direction, 
actually, which was fortunate--I could visit the food pantries 
there. I was able to fill a backpack with enough food to give 
me a meal a day for 2 weeks, if I stretched it. Still, there 
were more days than I care to remember where there was nothing 
to eat.
    The food bank offered supplemental food once a month and 
had me eating one meal a day, but the food bank has limited 
resources. And I am truly grateful for that food, but I know 
that I still lacked nutrition and calories. SNAP, in my 
particular case, would have gone a long way to bolster my 
health during this time, as I continued to wade through a 
seemingly endless appeals process.
    Unfortunately, I can tell you firsthand that when you have 
gone a couple days without food, your whole being cries out for 
it with a desperation I can't explain. You can't sleep, as 
tired as you are. You can't do anything but think about and try 
to get food.
    I contemplated stealing food. I could hitchhike down to the 
supermarket and fill a backpack. And, if I got caught, I would 
go to jail and I would eat. If I got away, I could have the 
food and I would eat. But I was able to resist this urge. It is 
a desperation I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
    A little more than a year later, I turned 50 and aged out 
of the work restrictions. I immediately reapplied--I think I 
was in there on my birthday, if I am not mistaken--and received 
that $194 benefit. It amounts to about $6.45 a day. But it 
didn't take long for my health and energy to increase. I 
started gaining the weight back. The return of SNAP benefits 
meant that I could concentrate on improving other areas of my 
life, and a year later, I was working again.
    I would like to also raise awareness for the veterans who 
are not disabled but are returning to society with the unique 
experience of having to adjust from a combat zone to everyday 
life. Surely, we could feed them.
    When I swore into the Navy in Boston, I was ready and 
willing to give my life for this country, and it seemed like, 
during this time, I couldn't even get a sandwich from them.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Keefe follows:]

 Prepared Statement of Timothy Keefe, Veteran, U.S. Navy, Rockland, ME
    Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, and Members of the 
Subcommittee,

    My name is Tim Keefe, and I'd like to start by saying that I have 
worked since I was 11 years old. I never had to worry about being 
hungry because I could work and eat. It wasn't until I couldn't work 
that I experienced true hunger.
    I suffered an injury at work and for the next 2 years I went 
through two surgeries, physical and occupational therapy. But it would 
be another 2 years before I was medically able to return to work, as 
far as the Maine Department of labor was concerned. Eventually what 
money I had ran out and I found myself homeless and living in a tent in 
the woods in the winter in Maine.
    With no income or address, I applied for SNAP benefits and received 
$194 worth of food per month. Which was crucial. However, because of 
work restrictions on SNAP benefits I was cut off after 3 months. I 
brought all my paperwork to the SNAP office including the declaration 
by the Department of Labor that I was medically unable to work. I was 
told that this did not qualify me for disabled status in which the work 
restrictions would be waived, I showed my doctor's paperwork which 
cleared me for work but the DOL wasn't reading it like that. It was to 
no avail. I then asked for the paperwork that I needed to volunteer and 
satisfy the work restrictions that way . . . the screener told me that 
he didn't feel comfortable putting me into a volunteer situation with 
my injury. I asked, ``what do I eat?'' He told me that there was an 
appeal process and I asked, ``what do I eat until then?'' I waited in 
silence for a full minute for an answer, but the screener must have 
thought it was rhetorical because he just stared blankly back at me 
until finally stating that there was nothing he could do.
    In the year to follow, I filed appeals both to SNAP and the Dept. 
of Labor for a change in status, but I lost all of them, while in the 
meantime I had to add seven holes to my belt just to keep my pants up. 
My conditions devolved to that of a caveman, foraging for food took up 
a lot of my time. Once a month I could hitchhike 25 miles and visit the 
food pantry. This was lifesaving, I was able to fill a backpack with 
enough food to give me a meal a day for 2 weeks if I stretched it. 
Still, there were more days than I care to remember where there was 
nothing to eat.
    Unfortunately, I can tell you first hand that, when you have gone a 
couple of days without food your whole being cries out for it. You 
can't sleep, as tired as you are, you can't do anything else but try 
and get food. I contemplated stealing food many times with the 
justification being that if I got away with it, I would eat, if I got 
caught, I would go to jail for at least some amount of time, and I 
would eat. It's a level of desperation that I wouldn't wish on my worst 
enemy.
    A little more than a year later I turned 50 years old and aged out 
of the work restrictions, I immediately reapplied and received that 
$194 benefit. It amounts to about $6.45 per day but I'd didn't take 
long for my health and energy to increase and I started gaining the 
weight back.
    The return of the snap benefits meant that I could concentrate on 
Improving other areas of my life and another year later I was working 
again.
    When I swore into the navy at the Military Entrance Processing 
Station in Boston, I was ready and willing to give my life for my 
country. During this time in my life, I felt like my country wouldn't 
even give me a sandwich in return.

Tim Keefe,
Navy Veteran.

    The Chairwoman. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Keefe.
    At this time, Members will be recognized for questions in 
order of seniority, alternating between Majority and Minority 
Members. You will be recognized for 5 minutes each in order to 
allow us to get to as many questions as possible.
    Please keep your microphones muted until you are recognized 
in order to minimize background noise.
    I now recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning.
    First of all, Mr. Keefe, thank you for your service and for 
your powerful testimony. You are exactly what Members of this 
Committee--your testimony is exactly what Members of this 
Committee need to hear as we search for solutions.
    I understand that after you turned 50, you were able to 
access SNAP benefits, since the time limit on benefits for 
adults without dependents phased out at that age. Based on your 
experience, do you believe that the SNAP work requirement 
incentivizes work, or do you think they have unintended 
consequences specifically for veterans?
    Mr. Keefe. Well, definitely unintended consequences. I feel 
like there was like a fissure that I fell through, this Catch-
22 that just opened up in front of me and swallowed me up. So, 
definitely that.
    Work restrictions, I mean, isn't laying your life down on 
the line enough work?
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Mr. Keefe.
    Dr. Kamdar, you mentioned in your testimony the sense of 
desolation that veterans feel when they are denied assistance. 
How can we better address hunger and food insecurity among 
veterans who are living on the poverty line? And, based on your 
research, would allowing people to save more money while still 
qualifying for SNAP--for example, raising the asset limit--be 
helpful in this situation?
    Dr. Kamdar. I do believe that one of the reasons why many 
of the veterans who told me that they applied for SNAP couldn't 
qualify was because their disability counted as income. So, if 
the disability could be removed as an income qualifier, then 
perhaps that would open opportunity for more of them to get 
SNAP benefits.
    I am sorry. Can you repeat the first question that you had?
    The Chairwoman. Yes. I said, how do we better address 
hunger and food insecurity amongst veterans who are living on 
the poverty line?
    Dr. Kamdar. So, I think having those safety nets available 
to them, having access to those safety nets is critical. That 
addresses the immediate needs that they have. But then, also, 
we need to consider childcare, transportation, housing, because 
they are all so interrelated. So, if we only focus on food and 
we neglect those other important and critical needs, we are 
only addressing part of the problems that they are facing.
    The Chairwoman. Do you think that we need to make specific 
changes that are unique to our veterans and servicemembers, 
because, as you mention, it is a different population?
    Dr. Kamdar. They have their own unique culture, and I do 
believe that the way we approach them to help them needs to be 
unique to their culture. Most veterans I have met don't want to 
feel like they are getting a handout. But if they can 
understand that this is assistance that they have earned, that 
they deserve, and it is presented to them respectively and 
honorably, those are the approaches that we need to make sure 
that they are receiving the care with.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you.
    Ms. Hollywood, studies have shown that food insecurity is 
associated with increased risk of negative mental and physical 
health outcomes, including depression, hypertension, diabetes, 
and oral health problems. These outcomes seem particularly 
problematic for servicemembers, whose jobs often depend on 
staying physically and mentally fit.
    Do you believe that food insecurity harms our military 
readiness and recruitment and retention efforts?
    Ms. Hollywood. Our resources do not have a specific 
statistic on that, but I would say that, as a veteran, who 
served for 20 years in the Air Force, that anything that 
impacts our military readiness is an important problem we need 
to attack.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you. I think it is critical to note 
that this is a population that has higher instances of 
disability. So, we really need to, in my opinion, think about 
the way disabilities are counted towards benefits in most of 
these cases.
    Thank you all for your thoughtful answers to my questions.
    I yield back. And I now recognize the distinguished Ranking 
Member, Mr. Bacon, for his questions. You can unmute.
    Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
    Thanks for all the testimony today.
    And, Mr. Keefe, thank you for sharing. Did you say that you 
were not--they wouldn't allow you to have disability, did I 
understand that correct, or you weren't offered a disability 
recognition?
    Mr. Keefe. Yes. So, of course, I went to the Feds and had 
them examine me for Federal disability, and they said, ``No, I 
was fine.'' My doctor said my condition would improve. I had 
torn cartilage in my hand, which I see people working with one 
hand. I just didn't understand what was happening to me at the 
time.
    Mr. Bacon. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
    And, Mrs. Hubbard, I have had one of the command chiefs of 
one of the services visit with me recently, and he told me that 
the pay for our junior enlisted really hasn't been reviewed in 
decades. And so, what we have seen is, like, every year, you 
get a cost-of-living increase, but when you do a three percent 
raise, for example, at a lower pay versus the higher grades, 
the disparity keeps getting bigger.
    Would you not think that maybe a more effective way of 
trying to address food insecurity, I would think, for our 
junior enlisted is maybe reviewing the pay?
    Mrs. Hubbard. Yes. I agree that military pay levels need to 
be looked at, and I think that is an issue and a solution that 
is working, really far upstream on this issue, which is, of 
course, I think where we all need to focus, right, as far 
upstream on these issues as we can.
    It is a big lift, I think. And I think, in the meantime, 
some of the other proposals and solutions that are being put 
forth and that we will discuss today, can help these families 
to be able to put food on the table.
    But, yes, I agree. I think we have so many more enlisted 
members who are supporting families and need additional 
supports. And so, we really do need to look at how the 
composition of our military has changed over time and make sure 
that our pay and the benefits are supporting them adequately.
    Mr. Bacon. Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate that 
feedback.
    And I am hearing some feedback from our senior enlisted 
leaders in the military thinking it is time that the HASC or 
the Armed Services Committee and the Personnel Subcommittee may 
take a look at this. And I just heard that last week, in fact, 
from a lot of them.
    So--and maybe I will turn over to Mrs. Hollywood--or Ms. 
Hollywood. Excuse me. I know we have worked hard on extending 
family tours or tours of our enlisted so that spouses could get 
employment more easily, so they don't lose their jobs. We are 
also looking at licensing laws so that, if you are licensed in 
Virginia, it will work in, say, Illinois or whatever and so 
forth.
    Are you seeing a positive impact here of some of these 
adjustments we are making on families for spouse income?
    Ms. Hollywood. So the needle is moving, but it is not 
moving nearly fast enough. And the primary reason why it is not 
is the childcare issue, because, the licensing is great, but if 
we don't fix the childcare issue, we are never going to move 
the needle on military spouse unemployment.
    Mr. Bacon. Okay. Now, most bases offer childcare. So, are 
you saying it is not enough capacity at each base or some of 
the bases are not doing it? Because every base I have been on 
has childcare provisions.
    Ms. Hollywood. In my Active Duty life, I was a squadron 
commander for those units that did run childcare facilities, 
and [there was] never enough capacity. Never enough capacity, 
coupled with the cost. And, granted, childcare facilities on 
military installations are subsidized, but there is just 
increasing costs on and off installations.
    So, that is really a primary concern of military spouses 
that has prevented successful military spouse--the unemployment 
for military spouses for the needle to move like we would like 
to see it.
    Mr. Bacon. Okay. Well, I don't know if it is--I would be 
curious to get [more] from the Military Subcommittee [on] if 
this capacity has gone down or up. I did 30 years in the Air 
Force, and where we were at, like at one base, we had two 
childcares there, so it is maybe hit and miss depending on 
which base. But I think most of the bases I have been on have 
tried to provide that capacity, because I know it is a concern 
for a lot of families.
    You mentioned you didn't think we should count housing or 
the substance--the food allowances towards pay. But for some, 
that is over a thousand or could be up to $1,500. It varies 
based on where you are living. But you don't think they should 
count that towards determining SNAP income. Is that what I am 
hearing?
    Ms. Hollywood. Yes. I think we need parity with our 
civilian--military family members need parity with their 
civilian counterparts. This is not taxable income. BAH isn't 
taxable, the housing allowance. So, it almost feels like having 
BAH be part of what makes you eligible or not--eligible for 
SNAP--is a disservice, and it is not on par with what our 
civilian counterparts would have to count in their income.
    Mr. Bacon. Do civilian counterparts get VAS and housing 
allowance?
    Ms. Hollywood. No, but their salaries would be reflective 
of those different allowances.
    Mr. Bacon. Yes. I guess that is a debatable point, but I 
appreciate your perspective on it, then.
    One other thing I wanted to--I guess I am out of time, so I 
better yield back to the Madam Chairwoman. So thank you.
    The Chairwoman. I was going to let you go, Representative 
Bacon. I will add, from the Committee, thank you again for your 
service. Thirty years is quite impressive.
    And to Ms. Hollywood, to your point, highlighting the 
childcare issue, that is part of the President's Build Back 
Better agenda to offer universal pre-K and a seven percent cap 
for childcare costs, because we have heard this over and over 
from different communities.
    I now recognize the gentleman from Massachusetts, 
Representative McGovern. You have 5 minutes for your questions.
    Mr. McGovern. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.
    And look, this is not a new issue. We have been talking 
about this. You have been talking about this. I know MAZON has 
been talking about this, and others have been, Blue Star 
Families have been talking about this for years. The bottom 
line is that the powers that be haven't done anything about it.
    The Pentagon has known this for years, and yet, they have 
not come up to the Hill and asked that we not count the housing 
allowance toward total income so that those people who are 
struggling could actually get SNAP. They haven't done that.
    And they haven't been up here, shaking the trees for better 
compensation for enlisted servicemen and -women. That has to 
change. I mean, we know there is a problem--there is a problem 
here. For anyone to imply that there is not a problem is 
ignoring reality. And, by the way, it is not just amongst 
Active Duty servicemembers; it is amongst our veterans.
    Mr. Keefe, I want to thank you for your service to our 
country as well. And I want to thank you for sharing your story 
today. I first learned about you through a Washington Post 
article in which it talked about what you went through.
    And I think, all too often, the voices of people with lived 
experiences are left out of policymaking. And I hope that my 
colleagues on this Committee who have advocated for harsher 
time limits and work requirements are listening to your 
testimony, because, in real life, things don't fall into nice, 
neat categories. There is a lot of gray area, and that is where 
your situation is.
    And, by the way, the average time that somebody is on SNAP 
anyway is less than a year. But in your case, you have clearly 
laid out how cruel these requirements are--they do not make 
sense--and how complicated the lives of people living and 
struggling in poverty are.
    So, I want to ask you: What kind of things would have 
helped you make ends meet after you lost your job? I mean, what 
can Congress do to better help people who fall into your 
situation? In addition to not having these harsh and cruel time 
limits or work requirements, how could the system have been 
more helpful to you?
    Mr. Keefe. Well, to start with, a complete audit of the 
workmen's comp system would probably show a couple of--reveal a 
couple things. But, it really dawned on me that the Department 
of Labor's decision didn't affect SNAP, and the Federal 
decision didn't affect the Department of Labor's decision. It 
dawned on me these agencies are at odds with each other in 
dealing with me at the time, and it was creating quite a vortex 
that I was falling into. The paperwork on the appeals I have 
for all of this is ridiculous.
    What would have helped me? As the doctor said, stopping the 
bleeding. Immediate stopping the bleeding.
    Mr. McGovern. Right.
    Mr. Keefe. If I could have gone to the military medical 
center and gotten something to eat and maybe a box of food or 
something that would have been great.
    Mr. McGovern. Right.
    Mr. Keefe. And mirroring the food banks, because this is an 
effective program.
    Mr. McGovern. Right. Right.
    Mr. Keefe. These people give you food. You walk out of the 
building with food. There is no red tape in between. There is 
no anything. They give you food.
    Mr. McGovern. Right. Right. But, clearly, if there had been 
no arbitrary time limit on your SNAP benefit that would have 
helped, right? That would have provided for you, right.
    Mr. Keefe. Oh, yes.
    Mr. McGovern. Which, again, real life is complicated. It 
doesn't fit into nice sound bites, and I really appreciate your 
testimony.
    I know I am running out of time, but I do want to thank my 
friends at MAZON for their attention to this issue. They have 
for a long, long time been sounding the alarm about the 
seriousness of the hunger problem amongst our Active Duty 
servicemen and -women, but also amongst our veterans.
    I mean, people who put their lives on the line for our 
country, people who served our country are in this situation 
where they don't know where their next meal is going to come 
from. All of us should be ashamed.
    And, again, this is not a new revelation we are hearing 
here today. We have been hearing about this for a long, long, 
long time. The question is whether or not we are going to do 
anything about it or whether we are going to raise questions as 
to whether this is all real. It is real.
    And, we have heard from Mr. Keefe. There are lots of other 
people. Talk to our friends at Blue Star Families as well. They 
have documented case after case after case. So, look, we know 
there are solutions here. We have to act. We have to do 
something.
    And I know I am out of time, but I want to thank you all 
for your testimony. This is really helpful. And as we approach 
Veterans Day, let's all resolve that we are going to, by next 
year, have done something so that we don't have to hear these 
stories and we have actually helped make people's lives better.
    I yield back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Mr. McGovern.
    I now recognize the gentleman from Tennessee, where it is 
70 today, Representative DesJarlais.
    Mr. DesJarlais. Thank you. I appreciate it, Madam 
Chairwoman. And thank you to our witnesses for appearing today. 
Clearly, this is an important topic.
    And it almost seems as if we should have the VA Committee 
and HASC Committee included today to discuss this, because they 
are all intertwined. And we don't want to see anyone in the 
country go hungry, but we certainly owe a debt of gratitude to 
our servicemembers and our military veterans, who, as our 
witness said, put their lives on the line for us, and we want 
this not to be one of their problems.
    But I would like to note that the House Armed Services 
passed the Fiscal Year 2021 and 2022 Defense Authorization Act 
that all included provisions related to military hunger and the 
issues that we are here discussing today.
    The DOD had asked for an extension now, I guess, on two 
occasions to address the reports of hunger within the military, 
and now the report is due on March 31st of 2022.
    So, I think we should all encourage the Department to 
publish this information so we can get an accurate grasp on the 
situation and see what committees of jurisdiction should get 
involved here. Like I said, I think probably VA has--and 
possibly Ag.
    Now, it is interesting, in the 2018 Farm Bill conference 
report, we did attempt to address this. Chairman Conaway had 
suggested that $500 of the BAH not be included. And for some 
reason, MAZON's reaction, among others, led to that provision 
being dropped from the fiscal 2018 Farm Bill.
    So, I do take a little issue, Mrs. Hubbard, with you saying 
that nobody cares and nobody has tried to do anything. That 
maybe wasn't enough, but it was something, and I am not sure 
why that olive branch was rejected.
    So, I guess I would just close with, again, thanking all of 
our veterans and military personnel. We certainly want to solve 
this problem, and I am committed to working with those other 
committees to find a way to alleviate this problem.
    And wish everyone a happy Veterans Day, and I will yield 
back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Congressman.
    I now recognize the gentlelady from North Carolina, 
Representative Adams. You have 5 minutes for questions.
    Ms. Adams. Thank you, Chairwoman Hayes and Ranking Member 
Bacon, for hosting the hearing today. And thank you to our 
witnesses for your testimony. And to our two veterans who are 
speaking today, who are witnesses, thank you so much, Ms. 
Hollywood and Mr. Keefe, for your service.
    It is disheartening to know that so many of our veterans 
and our military families don't know when their next meal will 
be. No one in this great country, especially the men and women 
who wear the uniform and bravely served, should ever go hungry.
    But we must address long-standing barriers to veteran and 
military families' participation in SNAP with innovative and 
proactive solutions, which is why, earlier this year, I 
introduced the Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2021 (H.R. 4077), a 
bill that would eliminate eligibility time limits and 
unrealistic barriers for SNAP. Provisions like these are 
crucial and would prevent SNAP recipients from losing their 
benefits when they are not able to meet work requirements.
    For example, how we heard today of Mr. Keefe's testimony, 
creating a barrier to food access does not help anyone secure 
employment or make our communities healthier.
    So, Mr. Keefe, thank you again for your service and your 
willingness to share your story. Can you provide an estimate of 
how long after you became food-insecure did you first apply to 
SNAP for benefits?
    Mr. Keefe. Well, it wasn't until after the workmen's comp 
had run out, so 2 years after my injury.
    Ms. Adams. Yes. Okay.
    Mr. Keefe. And so, that day, they gave me 3 months' worth, 
which was the stipulations, and then cut me off----
    Ms. Adams. Okay. Were you screened for food insecurity at a 
healthcare facility while you were getting treated for your 
injuries or provided with resources to prevent you from 
becoming food-insecure and homeless?
    Mr. Keefe. Well, they asked. They asked if you had food, 
but that was about it. Really, all--there was only the food 
pantry was my lifeline.
    Ms. Adams. I see. Okay. Okay.
    Mr. Keefe. Really, they were the only ones to offer.
    Ms. Adams. Right. I think you have already indicated at 
least what you think Congress can do to make sure that the 
veteran experiences that are not the same kinds of hardships 
that you experienced. So, thank you for sharing that.
    Ms. Hollywood, as we all know--again, thank you for your 
service as well--the basic allowance for housing is currently 
considered as income when determining a servicemember's 
eligibility for SNAP. So, do you know why SNAP doesn't exclude 
the basic allowance for housing as income but WIC does?
    Ms. Hollywood. I don't know the answer to that, but I do 
know that that is definitely a barrier to--that having the BAH 
be part of income is definitely a barrier for military 
families, as is the fact that BAH is only pegged at 95 percent 
of the local area's rent. So even that difference, that five 
percent, is another barrier, to be honest, with military 
families' pay.
    Ms. Adams. Okay. Right. Mrs. Hubbard, can you respond to 
this question?
    Mrs. Hubbard. Yes. I mean, I think from where we sit, it is 
simply an oversight. And that the BAH is not listed among many 
exclusions that are included in the SNAP program. So, that 
includes, as already been mentioned, it is not counted or 
considered income for Federal income tax purposes. And for most 
Federal assistance programs, it is not treated as income.
    Ms. Adams. Okay.
    Mrs. Hubbard. And so, it is really seems to be an 
oversight, and it may have been unintended, but it has 
persisted.
    Ms. Adams. Right. Okay.
    Mrs. Hubbard. And so now it is a choice, and we need to----
    Ms. Adams. Thank you.
    So, Dr. Kamdar, you mentioned that efforts to prevent food 
insecurity need to start prior to separation from active duty. 
So, could you please elaborate briefly on what efforts we 
should be focusing on and how Congress can help in this regard?
    Dr. Kamdar. Well, and as I said in my statement, my 
suggestion is that as the veterans are going--or as the 
transitioning servicemembers are going through the TAPs 
courses, if there is a way that they can be signed up for 
healthcare through the Veterans Health Administration, that 
would at least connect them with healthcare so that there is 
not a gap there.
    Ms. Adams. Right.
    Dr. Kamdar. And then, once they are in the VHA system, they 
would have access to other support systems, like social worker 
and case managers, who can direct them when the needs arise, or 
hopefully prevent the need from arising.
    Ms. Adams. Right. Well, thank you very much.
    And I am out of time. Madam Chairwoman, I am going to yield 
back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Representative Adams.
    I now recognize the gentleman from Indiana, Representative 
Baird. If you can unmute, you have 5 minutes for questioning.
    Mr. Baird. Well, thank you, Madam Chairwoman and Ranking 
Member Bacon.
    I really appreciate this hearing today, but I would really 
want to start off too just by saying and expressing my 
appreciation to all of our nation's veterans and for all those 
that have worn the uniform of the United States Armed Forces.
    And I want to thank Mr. Keefe for his testimony.
    Now, my question really deals with the concern I have about 
hunger in any demographic, but on this basic concern about and 
has been expressed here already today, about veterans and 
Active Duty personnel.
    So, I am concerned that, I don't feel that we have the kind 
of data that we need to make the analysis, and we don't have--I 
don't know that we have an overall feeling of engagement. So, 
my question, then, is to any member that would like to address 
this.
    The organizations that you represent--have you conducted 
research and come up with various conclusions on this topic? 
And then I want to know how--have you tried to share or have 
shared that with DOD or the VA or the House Armed Services 
Committee?
    So, any one of you that would like to start is welcome. 
You--if you want me to do it----
    Mrs. Hubbard. No. I am actually happy to chime in. Thank 
you, first, for your service, Representative Baird, and for the 
question. It is an important one, this issue of the lack of 
data around these issues.
    Obviously, we don't have enough data, and the Federal 
Government has not collected enough data. And there are 
definitely some gaps that need to be filled, and thankfully we 
have colleagues in the field who have conducted studies and 
tried to give us information that we can use to make better 
public policy.
    But the Federal Government really is the place that has the 
capacity, the reach to really document this issue, and needs to 
be held accountable to do it. And it is that lack of 
recognition that is really a problem. And it is simply 
unacceptable that we don't have the data.
    And I guess I would say, not only does the government need 
to be held accountable, but it is also not an excuse for 
inaction. And, hungry families, they can't wait for data. They 
can't eat another hunger study. And so, while we need to 
continue to really push for the numbers--we also have to act. 
We can't wait any longer.
    Mr. Baird. Dr. Kamdar?
    Dr. Kamdar. I am presenting today as a private citizen, so 
I really can't speak about any data that is in the VA or 
elsewhere.
    I will say that we have been able to use data from 
surveillance, surveys like the Current Population Survey and 
the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, but it 
would be nice to have additional data.
    Mr. Baird. Ms. Hollywood?
    Ms. Hollywood. Sir, we have been conducting the annual 
Military Family Lifestyle Survey for 10 years now, so we do 
have data that I think could help us get the ball moving 
forward in the right direction, along with the data from the 
U.S. Army Public Health Center that was conducted recently 
among 11,000 soldiers of two different installations.
    So, I think there is some data, there is a data baseline. 
Continued data analysis would always be welcome, but I do think 
there is enough data now to actually help move the needle in 
the right direction.
    Mr. Baird. Thank you.
    Dr. Kamdar, I have about, it looks like about 58 seconds 
left, and so my question to you is, I really appreciated you 
recognizing that veterans really are a unique culture in and of 
themselves. There is a bond there, that is, as you approach 
them, you have to make sure you approach them appropriately.
    But I just thought I might ask you exactly how you think we 
ought to address homelessness, hunger, and unemployment for 
veterans. And you have 26 seconds, not to put pressure on you.
    Dr. Kamdar. I don't have an eloquent answer in the 15 
seconds I have left to address that, but I will say that 
veterans depend on other veterans. So, some solution, I think 
the veterans are the best people to go to to ask, ``How can we 
help you?'' And that is the approach that I take in my 
research.
    I don't have the solutions. I turn to the veterans to ask 
them, ``How can I help you; how can we help you?''
    Mr. Baird. Nice job. You did it within time.
    So with that, I yield back, Madam Chairwoman.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Representative Baird.
    I now recognize the gentleman from Illinois. Representative 
Rush, you have 5 minutes for your questions. Please unmute and 
begin.
    Mr. Rush. I thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and the Ranking 
Member for convening this particularly important hearing this 
morning. I join this conversation as a veteran of our armed 
services and also as a pastor of a local church that takes 
seriously the charge to feed the hungry and provide services 
for all of our wanting citizens and needy citizens.
    As a pastor of a church, as a Congressman, and also as a 
Vietnam-era veteran, these roles have informed my perspective 
on the points of addressing food insecurity for our veterans 
and also for our active servicemembers.
    Madam Chairwoman, let me make sure that I am clear on this. 
Our veterans are one of our nation's most appreciated and most 
valuable assets. Their sacrifices should be, again, 
appreciated, and their requisite skills should also be eagerly 
anticipated in regards to our nation's future.
    And that said, Dr. Kamdar, I agree that the three-tiered 
approach is critical to prevent, to stop, and to treat the 
damage caused by food insecurity. While I agree with Ms. 
Hollywood's call to not allow the Federal Government to 
abdicate its responsibilities to the charitable sector, I 
firmly believe that there is a role for religious organizations 
and not-for-profits in this vital work.
    Churches, community organizations, know their communities 
best, most of all, and they work with their communities on a 
day-to-day basis. And they are able to marshal food and 
intervene to provide assistance to the very veterans that we 
are concerned about, if they are given the priority of proper 
support by the Federal Government.
    So, my question, Dr. Kamdar, what is the current role of 
churches and not-for-profits in providing primary, secondary, 
and tertiary prevention of food insecurity, and how can the 
Federal Government better empower them to play a more effective 
role?
    Dr. Kamdar. Well, I can address how churches can play a 
role in the secondary and tertiary prevention. Most of the 
veterans that I have encountered, when they are in need, they 
go to the community for assistance. And churches are one of 
those safe spaces that can ask their congregation, including 
those who are veterans, if they need assistance, if they are 
lacking any--if they are short on food. So, screening would be 
one of them.
    And then the tertiary prevention, as you stated, churches 
are there to help, and they can be that source for the 
immediate needs, the ones that helped Tim keep his--stay alive, 
for all practical purposes.
    So, they can be a source of immediate relief, but they can 
also be a source that can help connect veterans to other 
resources that they need to address those upstream barriers 
that they may be facing.
    So, if there is a support mechanism that can help them 
address those questions that they have, be a source of support, 
not just providing the food, but also helping to help them be 
an advocate.
    Mr. Rush. Madam Chairwoman, I only have a few seconds, so I 
yield back the balance of my time.
    Madam Chairwoman, I yield back the balance of my time.
    The Chairwoman. I am sorry. I now recognize the gentlelady 
from Louisiana, Congresswoman Letlow.
    Ms. Letlow. Thank you, Chairwoman Hayes. As we look to 
tomorrow to recognize Veterans Day and share our utmost 
appreciation to the men and women who courageously stepped up 
to the line of duty to fight for the freedom we all share here 
at home, I would like to extend a special thank you to the 
veterans testifying before us today and all the other 
servicemembers and veterans for their service to our great 
country.
    Given the sacrifices of our servicemen and -women, I 
believe it is only right that we, in Congress, ensure that our 
military and veteran families have the resources and care they 
need to prosper.
    However, for the purpose of this hearing, I echo the 
sentiments that my Republican colleagues have shared before me. 
Some of the topics discussed today are the direct jurisdiction 
of the House Armed Services Committee and matters pertaining to 
the Department of Defense.
    While the Agriculture Committee has oversight of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture's supplemental nutrition programs, 
the committees of jurisdiction and the DOD need to be at the 
table to provide their insight and findings as it relates to 
the financial stability of Active Duty members and those 
transitioning out of the service.
    Ms. Hollywood, in your written testimony, you highlighted 
the barriers that military spouses face when considering 
gainful employment and how it contributes to families' 
financial stress. Can you speak to the workforce development 
services Blue Star Families undertakes, specifically for 
unemployed spouses?
    Ms. Hollywood. Yes, thank you. One of the things that we 
really strive to do at Blue Star Families is partner with other 
organizations to share resources. So, we are a hub of resources 
for our military spouses to help them find not only resources 
on the training side, to help them get some of the needed 
training they may need. Maybe they have been out of the job 
market for a few years because they were living in a state and 
then they moved to another state and couldn't find similar 
employment.
    So, not only do we find those additional resources, we 
provide mentorship opportunities, and then we also connect with 
industry partners who are really looking to increase their 
pipeline of military spouses.
    I think the more we can educate industry on the ongoing 
problems with military spouse unemployment, the more we can get 
industry to employ our military spouses and learn about their 
unique situations as a result of being a military spouse.
    Ms. Letlow. Thank you. That is encouraging to hear. I do 
have a follow-up question as to relates to our veterans. Does 
Blue Star Families provide any services for individuals 
transitioning out of the service to help them find post-Active 
Duty employment or help them navigate other programs offered, 
and how would you measure the success of these programs?
    Ms. Hollywood. Yes, we do provide those programs. Our 
programs are open to both Active Duty and veteran families. So, 
any transitioning veteran who would like to come in and take 
part of any of our programs, that is an option for them.
    We measure success of our programs through an annual impact 
survey, and we also do program evaluations after each 
particular program that we do. So, I would say we have had some 
good success moving the needle and trying to get military 
spouses employed.
    We have hosted--I think our current pipeline of military 
spouses who are looking for training is over 10,000 people. So 
just getting folks in the door to try to get resources, is also 
a measurement of success on the military spouse part.
    Ms. Letlow. Thank you so much, Ms. Hollywood. I yield back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Representative Letlow.
    And I will just add that while hunger is a very complex 
issue and there are multiple committees that have jurisdiction, 
the House Agriculture Nutrition, Oversight, and Department 
Operations Subcommittee, this Committee, has jurisdiction over 
policies and statutes related to nutrition, including SNAP, 
domestic commodity distribution, and consumer initiatives. So, 
it is absolutely something that we should be working to try to 
address.
    I now recognize the gentleman from California. 
Representative Carbajal, you have 5 minutes for questions.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Chairwoman Hayes and Ranking 
Member Bacon. My Central Coast district is home to a robust 
military community, including Active Duty military personnel 
and many veterans who have devoted their lives to protecting 
our country.
    As a veteran myself, I am committed to ensuring that our 
brave men and women who have sacrificed so much for our 
country, along with their families, have the resources they 
need.
    Mrs. Hubbard, as has been discussed, you highlight barriers 
servicemembers face when their basic allowance for housing is 
treated as income, which can affect their eligibility for 
Federal nutrition programs like SNAP.
    You also highlight other factors that increase a 
servicemember's chance of being food-insecure, like base 
salaries that do not reflect the reality of our modern military 
force and the lack of access to affordable childcare.
    The Military Hunger Prevention Act (H.R. 2339), a 
bipartisan bill I co-led with Members of this Subcommittee, 
including Representative Panetta, Ranking Member Bacon, and 
Representative Baird, would create a basic needs allowance to 
support low-income servicemembers who are not eligible for 
SNAP.
    Can you please speak on how this bill would improve the 
crisis at hand? I know you have touched on it already, but if 
you can expand on it, I would greatly appreciate it.
    Mrs. Hubbard. Yes, thank you, thank you for the question 
and for your supporting leadership on this.
    The Military Family Basic Needs Allowance, if enacted, 
would basically call on the DOD to automatically notify 
servicemembers of their potential eligibility for this 
allowance, if they are at or below 130 percent of the Federal 
poverty line, which is the base minimum of the gross income 
threshold for SNAP.
    And you know, the DOD doesn't have all of the households' 
information, and so a servicemember would have to report 
additional income, including their spouse's income.
    They could opt out if they chose not to participate, but if 
they did qualify and were able to participate, they would 
basically get kind of a plus-up in their base pay, which would 
put them at above the 130 percent poverty line.
    And it is really an opportunity to respond to the barriers 
that we are seeing in SNAP and to be able to give these 
servicemembers a little extra money they can use to respond to 
basic needs.
    So, we have bipartisan support for it, and I am really 
hoping we can get it done. The full provision is in the House 
NDAA. The Senate version, unfortunately, does include the BAH 
as income. So that particular version of it would not be as 
effective, and we are hoping that the House version will be the 
version that ends up in the final NDAA bill.
    So, we really appreciate your work on it and your 
leadership on the Committee who have also supported us.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you. And following up to that, could 
you also speak on how this bill could help improve mental 
health outcomes for our military's serving families?
    Mrs. Hubbard. Yes. Yes, thank you for that. I think a 
number of us have mentioned in our earlier remarks about the 
correlation between food insecurity and negative mental health 
outcomes, including suicide, and so I think responding to food 
insecurity is a critical action that we can take to address the 
crisis of increasing rates of military suicide.
    And so I think whether it is the screening that we are 
doing or in the care that is being provided, and one of the 
things that I mentioned was the Solid Start program, the 
Veterans Suicide Prevention Program, and being able to make 
sure that folks are getting information about food insecurity 
and about resources that they can use, including the SNAP 
program to address it, will help with this interconnection 
between food insecurity and mental health outcomes.
    Mr. Carbajal. Thank you so much.
    Madam Chairwoman, I yield back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you for your questions.
    I now recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr. Jacobs. I 
am not sure if he is on.
    Okay. The next Member that I had on the Republican side is 
Representative Cammack from Florida.
    Okay. I recognize the gentleman from California, 
Representative Panetta. You have 5 minutes for questioning.
    Mr. Panetta. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I 
appreciate this opportunity, and, of course, thank you to all 
of the witnesses as well as my colleagues who are not just 
interested but actually focused on doing something about this 
pressing issue. So, thanks to all of you and especially the 
witnesses who are willing to discuss some of these tough issues 
of military hunger and hunger amongst our veterans.
    As you have heard, and I think we all kind of believe that 
these issues really represent a failure of our government to 
serve those who have served us. And today you and my colleagues 
that we have heard from have expressed a number of the 
complicating reasons but also some solutions that we can put 
forward here in Congress to help.
    For example, we have heard how the USDA counts the BAC--
excuse me--BAH towards income when considering SNAP 
eligibility. That has resulted, as you know, in low-income 
military families being disqualified from SNAP and having to 
rely on food pantries and food banks for emergency food 
assistance.
    That is why, to address that specific issue, I introduced 
the bipartisan Military Hunger Prevention Act, which you have 
heard discussed, talked about. And I was fortunate to have the 
support of my colleagues on this Subcommittee, Reps. Bacon, 
Baird, and Carbajal.
    And this bill would make up for that loss by providing 
military households with a basic needs allowance to purchase 
groceries.
    Now, although it is unfortunate that SNAP military families 
must resort to that program, I do believe it is our 
responsibility to ensure that those families, at the least, 
have access to this necessary support, that they need to lead 
healthy, food-secure lives.
    Now, we are going to continue to work on this policy in the 
conference NDAA, and I encourage all of my colleagues, not just 
at this hearing but throughout Congress, to join in that 
effort.
    Now, we have also heard what we must do to support our 
military spouses who struggle with unemployment. That is why I 
was proud to introduce, along with Representatives Delgado and 
Bacon the Military Spouse Hiring Act (H.R. 2947), which would 
make military spouses eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax 
Credit, so that businesses are actually incentivized to hire 
those married to our servicemembers.
    We have to do more to take care of those who have protected 
us, who have served us, and not deter the good men and women 
from enlisting or serving in our armed services.
    Now let me just hit on the bill, if I could, a couple of 
questions on the Military Hunger Prevention Act. As we noted, 
that BAH counts as income when determining SNAP eligibility.
    Now, my legislation would address the unacceptable 
situation and ensure that these families are able to put food 
on the table. And so, Mrs. Hubbard, I know you have talked 
about this already, but how would a food allowance change the 
circumstances for servicemembers who are currently relying on 
food banks, if this legislation was passed?
    Mrs. Hubbard. Well, as you mentioned, it would basically 
give folks some additional resources and increase their 
purchasing power for things like food, for their basic needs. 
And you know, I think we want to see that. I think if folks--if 
they don't have these resources, they are turning to the 
charitable sector for food, and that is unacceptable.
    I think there is nothing wrong with food pantries for 
emergency needs, but it is unacceptable that servicemembers are 
turning to pantries routinely to help feed their families.
    And so, this benefit would really enable folks to have some 
additional resources to be able to adequately address their 
basic needs for food.
    Mr. Panetta. I agree. And I think your word unacceptable is 
more than appropriate.
    Let me just--I have a few minutes left. Ms. Hollywood, you 
note that one intersecting issue, along with the issues that we 
have discussed with the basic allowance for housing, is 
military spouse unemployment.
    And as I have noted and I just talked about the Military 
Spouse Hiring Act, which would make military spouse eligible 
for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, how would that help 
address the unemployment crisis amongst military spouses, and 
if you could also elaborate on the key drivers of military 
spouse unemployment in your answer?
    Ms. Hollywood. So, the main key driver is the lack of 
childcare. Another key driver is military spouses unfortunately 
need flexible and a lot of times remote work. Because, if you 
have a military spouse who is deployed for 6 months out of the 
year, it is a much different dynamic than than a family whose 
spouse doesn't go on deployments. So, then you are left with a 
whole other set of problems.
    But, I think anything that helps move the needle for 
military spouse unemployment and gets employers more interested 
in hiring military spouses, as this Act would do, would be a 
great move in the right direction. So, I think that that would 
really open the door to more employers pursuing hiring of 
military spouses.
    Mr. Panetta. Thanks, Ms. Hollywood, and thanks to all of 
our witnesses for highlighting such an important, unacceptable 
issue as what we have been talking about today.
    I yield back, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you, Representative Panetta.
    I am not sure if the gentleman from New York rejoined. 
Representative Jacobs?
    Or the gentlelady from Florida, Representative Cammack?
    Okay. I now yield to the gentleman from Florida, 
Representative Lawson. You have 5 minutes for questions.
    Mr. Lawson. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman, and I 
would like to say happy Veterans Day to all of those Members on 
this Committee who are veterans and served for so many years.
    My question would be primarily to Mrs. Hubbard right now, 
but anyone on the panel may answer. Mrs. Hubbard, you mentioned 
in your testimony the need for Congress to explore a transition 
of benefits for servicemembers and their family leaving the 
military service.
    In your opinion, what sort of services should be included 
in the transition of benefits, and how long should they last?
    Mrs. Hubbard. Well, thank you, thank you for the question. 
And I think that period of transition between active service 
and transition back to civilian life, I think is a critical 
time, and it is a time when the risk for food insecurity can 
rise.
    And so, I think the VA and the DOD need to do a better job 
at improving kind of the policies and the systems that help 
folks making that transition. One of the things that I 
mentioned in my testimony was for the TAP program, needing to 
be a better bridge to Federal food programs like SNAP.
    I think, from my understanding, the program could be more 
effective at delivering information about those resources.
    I think oftentimes folks who go through the program, it is 
kind of like a fire hose of information that is hard to retain, 
and so I think thinking about different ways to be able to link 
people to these resources during their transition is important.
    And then the other piece is, looking at providing a 6 month 
transitional SNAP, a temporary, targeted, transitional SNAP 
program for exiting servicemembers at a certain rank level, so 
that they don't have to worry about food security during those 
6 months while they are establishing themselves, while they are 
finding a home, and finding a job, and getting back on their 
feet in the civilian world. So, something like that I think 
would be very helpful for servicemembers during that critical 
time.
    Mr. Lawson. Did anyone else on the panel want to comment on 
that?
    Ms. Hollywood. So, I think getting upstream on some of the 
problems will also help with transitioning veterans. So, back 
to my earlier comment about the 95 percent of the local 
housing, the military members get 95 percent of the local 
housing.
    As a person who moved ten times in 20 years, every time you 
move you have out-of-pocket expenses, and that just kind of 
complicates things as you then transition out of the military, 
so getting upstream of those problems is another way to solve 
this.
    Mr. Lawson. And one other question I wanted to ask to the 
Committee, for the panel, is: does military ranking, regardless 
to what branch of the service you come out have a great deal to 
do with whether you are going to have food insecurity?
    Ms. Hollywood. Our research shows that it is mostly junior 
enlisted and other enlisted, more senior enlisted families 
particularly face food insecurity.
    Mr. Lawson. I would like Mr. Keefe to comment on that.
    Mr. Keefe. Well, it wasn't exactly an issue for me, but I 
did see that happening when I got out and people I know, yes, 
you didn't make much money when you were in. You are not going 
to have much money when you leave.
    If you are in the higher ranks, you are going to make more 
money and have a savings. You are going to be able to afford 
it. It is kind of reflective of American society in general. 
But I mean, we are only as good--somebody said great country. I 
think we are only as great as our most disenfranchised person, 
and that should never be a veteran.
    Mr. Lawson. That is amazing. And I also would like my 
colleagues and Mr. Bacon and some of them to think about, after 
serving 30 years or so what it was like when they exited the 
military.
    And Madam Chairwoman, since I only have about a few more 
seconds, I am going to yield back. I don't think I could get 
the other question in, which is that I have in the State of 
Florida the third largest veteran population according to the 
Census Bureau and about 130,800 of those are women. And I worry 
about the transition of women back into the workforce and SNAP 
benefits and everything else with kids and so forth. But I 
don't have enough time, so with that, I yield back.
    The Chairwoman. Well, thank you, Representative Lawson, and 
thank you for bringing that to the attention of this Committee.
    I now recognize the gentleman from the Northern Mariana 
Islands, Delegate Sablan.
    Oh, did I lose him?
    Okay. I will yield to the gentleman from New York, 
Representative Maloney.
    Moving right along, we have a guest joining us today, the 
gentleman from Georgia and Chairman of the House Agriculture 
Appropriations Committee, Representative Bishop. Welcome to our 
Committee. You are recognized for 5 minutes for questioning.
    Mr. Bishop. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman. Let me 
thank all of the Members of this Subcommittee for your 
attention to this very, very important issue.
    Let me also commend Representatives Panetta for the 
introduction of the Military Hunger Prevention Act, which is 
very much needed, and I certainly agree 100 percent with the 
need for the basic needs allowance.
    But I would like to ask Ms. Hollywood, Mrs. Hubbard, and 
then Mr. Keefe to comment about their knowledge of the bill 
that we have introduced, along with Members of the 
Subcommittee, dealing with military hunger, the Equal Access to 
the Right Nutrition for Military Families (EARN) Act of 2021, 
the EARN Act (H.R. 5346).
    I think there have been a number of hearings where Ms. 
Hollywood and Mrs. Hubbard have participated. I would like for 
you to comment on it.
    Based on what we have heard today, the need for a national 
eligibility threshold, for example, the need for the 
transitional assistance, the need for a better data collection 
to be able to actually document, which we have been looking 
forward to, the need to have the Department of Defense and the 
Department of Agriculture work out some kind of cooperative 
agreement so that they can, together, address this problem for 
our military families, the possibilities of an automatic 
enrollment for our military families who would be eligible for 
SNAP, the basic allowance for housing looked at as we compare 
that to Section 8, for example, of HUD, which is exempt in 
calculating SNAP benefits, but for a military family that lives 
on post and receives the basic allowance for housing, they are 
penalized.
    So, with that background, let me ask Ms. Hollywood and Mrs. 
Hubbard to comment on how the EARN Act would complement the 
Military Hunger Act that Mr. Panetta has offered and which we 
hope will soon become law.
    Ms. Hollywood. Thank you, sir. The EARN Act has been 
helpful in raising awareness about military food insecurity. 
And short-term solutions like the EARN Act, inclusion of the 
basic needs allowance in the NDAA, and removing barriers to 
SNAP eligibility from the farm bill even more broadly are 
extremely helpful.
    I do believe, though, in the long run, that the root causes 
that I addressed earlier in my testimony really need to be 
resolved in order to prevent this problem from existing in the 
first place.
    Mrs. Hubbard. And thank you, Congressman Bishop, for your 
commitment to ending hunger among military and veteran 
families.
    I think the EARN Act has really started and contributed to 
this larger conversation about how to address these issues in a 
comprehensive way, and you know, I think we welcome any 
legislation that is going to generate more conversation about 
potential solutions, and we welcome the opportunity to work on 
this with you and also, to be a part of future hearings where 
we are able to explore this particular piece of legislation 
further.
    I mean, I think from where I sit, I think the single most 
important thing that we can do right now is pass the Military 
Family Basic Needs Allowance provision in the NDAA. It is on 
the table now, and it would provide immediate assistance to 
families.
    But we certainly look forward to exploring other viable 
options to address this issue. That one piece of legislation 
and that one provision is not going to get us there. It is 
going to be a great start, but we definitely would be open to 
talking about other ways that we need to address this issue 
because it has been too long of an issue to have been ignored 
the way it has.
    Mr. Bishop. Thank you. I think my time is about expired, 
but if you could share some top-line conclusions from your 
upcoming report, Blue Star Families, on the disproportionate 
impact that Black and Hispanic families in general face in 
particular. Can you share some top-line conclusions quickly?
    Ms. Hollywood. Sir, I don't have the actual stats right now 
other than our research did actually say that military families 
of color--and we haven't released--we just conducted a military 
families of color study this summer. The results aren't all 
finalized yet, but our top-line results do show that food 
insecurity is higher in military families of color than their 
white peers. We will be releasing those results in February of 
2022.*
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    * Editor's note: the report referred to is retained in Committee 
file and is available at: https://bluestarfam.org/wp-content/uploads/
2022/02/BSF_MFC_REI_FullReport2021-final.pdf.
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    Mr. Bishop. Thank you very much, and thank you, Madam 
Chairwoman, for allowing me to participate in the hearing.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you. Thank you, Congressman Bishop.
    I now recognize the gentleman from New York, Representative 
Maloney. You have 5 minutes for questions.
    Mr. Maloney. I want to thank the Chairwoman so much for 
convening this hearing, and I am particularly delighted to 
learn more about this subject and to see my constituent, Denise 
Hollywood here from Port Jervis, New York.
    People who don't know the area may not realize that Port 
Jervis is in western Orange County, New York, on the border 
with Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but it is also not that far 
from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
    And so right now, I think the largest construction projects 
in the Army are at West Point. We spend, and properly so, a 
huge amount of taxpayer dollars making sure we have the best 
trained, the best equipped, most extraordinary group of young 
officers anywhere in the world coming out of the United States 
Military Academy.
    And yet just a few miles down the road, an organization 
like Blue Star Families, right, is working on an issue that 
represents a whole nother spectrum of the reality that so many 
people who serve in our military face.
    And so, I really just want to give you an opportunity to 
explain to folks who may find this hard to believe what the 
unique barriers are, Ms. Hollywood, to military families when 
they are trying to access the SNAP benefits that they have 
earned.
    And it is particularly glaring to know how many are 
accessing benefits because they are food-insecure and their 
families, but of course, there are a great number that are 
eligible that aren't receiving those benefits. And I would love 
to give you an opportunity to talk about that if you could.
    Ms. Hollywood. Thank you, sir. And yes, I was up at West 
Point yesterday. Lot of construction going on in that area. One 
of the things I think that we have seen in our research is 
that--and whether it is food insecurity or whether it is 
financial insecurity that military families--you have to go 
through your chain of command to get help. Oftentimes you have 
to go through your chain of command to get help, and there is 
this stigma that is associated with that. So, I think really 
trying to overcome that even with terms, like, maybe food 
insecurity isn't the right way to approach it with our military 
families and our veterans, like maybe we need another nourish 
to flourish, or some other way that we can help destigmatize 
this issue with our military families.
    And then again, getting them the access that they need to 
those resources. The three real areas that we talked about 
getting down, upstream of the problem, military spouse 
unemployment, the unreimbursed relocation expenses that all 
military families get every time that they move, and then just 
the out-of-pocket housing expenses because the housing 
allowance doesn't meet a hundred percent of the actual rents in 
that area.
    I think those are the three main causes that we see that 
actually continue to make this problem not go away for military 
families.
    Mr. Maloney. And I know you have done important work on 
this with the Military Family Lifestyle Survey, and if you 
could just expound on that a little bit, please, because we 
have certainly seen this in other areas where we are trying to 
help our vets and their families, and sometimes, yes, there is 
a reluctance to ask for help. And that barrier, which is 
sometimes self-imposed, is particularly challenging. Talk a 
little bit about how we can do better on that and what some of 
the survey work you have done can tell us.
    Ms. Hollywood. We have been doing this Military Family 
Lifestyle Survey for 10 years now, and what we do then, we are 
not a lobbying group, but we are an advocacy organization. We 
have tried to bring this, the results of these surveys to 
senior government leaders to help them help us move the needle.
    Our theory of change is we listen, partner, share, and act. 
So, what we try to do is listen to what military families are 
really saying, and we get a lot of great input from military 
spouses who really bear the burden of military moves. They bear 
the burden of childcare. They bear the burden of maybe 
household incomes that aren't as high as they would like 
because of spouse unemployment issues.
    So, when we gather this research, then we work with 
partners to try to find creative solutions, and we share that 
information with government leaders to help us advocate for 
solutions such as the ones we have discussed today on this 
panel.
    The Chairwoman. Representative Maloney, you are muted.
    Mr. Maloney. Excuse me. Well, thank you so much, and we 
really appreciate your help in shining a light on this 
important issue, particularly as we celebrate our veterans and 
military families on Veterans Day. So, thank you all for your 
important work, and thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for holding 
this hearing, and I yield back.
    The Chairwoman. Thank you. Mr. Keefe, it seems like you are 
the only one that knows how to work the mute button here.
    I think that brings us to the end of our Member 
questioning. If there are any other Members on the platform who 
would like to ask a question, I will now recognize you.
    Okay. With that, I invite the Ranking Member, Congressman 
Bacon, to share any closing comments he may have.
    Mr. Bacon. Thank you very much. And again I thank our 
panelists for being on today and sharing your perspective.
    Madam Chair, I have a statement from the American Logistics 
Association. They provide some details on how the supply chain 
also affects food insecurity for our military, so I would like 
to submit that for the record.
    The Chairwoman. Without objection.
    [The statement referred to is located on p. 56.]
    Mr. Bacon. Thank you.
    Also, I just want us to be careful if we start talking 
about changing BAS and BAH, in the end, we do not want that to 
be considered taxable income, or real taxable income, because 
it will end up being a 10 or 20 percent cut with taxes taken 
out for these individuals. So, we just want to be careful how 
we address this, in my view.
    And there was--I had maybe a follow-up question, but maybe 
it is too late to get the panelists to comment on this. There 
was a mention on there that minorities are affected more. I 
would love to get a little more detail how that works if it is 
the same pay, the same thing. So maybe I will come back and try 
to get those details because I would like to understand that 
better.
    And I will just also commit to the Chairwoman and to the 
team that I am going to write a letter to DOD. I want to get 
their position on this. I could do it, I am also on the HASC. I 
mean, I could do it either way here, but we need to know, is 
this a real issue with our junior enlisted ranks. And if it is, 
the military needs to say it is and give us the scope of the 
problem, and we need to work into it and lean into it and 
figure out how we are going to fix this.
    So with that, Madam Chairwoman, I just appreciate the time 
to makes some closing remarks. Thank you.
    The Chairwoman. Well, thank you, Representative Bacon, and 
thank you for your unique perspective on this issue, and again 
thank you for your service.
    I would also like to sincerely thank all of the witnesses 
today. We genuinely appreciate you for being here to share your 
experiences. Your testimony and answers to our questions paint 
a picture of the challenges faced by veterans and Active Duty 
military members that we will need as we work to remedy this 
problem on this Committee.
    I hope we can all agree that even one hungry veteran or 
servicemember is too many. I ask the other Members of this 
Committee to reflect on what we have heard today and to come 
together to find solutions that will ensure our veterans and 
servicemembers have the basic dignity of knowing that they will 
have food on the table for themselves and their families.
    Under the Rules of the Committee, the record of today's 
hearing will remain open for 10 calendar days to receive 
additional material and supplemental, written responses from 
the witnesses to any questions posed by a Member.
    This hearing of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, 
and Department Operations is adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 1:41 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
    [Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:]
Submitted Statement by Hon. Jahana Hayes, a Representative in Congress 
  from Connecticut; on Behalf of Brittany Dymond, Associate Director, 
 National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United 
                                 States
    Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, and Members of the 
Subcommittee, on behalf of the men and women of the Veterans of Foreign 
Wars of the United States (VFW) and its Auxiliary, thank you for the 
opportunity to provide our remarks on this important topic.
    As an organization, the VFW tirelessly advocates for veterans and 
their families. From health care to economic opportunity, the VFW works 
to ensure all veterans--past, present, and future--have the benefits 
and tools they need to be successful after service. While it is not 
lost on us that working-age veterans are 7.4 percent more likely to 
reside in homes experiencing food insecurity, we want to take this 
opportunity to discuss the unconscionable issue of food scarcity within 
the ranks of those fighting our nation's battles today.
    Our country relies on the patriotism and selflessness of 
individuals and their families to sustain our all-volunteer force. 
Those who join willingly accept the inevitable challenges that come 
with military service including mentally, physically, and emotionally 
demanding training and often multiple deployments. They further accept 
that they may sustain irreparable injuries, both visible and invisible. 
Most prominent of all, service members assume the very real risk that 
they may make the ultimate sacrifice while serving our nation.
    By nature, volunteering for military service means accepting the 
unknown with the exception of the one assumed guarantee that one will 
have the means to satisfy their most basic needs after they raise their 
hand. Unfortunately, an alarming number of service members learn that 
is not the case. An estimated 160,000 enlisted active duty troops have 
difficulty feeding themselves and their families. Accordingly, even 
though military readiness is paramount, many service members cannot 
fully engage their missions since their families struggle to eat and 
satisfy other basic necessities. This is unacceptable.
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food security as 
consistent access to enough food for an active and healthy life. A 2020 
Blue Star Families (BSF) survey showed that 14 percent of enlisted 
active duty military families experienced low- or very-low-food 
security in the twelve months prior to the survey. While junior 
enlisted families (E-1-E-4) were the most impacted at 29 percent, 
enlisted families of all ranks reported food insecurity. A separate 
survey by the Military Family Advisory Network found that between early 
2020 and early 2021, 20 percent of currently serving respondents 
reported challenges with food scarcity.
Why Military Food Insecurity Matters
    Food insecurity within the ranks is an issue of national security 
since it directly impacts recruiting and retention. In general, lack of 
regular access to enough food can lead to poor long-term health 
outcomes such as chronic diseases, stress, and weight gain. For 
children, food insecurity can adversely impact childhood development, 
lead to more frequent hospitalizations, and create behavioral health 
issues. A May 2021 National Military Family Association (NMFA) survey 
of over 2,000 military teens revealed that over 65 percent want to 
serve in the military. This is in stark contrast to just 13 percent of 
Americans aged 16 to 24 identified by a Department of Defense survey 
only 2 years prior. With so many enlisted families experiencing food 
insecurity, we must consider the likelihood that the eligibility of 
some of our most promising future recruits has been and is being 
sabotaged.
    The aforementioned NMFA survey also found that nearly 36 percent of 
military teens are worried about lack of food. Without considering 
fitness for military service, the experiences of this group may 
discourage them from joining as they seek alternative career paths with 
less perceived risk. More broadly, prospective recruits with families 
may not consider a military career if they are worried about potential 
food insecurity. Both instances result in the loss of prospective 
talent, undermining our nation's efforts to attract the best and 
brightest.
    From a retention perspective, food insecurity has been associated 
with a decreased likelihood of staying in the military. While low base 
pay is an obvious variable, high rates of spouse unemployment and 
underemployment due to frequent relocations, licensing challenges, and 
child care issues, for example, lead to lost household income and 
hampered spouse career growth. These challenges have been made even 
more acute by the COVID-19 pandemic as families transitioned to remote 
schooling. The 2020 BSF survey also found that 35 percent of spouses 
needed or wanted to be employed, but were not.
    Also contributing to families' financial distress is that many do 
not qualify for state and Federal assistance benefits, like the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This occurs because 
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is included in calculations that 
determine benefit eligibility. Absent meaningful changes in support for 
military families, retention of affected service members will continue 
to be challenged.
What the VFW is Doing
    VFW Posts across the nation are doing their part to help solve 
hunger in their communities. In addition to posts that make fighting 
hunger a monthly priority, many around the country have stepped up 
during the COVID-19 pandemic by hosting food drives and teaming up with 
other community organizations to provide meals to those in need.
    On a national level, together with Humana, the VFW oversees the 
Uniting to Combat Hunger (UTCH) campaign. Established in 2018, our 
campaign has partnered with several organizations to provide meals to 
those in need. Between launch and 2019, UTCH joined Harvesters (a 
regional Feeding America affiliate) and the VFW Department of Florida 
to provide over 550,000 meals to those in need--enough for over 137,500 
families of four. In 2020, when faced with the health and safety 
challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the team turned to food 
pantries located within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. 
Leveraging generous cash donations, UTCH had provided the equivalent of 
over 1,000,000 meals by the end of July 2020, which marked the close of 
the 2020 campaign.
    With COVID-19 precautions continuing during 2021, UTCH is again 
leveraging cash donations by partnering with Feeding America. By August 
15, 2021, the equivalent of over 505,000 meals had already been 
generated. To maximize participation, the 2021 campaign will continue 
through December 31, 2021, with the goal of providing another 1,000,000 
meals. Donations are sent to Feeding America affiliates closest to U.S. 
military bases and VA hospitals.
Solutions
    Counting BAH as income creates inequities among military families 
and also between military and civilian families. Cost of living 
differences between bases result in vastly different BAH rates, which 
can inflate or deflate income calculations used to determine assistance 
eligibility. As such, some military families in high cost-of-living 
areas are ineligible for food assistance even though they might have 
otherwise qualified had they been stationed at a base with lower living 
costs. Since BAH is similar to Federal housing assistance, the VFW 
believes it should not count as income when determining eligibility for 
SNAP and similar food assistance programs. Accordingly, USDA should 
amend this program's guidelines to exempt BAH from counting as income.
    Furthermore, Congress should pass the Basic Needs Allowance (BNA) 
as outlined in H.R. 4350, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
Year 2022, as this version would exclude BAH from the BNA eligibility 
calculation. For families experiencing food insecurity, this additional 
benefit would bring urgently needed relief as they continue to navigate 
COVID-19-related challenges and regain financial stability going 
forward.
    Last, while we understand other fixes may not be in this 
Committee's jurisdiction, the VFW believes Congress must diligently 
address barriers to military spouse employment. This includes policies 
that generate, provide, or otherwise support flexible and remote 
working opportunities that accommodate the military lifestyle. Congress 
must also work to expand on-base child care access that is high 
quality, affordable, and accommodating of military work schedules.
    Chairwoman Hayes, Ranking Member Bacon, this concludes my 
testimony. I am prepared to answer any questions you or the 
Subcommittee Members may have.
                                 ______
                                 
  Submitted Statement by Hon. Don Bacon, a Representative in Congress 
   from Nebraska; on Behalf of Stephen Rossetti, President, American 
                         Logistics Association
    Thank you, Chair[wo]man Hayes and Ranking Member Bacon, for the 
opportunity to provide this statement on this vital issue and we 
appreciate the Committee's involvement and interest.
    The American Logistics Association is a 100 year old trade 
organization that represents all companies in the military food supply 
chain from source to shelf. This includes major consumer packaged goods 
companies, distributors, brokers, and marketing and technology 
organizations.
    We have been on the front lines of military and Veteran food 
insecurity both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic.
    The military and veteran food insecurity issue has is two major 
aspects.
    One is financial. There indeed is the difficulty of some families 
to make ends meet and this often results in having to trade off between 
food and other necessities. And, there is a program designed to address 
this much of this difficulty: It's called the military commissary 
system. Taxpayers and patrons of these commissary stores have invested 
billions of dollars into a food insecurity prevention infrastructure 
and Congress annually provides nearly $1.1 billion per year to offset 
operating costs. This results in an average 24 percent savings off of 
food prices outside the gate and often these savings reach 40 percent 
or higher in certain locales. The law protects these savings with 
Congress saying that if the average savings ever dips below 23.7 
percent, Congress will appropriate additional funding to provide for 
these savings levels. The commissary program not only exists for active 
duty military and their families but also fore millions of retirees and 
veterans including some 3.5 million disabled veterans that were 
provided the commissary benefit only a few short years ago.
    And, now, to augment this commissary investment and in recognition 
of the plight of some military families, the Congressional Defense 
Committees are moving to focus funding on the most distressed families 
with a ``Basic Needs Allowance.'' And, we believe that this Basic Needs 
Allowance can be turbo-charged by leveraging the commissary system. For 
every dollar of the Basic Needs Allowance that would be redeemed in the 
commissary stores, the military family member gets an additional 25 
percent in value for their dollar. This means that for every dollar the 
taxpayer invests in the basic needs allowance, an additional 25 percent 
is gained when using the commissary.
    The second aspect of addressing and preventing food insecurity for 
veterans and military is taking care of the food supply chain from 
source to shelf.
    Mobilizing to provide food for military families during the 
pandemic was no less a war mobilization task than moving equipment and 
personnel into a combat theater. It was a mobilizing to care for people 
to meet a human need instead of wartime need but a need no less.
    First, we want to bring to the Committee's attention the tremendous 
work that the Defense Commissary Agency has done in ensuring products 
for our military families during the pandemic. Particularly we wish to 
recognize and salute the tens of thousands of brave commissary and 
military exchange workers and industry partners who went into the 
stores to serve the military when the pandemic was hitting in full 
force. They showed up, rolled up their sleeves and went to work for 
military families--at great risk. This included thousands of shelf 
stockers, warehouse workers, cashiers, and military broker and 
manufacturer representatives.
    The Pandemic exposed vulnerabilities to the military's food supply 
chain that we are still working through including shoring up key 
distribution hubs on the East and West Co[a]sts to military families 
overseas. We are working with the Department of Defense to have them 
recognize the need to bolster the military food supply chain. This 
supply chain is global, constant, and essential with long-lead times to 
far-flung corners of the globe.
    The performance of commissaries, their exchange brethren and 
industry partners in the military consumer marketplace was magnificent 
during the pandemic. It was only a short 14 months ago during the 
darkest and most uncertain days of the pandemic when COVID hit overseas 
areas first--areas where military bases were located--South Korea, 
Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan. The military supply chain went to 
extraordinary lengths to ensure that products were supplied. The 
Department of Defense declared commissaries as ``Mission Critical'' and 
major work-arounds were instituted to ensure that product got to 
military families. This included airlift in many cases as borders 
closed and massive efforts to keep distribution hubs disinfected at 
great cost to distributors. It's the untold story of the pandemic, a 
story of bravery, innovation and a tremendous demonstration of the best 
of the private- and public-sectors coming together to care for the best 
people in the world--our military. Manufacturers worked to get product 
to distribution centers and these distribution centers went to 
expensive and massive efforts to stay open by sanitizing trucks, 
pallets, and all of those things that go into keeping the supply chain 
humming.
    We appreciate the efforts to provide food banks for Veterans, 
military personnel and their families and ALA member companies provide 
product and labor to support efforts such as the Military Family 
Advisory Network's million meals challenge. And, we appreciate and 
support a basic needs allowance for truly needy families that can't 
make ends meet. But handing out free meals is not sustainable over the 
long-term. We believe that the long-term and sustainable solution for 
military and Veteran hunger rests with the private-sector and public-
sector coming together to underpin and leverage the existing investment 
that has been made and continues to be made in the commissary benefit.
    We believe a multi-faceted long-term sustainable approach is called 
for:

   Leverage the investment that the taxpayer has made in these 
        commissary stores.

   Develop mechanisms to incentivize and encourage food 
        manufacturers to recognize the unique aspects of the military 
        food supply chain and allocate adequate product to provide for 
        military family needs at commissaries at home and abroad.

   Stop or limit the practice of recovering some costs of 
        operating the commissaries through price increases and return 
        to the pre-2017 practice of selling goods to military and 
        Veteran consumers at the cost that the government pays for 
        products. In a food insecurity and inflationary environment, it 
        doesn't make any sense to mark up food at the shelf at a time 
        when Congress is looking to provide additional funding to help 
        military families put food on their table[.]

   Include food distribution to the military bases as a 
        ``critical supply chain capability'' that must be funded, 
        maintained and bolstered just as Department of Defense is 
        moving to shore up other critical supply chains for vital 
        Defense components and systems. Recognize and fund personal 
        protective equipment and other measures needed to ensure that 
        main distribution hubs do not go down.

   Provide an identification credential that enables Veterans 
        that have the commissary privilege to easily access military 
        bases and take advantage of their commissary benefit.

   Provide funding for delivery of discounted groceries from 
        the commissary stores to patrons living off base.

   Stretch any funding of the Basic Needs Allowance by 25 
        percent or more by developing ways to incentivize and promote 
        the use of the commissary stores including easy redemption of 
        their Basic Needs Allowance in the stores and waiving the five 
        percent surcharge for customers redeeming the Basic Needs 
        Allowance.

    We appreciate the Committees interest and stand ready to assist in 
any respect to address this vital issue.
                                 ______
                                 
                          Submitted Questions
Questions Submitted by Hon. Don Bacon, a Representative in Congress 
        from Nebraska
Response from Mia Hubbard, Vice President of Programs, MAZON: A Jewish 
        Response to Hunger
    Question. Do you think it is the role of the Department of 
Agriculture to subsidize the Department of Defense? If so, why?
    Answer. May 13, 202[2]

    Dear Congressman Bacon:

    Thank you for the interest in the recent hearing on the topic of 
hunger among veterans and servicemembers, and for your request for 
additional information.
    The Jewish community has a rich tradition of asking questions and 
wrestling with different perspectives in order to discover the meaning 
and truth about an issue. However, asking the right questions is 
critical in the pursuit of understanding. The questions that you 
posed--about whether I think it is the role of USDA to subsidize the 
Department of Defense, and if so, why?--strike me as misguided and 
based on some questionable assumptions.
    I challenge you to ask some other questions as well, to help inform 
a more comprehensive understanding about the nature of food insecurity 
within the military and veteran populations. For instance, how have 
Congress and Federal agencies allowed military hunger to manifest and 
persist? How can Congress, the Department of Defense, and the 
Administration address these long-overlooked issues?
    In my response below, I will try to briefly share perspectives from 
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger's expertise on military and veteran 
hunger and suggest other questions that might be worthy of your 
consideration.
    First in response to your question: no, I do not think that it's 
the role of USDA to subsidize DOD, but I do not believe that was the 
focus of our conversation during the hearing. If you're referring to 
SNAP, it's clearly more than just a ``subsidy''--it is our country's 
most important anti-hunger program, providing critical benefits to 
millions of people each year. We believe that USDA and DOD must 
coordinate more closely to make sure that military families are not 
falling through the cracks of our nutrition safety net--as you know, 
MAZON has advocated for the Administration do this through removing the 
policy barrier that currently prevents some servicemembers from 
accessing SNAP and strengthening the newly-mandated ``Military Family 
Basic Needs Allowance'' to ensure that all military families can put 
food on the table
    I believe Congress must update military compensation policies to 
better reflect the current reality of our Armed Forces, which includes 
many more military families than in previous generations. However, 
until those compensation structures are rectified and/or the basic 
needs of military families are fully met through implementation of 
directed supports--such as the Military Family Basic Needs Allowance 
that passed in the House version of the FY22 National Defense 
Authorization Act--then SNAP should be available to provide needed 
assistance to struggling families, be they civilian or military.
    I think the notion implied in your question is that it is not 
appropriate for military families to receive support from SNAP. 
Informing that notion might be a negative characterization of SNAP, one 
that has been fed over the years by some harmful and sometimes racially 
coded cultural stereotypes.
    So in response to your question, I would say that it should be the 
role of the Department of Defense to provide adequate compensation and 
benefits to all servicemembers so that they are able to fully meet the 
basic needs of their families. Because this is not the current reality 
and there are thousands of military families struggling to meet their 
basic needs, then I do think that SNAP benefits should be available to 
provide assistance until the needs of military families are fully 
addressed, either through adjusting existing compensation and benefits 
or through another mechanism, such as a fully adequate benefit that 
reaches all military families in need through the Military Family Basic 
Needs Allowance.
    As you consider solutions to address the issue of food insecurity 
among our military families, there are some different questions that I 
would urge you and your staff to explore and reflect upon:

   Why has this situation been allowed by Congress, the 
        Department of Defense, and Federal agencies to persist for so 
        long?

   Why has the Department of Defense been so uncooperative in 
        collecting data, making it publicly available, and advancing 
        solutions to this problem?

   Why has the Department of Defense previously denied that 
        there is a significant problem with military hunger and 
        suggested that those who are struggling have only themselves to 
        blame because of their own financial mismanagement?

   If it is not the role of USDA to support struggling military 
        families, what more does Congress and the Department of Defense 
        need to do to fulfill its responsibilities and truly take care 
        of those who serve?

   Given the issues of shame, stigma, and fear of retribution 
        that surround the issue of food insecurity within the military, 
        what can be done to eliminate the negative perceptions and 
        stereotypes that have made it more difficult for individuals to 
        seek needed assistance?

    You will find some reflections on the questions above as well as 
additional information and recommendations in MAZON's report, ``Hungry 
in the Military''.\1\ I encourage you and your staff to review the 
findings in this report as you consider solutions to address this long-
overlooked and unacceptable problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ https://mazon.org/news/mazon_statements/new-mazon-report-
hungry-in-the-military/.*
    * Editor's note: the report referred to is retained in Committee 
file.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I hope that my response, and the additional questions that I have 
shared with you, are helpful as you and your colleagues work to end 
military hunger. MAZON greatly appreciates your concern about this 
issue and your leadership as a cosponsor of the Military Hunger 
Prevention Act, which mirrored the full Military Family Basic Needs 
Allowance provision that passed in the initial House version of the 
FY22 NDAA. We also recognize your engagement with Mission: Readiness 
and the concerns about childhood obesity that threaten future 
recruitment for our Armed Forces and note that addressing the military 
hunger crisis now will help to support the goals around future 
recruitment and fitness to serve by ensuring support for children from 
military families that experience food insecurity. MAZON looks forward 
to partnering with you to once and for all put an end to the 
preventable problem of military hunger.
            Sincerely,
            [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
            
Mia Hubbard,
Vice President of Programs,
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
Response from Lt. Col. Denise Hollywood, (Ret.), U.S. Air Force; Chief 
        Community and Programs Officer, Blue Star Families
    Question. Do you think it is the role of the Department of 
Agriculture to subsidize the Department of Defense? If so, why?
    Answer. Ongoing government efforts to address military family 
financial insecurity by working to increase child care availability, 
solve spouse employment challenges, and address military pay 
inadequacies all are vitally important. However, military families 
facing hunger need access to immediate interventions, such as SNAP 
benefits, to prevent negative health and financial consequences while 
long term solutions are identified and implemented. Providing access to 
resources that allow military families to lead productive, healthy 
lives while in service to our country is the responsibility of all 
government departments to the fullest extent allowable within their 
respective authorities.
Response from Nipa Kamdar, Ph.D., R.N., FNP-BC
    Question. Do you think it is the role of the Department of 
Agriculture to subsidize the Department of Defense? If so, why?
    Answer. As a reminder, I am testifying as a private citizen. The 
views and opinions expressed in this testimony are mine and do not 
necessarily express the official policy or position of Baylor College 
of Medicine or the Veterans Health Administration.
    My area of research focuses on Veterans. However, in speaking with 
Veterans, they remind me that active-duty Service Members take an oath 
to defend our nation and are willing to risk their lives in their 
service. In contrast, making sure that they have adequate access to 
healthy food for themselves and their families seems like a small ask. 
The primary responsibility for this assurance should be that of the 
Department of Defense. Service members need to have livable wages that 
meet the cost-of-living for the area where they are based.
    As one Marine Veteran explained: Troop welfare must come first. 
They can't be mission ready if they are struggling to get food on their 
table. The Marine Veteran told me about how he and his partner, even 
after careful budgeting, only had $62 per month to spend on groceries 
while he was serving. He did not realize at that time how close to the 
edge of financial collapse he and his partner were living.
    Having said that, if a subsidy from the Department of Agriculture 
will reduce the struggle to get food to the table, then yes--a subsidy 
is needed. Yet there needs to be an awareness that a subsidy does not 
solve the underlying issue of financial stability. A subsidy from the 
Department of Agriculture, if it is treated similar to the SNAP 
program, would provide immediate, temporary relief from food shortage; 
however, until underlying contributors to food insecurity--like low 
wages, inadequate childcare, spouse employment opportunities--are not 
addressed, Service Members and their families will continue to live in 
a state of financial stress which could impact their health and 
wellness.
Response from Timothy Keefe, Veteran, U.S. Navy
    Question. Do you think it is the role of the Department of 
Agriculture to subsidize the Department of Defense? If so, why?
    Answer. The sad part of this question is that so many active duty 
families cannot survive on a military salary and until they can, they 
should surely be able to access food, [whether] in the form of [SNAP] 
benefits (you don't join the military to get rich so lots live below 
the poverty line), or governmental or military food distribution, so my 
answer is yes, if the military budget is too small to take up the 
slack, then the Dept. of Agriculture should.

                                  [all]