[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 17, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E390-E391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      OHIO HUNGER TOUR TRIP REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                           HON. DEBORAH PRYCE

                                of ohio

                           HON. ROBERT W. NEY

                                of ohio

                          HON. TED STRICKLAND

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 17, 1998

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we commend to our colleagues' 
attention the following report from a March 2-3, 1998 ``hunger tour'' 
of central and southeastern Ohio, in which we participated. The purpose 
of the trip was to investigate reports of increasing demand for 
emergency food at Ohio's food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens. We 
were surprised by what we found. Despite Ohio's strong economy, 
significant numbers of working poor and senior citizens are having 
great difficulty making ends meet, and are turning to charities to 
obtain adequate food. We encourage our colleagues to consider a similar 
tour in their own communities, to get a close-up view of the changing 
face of hunger, and the challenges facing the working poor and senior 
citizens in particular.


                              INTRODUCTION

  Despite a booming economy, record low unemployment, a balanced 
federal budget, and unprecedented surpluses in many state coffers, 
there is mounting evidence of worsening hunger among the poorest 
Americans.
  For more than a year now, foodbanks, pantries, and soup kitchens 
across Ohio and around the country have reported sharp increases in 
demand for emergency food, which are outstripping the charitable 
sector's capacity to respond to growing needs. A December, 1997 report 
by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that demand for food relief was 
up by 16%. In January, 1998, my own informal survey of 200 of the 
nation's foodbanks revealed even sharper increases in hunger relief 
needs in many parts of the country. A September 1997 report by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture found that in the Dayton area, one in eight 
people seek emergency food assistance every month.

  To investigate such reports, and better understand the nature of this 
trend, I conducted a fact-finding mission to feeding programs in urban 
and rural Ohio communities from March 2-3, 1998. I was joined by my 
colleagues Representative Deborah Pryce (OH-15th), Representative Bob 
Ney (OH-18th), Representative Ted Strickland (OH-6th) at site visits 
located in their districts. Ohio Senator Mike DeWine also was 
represented by an aide who accompanied the delegation for a full day.
  Non-profit groups who supported the trip included the Ohio 
Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, the Ohio Food Policy & Anti-
Poverty Action Center, and the Council for Economic Opportunities in 
Greater Cleveland, as well as individual foodbanks, pantries, and soup 
kitchens who hosted the delegation at stops in Columbus, Zanesville, 
Logan, MacArthur, and Dayton.


                                FINDINGS

  What we saw and heard in the communities we visited strongly 
confirmed several emerging trends reported by foodbanks across Ohio and 
around the country:
  Working people account for a large share of the increase in demand 
for emergency food, specifically people in low-wage and part-time jobs 
that offer few benefits and do not cover the cost of basic needs, 
including food.
  Ohio is attempting to move over 148,000 households containing 386,239 
persons from welfare to work over the next three years. The latest 
national data for December 1997 found that Ohio's twelve month growth 
in employment since December 1996 was 52,800 jobs, a slow growth rate 
of 1.0%. During the same period, Ohio lost 3,900 manufacturing jobs. 
New job growth has been in service sector employment, which generally 
paying minimum or just above minimum wage with few or no medical 
benefits. Despite a robust economy and an abundance of low-wage jobs in 
Columbus and other urban centers, significant pockets of joblessness 
and high unemployment persist in the more economically depressed parts 
of the state's Appalachian region.
  The delegation visited the Southeastern Ohio Foodbank, which provides 
food to local charities in one of the poorest and most economically 
depressed areas of the state. In three of the nine counties served by 
that foodbank, between 40% and 50% of the people requesting emergency 
food were working full or part-time. In Meigs county, more than half of 
the people seeking emergency food assistance were working.

  Not one person we spoke with did not want to work, and all expressed 
their shame and frustration at having to resort to foodbanks to put 
food on the table at the end of the month. One woman explained: ``My 
children get excited to see food coming into the house--kids should get 
excited about toys, and circuses, and special treats, not the food we 
need to feed our family.'' According to the pantry director in 
MacArthur, Ohio, a rare job opening for a clerking position at a video 
store recently drew more than 100 applicants. Highest on that pantry's 
wish list were buses to transport people to minimum-wage jobs in 
Columbus.
  At the Franklinton Food Pantry, the largest pantry in Franklin 
County, where more than 11,000 people seek food assistance each month, 
over 60% of all households in the community have incomes below $15,000 
per year (well below the $16,050 poverty line for a family of four). A 
visit to the home of one food pantry client belied the common 
stereotype that people seeking charitable assistance are lazy 
freeloaders. Here was a couple with strong faith and family values, 
struggling to keep their family of seven together. Like many Ohio 
working families, for these people the pantry is no longer an emergency 
food source, but a regular part of their monthly coping and budgeting 
process to keep their family from going hungry. Their net income of 
$600 every two weeks barely affords a food budget of $100 a week, which 
must stretch to feed five teenagers (two of them taken in from a 
troubled family member). Their coping mechanisms include purchasing 
low-cost food, limiting the types of food they consume, and once a 
month getting food from the local food pantry, which helps feed the 
family ``between pay checks.'' Such families have no cushion against 
unexpected expenses, such as major

[[Page E391]]

car repairs, illnesses, or high heating bills in unusually cold months.
  Elderly people on fixed incomes are resorting to food pantries and 
soup kitchens in growing numbers. They frequently cite the cost of 
medical care and prescriptions as competing with their limited food 
budgets.
  At various stops on the tour, we repeatedly heard about the dilemma 
seniors face when their monthly Social Security checks are eaten up by 
medical fees and prescriptions, leaving little money for food. As we 
approached a MacArthur, Ohio food pantry, we observed a line of nearly 
1,200 people, mostly senior citizens, waiting along the road to receive 
a box of food. Inside the pantry, clergy and church volunteers serving 
this crowd described deplorable living conditions--run-down shacks with 
no heat or running water, dilapidated trailers with holes in the floor, 
even chicken coops and buses. We repeatedly heard that their pride and 
the stigma of accepting charity keep many seniors from asking for help 
until their situation is truly desperate. As one nun told us, ``we know 
we are really in trouble when the elderly start showing up at pantries 
in large numbers.''

  Part of the ``traditional'' clientele at food pantries and soup 
kitchens are those for whom hunger is a symptom of deeper problems--
illiteracy, a lack of education, a history of substance or domestic 
abuse, mental illness, or homelessness. It will be difficult if not 
impossible for many of these individuals to compete in the job market 
without intensive rehabilitation, and some of them may never be able to 
hold jobs.
  Everyone who has ever volunteered at a soup kitchen knows these 
faces--people who may never have been able to hold a job, and are not 
counted in unemployment data because they are unemployable or have 
given up trying to find work. This described many of the people we met 
at the Zanesville soup kitchen we visited--people who have ``failed to 
thrive'' and live life on the margins for one reason or another. As one 
volunteer put it, ``with the right kind of help, some of these people 
may be able to pull themselves up by their boot straps, but a lot of 
them never had boots to begin with.'' And, in the words of a food 
pantry director, ``I am tired of selectively talking about the types of 
clients we serve, so that people will care. Some of these people are 
plain old poor folks, who've had a hard time getting it together for 
whatever reason. But they still need to eat.''
  Churches and charitable food assistance agencies are doing their best 
to rise to the challenge of growing demands, but their capacity is 
overwhelmed by the increased need they are now facing.
  In attempts to meet increased needs, every church group and private 
charity we spoke with had stepped up efforts to raise additional funds 
through church collections, food drives, pie sales, and appeals to 
businesses and other donors. Yet, in many cases pantries report having 
to reduce the amount of food they distribute, or turn people away for 
lack of food. A Zanesville soup kitchen reported taking out a bank loan 
for the first time ever last year, to cover operating costs. Within the 
last year the number of food relief agencies serving the hungry in Ohio 
reportedly declined by 23% as many closed or consolidated with other 
operations.


                              CONCLUSIONS

  Our limited sampling of sites serving hungry people, and discussions 
with charitable food providers, state officials, and advocacy groups, 
provided only a snapshot of the conditions that are underlying the 
increases in requests for relief that foodbanks, soup kitchens and 
pantries are reporting. Yet it confirmed to us, in clear and human 
terms, disturbing evidence that more of our citizens than ever are 
vulnerable to hunger, despite a robust economy.
  As states work to replace the federal welfare system with structures 
of their own, the number of people turning to food banks for emergency 
assistance is growing. New strategies are being tried, many with 
success, and they need to be encouraged. Food banks have been doing the 
hard work on the front lines of fighting hunger for decades. They are 
supported by their communities, and they are the organizations that 
increasing numbers of citizens turn to for help. But to ensure that 
Americans who turn to food banks for help do not go hungry, food banks 
need additional support.
  They need the goodwill and charitable contributions of their 
community, and the participation of more individuals and businesses.
  They need public and private initiatives that complement their 
efforts and address the root causes of hunger and poverty.
  They need jobs that pay a living wage and laws that encourage 
generosity and charitable giving.
  And they cannot do without the significant support of federal funds 
and federal commodity foods.
  The job of the federal government was not finished when the welfare 
reform bill was enacted. Congress and the Administration have a 
responsibility to monitor what the states are doing, to measure how the 
poor are faring, and to make adjustments as necessary as problems 
arise.
  Even as we give policy reforms a chance to work and aggressively 
attack the underlying problems that make people vulnerable to hunger, 
we cannot stand by and watch growing numbers of Americans go hungry. 
If, as the evidence suggests, increasing numbers of people are so 
hungry they're willing to stand in line for food, we cannot rest 
knowing that, too often, there is no food at the end of that line.

                          ____________________