[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 76 (Thursday, June 3, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6440-S6442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL HUNGER AWARENESS DAY

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, today in Palmyra, PA, volunteers at the 
Lebanon Valley Brethren Home will collect food and sell baked goods for 
the ``Great American Bake Sale'' to support their local food bank. In 
hundreds of small towns, suburban communities, and cities from New York 
to California, thousands of volunteers will help collect food, glean 
fields, prepare meals, and raise awareness as a part of National Hunger 
Awareness Day.
  These dedicated volunteers and their compassionate acts represent a 
grassroots citizens' movement motivated to reduce hunger in America. 
These volunteers are the people who prepare the dinners and stock the 
shelves of the local charities that serve more than 9 million kids who 
lack basic food supplies. They are motivated by appalling statistics 
that show that more than 13 million children live in what the Federal 
Government deems ``food insecure'' households. And, of course, they are 
motivated by knowing the needs and faces of the vulnerable people in 
their communities.
  Last year, an estimated 23 million low-income people--many of whom 
are from working families with children, are elderly, or have 
disabilities--received a meal or an emergency food box from one of the 
estimated 50,000 local hunger relief charities that dot the Nation's 
landscape. These charities, of which three-quarters are faith-based 
organizations, play an important and complementary role to State, local 
and Federal Government efforts to help low-income families achieve 
self-sufficiency. But for the family whose benefits have been 
exhausted, or the single mother who is waiting for the benefits to 
begin, or for those who simply don't want government help, these 
charities are the last line of defense against hunger.
  Despite the selfless extraordinary work of these charities and their 
estimated one million volunteers, the need in many communities too 
often exceeds the available resources. At the same time, the United 
States throws away nearly 96 billion pounds of food each year.
  Legislation I have sponsored, the Charity Aid, Recovery and 
Empowerment Act, or the CARE Act, would help close the gap between the 
need and available resources. The CARE Act provides farmers and 
ranchers, small businesses, and franchisees with a tax incentive that 
would allow these smaller business entities to enjoy the same tax 
incentives that large corporations receive when they donate food to 
charity. The CARE Act's food donation tax incentives will enable 
farmers with surplus crops to donate the food to a food bank or 
emergency shelter, recouping some of the cost of production and 
transportation--and preventing them from having to plow the crops back 
into the ground. The CARE Act gives a restaurant owner the incentive to 
donate surplus meals to a soup kitchen rather than throwing good food 
into a dumpster. America's Second Harvest, the Nation's food bank 
network, estimates that the CARE Act will help generate more than 878 
million new meals for hungry people over the next 10 years.
  This legislation, despite broad, bipartisan support for the food 
donation tax incentives and the other provisions in the act, is now 
stalled in the Senate, not being allowed to go to conference. The CARE 
Act is in jeopardy, and with its fortunes go the hopes of tens of 
thousands of people that serve America's most vulnerable families. We 
cannot allow partisan differences, unrelated to this legislation, to 
undo the promise that the CARE Act offers to millions of Americans. The 
CARE Act

[[Page S6441]]

should be allowed to go to a bipartisan conference and thereby ensure 
that no food bank, pantry or soup kitchen will have to turn away a 
hungry family, senior, or child because the cupboard is bare.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today is National Hunger Awareness Day, 
and it is an opportunity for all of us in Congress to pledge a greater 
effort to deal effectively with this festering problem that shames our 
Nation and has grown even more serious in recent years.
  The number of Americans living in hunger, or on the brink of hunger 
has increased every year during the current administration. It now 
includes 13 million children--400,000 more than when President Bush 
took office.
  These Americans deserve higher priority by all in Congress. Day in 
and day out, the needs of millions of Americans living in poverty have 
been overlooked, and too often their voices have been silenced.
  These are real people, struggling every day to get by. They are 
single mothers serving coffee at the local diner at 5 a.m. and cleaning 
houses in the afternoon, yet are still unable to afford both shelter 
and food. They are low-wage workers holding down two jobs, yet still 
forced to make impossible choices between feeding their family, paying 
the rent, and obtaining decent medical care. They are children who go 
to bed hungry every night whose parents can't afford to give them more 
than a single slim meal a day.
  The World Food Summit in 1996 called global attention to this crisis 
and in response the Clinton administration pledged to begin an effort 
to cut hunger and food insecurity in half in the United States by 2010. 
In the boom of the Clinton years, we made progress toward that goal--
hunger decreased steadily through 2000. We now have 6 years left to 
fulfill our commitment, and we must not fail.
  The answer is a renewed commitment to reaching that goal. The 
fastest, most direct way to reduce hunger in the Nation is to improve 
and expand the current Federal nutrition programs. Sadly, it is 
difficult to persuade the current administration and the current 
Congress to fund important child nutrition programs such as the school 
breakfast and school lunch programs and the summer food program, but 
numerous groups throughout the Nation are doing their best to make a 
difference.
  Project Bread in Massachusetts helps fund nearly 400 food pantries, 
soup kitchens, food banks and food salvage programs across the State, 
and also coordinates local efforts to develop effective solutions to 
reduce hunger.
  Congress can also do better. The Senate Agriculture Committee 
approved a bipartisan child nutrition bill last month to strengthen and 
expand nutrition programs, and it deserves to be enacted into law as 
soon as possible.
  A strong job market will also significantly reduce hunger. A major 
challenge in today's troubled economy is that it has been creating just 
one job for every three out-of-work Americans. We need an economy that 
works for everyone, and a job creation plan that enables every American 
to afford a decent quality of life.
  That means jobs that pay a living wage. Right now, we are sending the 
wrong message to low-income workers. We are telling them that hard work 
does not pay. We are saying that workers who play by the rules deserve 
little or even nothing in return. Why can't we all agree that no one 
who works for a living should have to live in poverty, constantly 
wondering where the next meal is coming from?
  For too many adults of all ages, the fight against hunger is a 
constant ongoing struggle. It undermines their productivity, their 
earning power, and even their health. It keeps their children from 
concentrating and learning in school.
  It makes no sense to allow the gap between rich and poor to grow 
wider. We can not ignore the poorest in our Nation, and all those who 
need our help the most. National Hunger Awareness Day is our chance to 
rededicate ourselves in Congress to this cause, and we can't afford to 
miss it.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President. I rise today to speak about a problem 
impacting communities across the United States and throughout the 
world. As many of my colleagues know, today is National Hunger 
Awareness Day. It is a day meant to focus our attention on our friends, 
coworkers, classmates, and neighbors for whom putting food on the table 
continues to be a daily struggle. Sadly, for the nearly 35 million 
Americans who are ``hungry'' or ``food insecure,'' hunger is more than 
a statistic, it is an insomnia within the American dream. This is a 
reality that the people of my home State of Oregon know far too well.
  For the last several years, Oregon has been at or near the top of 
repeated nationwide studies of hunger and food insecurity in the United 
States. And I can tell you that as a member of this chamber and an 
Oregonian, the statistics on hunger and food insecurity continue to 
confound me. Despite all of our advances in agriculture technology and 
food distribution, children and families in my State and around the 
country will go to bed hungry tonight. The sad irony is that many of 
the communities most affected by hunger are the very ones that grow the 
food upon which the rest of us rely.
  On the horizon, Oregon's economy appears to be brightening. While 
there are no quick fixes, I believe that solving hunger is within our 
grasp. Later today, Senator Lincoln and I will be announcing the 
creation of the Senate Hunger Caucus. This caucus will serve as a forum 
to raise awareness and foster cooperation among business interests, 
community leaders, and local, State, and national non-profits to work 
with Congress to address hunger.
  As policymakers, our job is to take the pieces of this puzzle and put 
them together in a way that leaves our communities whole and healthy. 
Government cannot act alone to solve the problem but must work in 
concert with those who are best able to help. I believe the creation of 
the Senate caucus is an important step in focusing on this problem. I 
look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress and groups back 
in Oregon to address these issues.
  In Oregon, we have been blessed with a number of organizations and 
individuals who have taken it upon themselves to help in this effort 
and assist their neighbors in need. Groups such as Birch Community 
Services and the Oregon Food Bank have shown themselves to be true 
assets to their communities. As an Oregonian, I can tell you that I am 
especially proud of how they have responded to what has been a 
difficult last couple of years in our State, and I look forward to 
continuing to work with them in the fight against hunger.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I rise today to bring attention to the 
fact that it is National Hunger Awareness Day and to raise the 
visibility of issues of hunger in America.
  What is the face of hunger in America? A child. A mother. A father. A 
single working parent. A homeless person. A grandmother raising 
grandchildren. A grandfather. A senior citizen living off of social 
security. An unemployed person. A disabled worker. A military veteran. 
People of all races and ethnicities.
  These are the faces of the almost 35 million Americans that live in 
households that are food insecure. Food insecurity is not isolated to 
one region. These 35 million Americans live in the small towns of New 
England, in the large cities of New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta. 
They live in the deltas of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi and the 
plains of the Dakotas down to Kansas. There is food insecurity and 
hunger in the timber regions of Washington and Oregon and on the 
beaches of California. Food insecurity affects the States of the four 
corners down into Texas and Oklahoma. No region of this country is 
without hunger.
  Today is National Hunger Awareness Day. I have come to the Senate 
floor to talk about hunger in America and to raise awareness about the 
complex issues surrounding hunger.
  When many Americans think of hunger they often think of starving 
people in developing countries around the world, and the number of 
hungry people living around the world is staggering.
  Eight hundred million people, including children, are hungry and food 
insecure in the world today. America must continue to lead in its 
generosity to aid the world's food insecure. But hunger is not just a 
distant problem for developing countries. Hunger exists among our own 
citizens here in America.
  Because today is National Hunger Awareness Day, I will focus my 
remarks on the less recognized face of

[[Page S6442]]

hunger and that is the face of the Americans, our neighbors, and our 
fellow citizens who are hungry and food insecure.
  What does food insecurity mean? Food insecurity is limited or 
uncertain access to nutritional food. Food insecurity is not knowing 
from where the next meal is coming.
  Food insecurity is not unique among the homeless and unemployed. On 
the contrary, many food insecure households in America have at least 
one working adult. We need only compare the national unemployment 
numbers with the food insecurity numbers to see that they don't match 
up. There are far more food insecure individuals than there are 
unemployed people. America's working poor are finding it difficult to 
make ends meet and at times provide the most basic needs for their 
family--nutritious food.
  Perhaps our most vulnerable food insecure individuals are our 
children and seniors. Due to the high costs of healthcare and living 
expenses, many seniors often find themselves choosing between medicine 
and groceries because they may not be able to afford both. Programs 
such as Meals on Wheels and local community senior programs are so 
important to the health of our seniors.
  Children rely on parents to provide for their basic needs. Of the 35 
million people who are food insecure in America, just over 13 million 
are children. This is the same number of children that are receiving 
free lunches through the National School Lunch Program. This vital 
program provides many children with the most nutritious meal they will 
receive in a given day. We must continue to find opportunities to fill 
in the gaps because the National School Lunch Program only covers 
Monday through Friday during the school year. The traditional three 
months of summer vacation from school is a critical time when many 
children are missing essential nutrition in their diets.
  One example of a successful program in my home State of Arkansas is 
helping feed children outside of school. The Arkansas Rice Depot's Food 
For Kids program provides hungry children with a quick, high-energy 
snack during school and then provides a backpack filled with nutritious 
foods children can prepare for themselves at home. The Food For Kids 
program is serving 329 schools and 15,000 students in Arkansas. Founded 
in 1995, this program is the first of its kind in the Nation and now 20 
cities across the Nation have established similar programs.
  Throughout my remarks I have mentioned the word nutrition. In the 
fight to end hunger, providing access to nutritious food is key. Many 
Americans are now waking up to the long-term health complications 
caused by obesity. It may seem strange to talk about obesity and hunger 
at the same time but the reality is that people with limited access to 
money and food typically consume the cheapest food that they can 
purchase in large quantities, and often these foods lack important 
nutrients for a balanced diet. We can fight obesity early on by 
educating children about nutrition and help provide opportunities for 
children to access nutritious foods at school and at after school 
programs. Additionally, through food assistance programs we must 
continue to encourage adults to access nutritious foods and help 
provide opportunities to learn about nutrition.
  For Americans, hunger does not mean entire towns and villages full of 
starving people--people literally starving and dying because they 
cannot eat. Fortunately, we are able to provide the citizens most in 
need with access to some kind of food to meet basic needs through 
Federal and State assistance programs such as Food Stamps, WIC, the 
National School Lunch Program, and thousands of non-profit 
organizations, churches, faith-based groups, and dedicated individuals.

  The challenges in America are to continue to find ways to provide 
Americans that are food insecure with access to nutritious meals and 
opportunities to gain skills to improve their economic situation and 
quality of life.
  To that end, today, along with my friend from Oregon, Senator Smith, 
I am pleased to announce the formation of the U.S. Senate Hunger 
Caucus. We are delighted that many of our colleagues are joining us in 
this bipartisan effort to work on national and international hunger 
issues. The Senate Hunger Caucus will be a vehicle through which 
Senators can work together to promote initiatives to help address the 
root causes of hunger and to help form partnerships with the many 
valuable organizations and programs that are committed to ending 
hunger.
  Just a few hours ago, I was joined by my good friends, Senators Smith 
and Dole, at the D.C. Central Kitchen where we announced the formation 
of the Senate Hunger Caucus and discussed many of the key hunger issues 
in America. The D.C. Central Kitchen is located just a few blocks from 
the U.S. Capitol and is a nationally known food rescue organization. 
The D.C. Central Kitchen converts rescued or donated food into 4,000 
meals each day, 365 days a year, which feed the hungry in the 
Washington metropolitan area. As a part of the D.C. Central Kitchen 
program, unemployed people are trained to gain job skills that enable 
them to find work in the culinary arts industry. The D.C. Central 
Kitchen is a great model for taking wasted food and turning it into 
nutritious meals and economic opportunities for people in need.
  We were pleased to be joined at today's event by representatives of 
many of the national anti-hunger groups that we look forward to 
partnering with in this effort: Some of these groups include: America's 
Second Harvest, American School Food Service Association, Bread for the 
World, Congressional Hunger Center, Food Research and Action Center, 
Share Our Strength, the World Food Program and Heifer International.
  At this time, I want to recognize many of the Arkansas groups working 
to fight hunger and encourage nutritious living, and they include: 
Arkansas Hunger Coalition, Arkansas Foodbank Network, Harvest 
Texarkana, Potluck, Inc., Arkansas Rice Depot, Northwest Arkansas 
Foodbank, Northeast Arkansas Foodbank, North Central Arkansas Foodbank, 
Southwest Arkansas, Food bank, Bradley County Helping Hand, Ozark 
Foodbank, Memphis Foodbank, Winrock, Heifer International, Arkansas 
School Food Service Association, Arkansas Advocates for Children and 
Families, Arkansas Community Action Agencies, Arkansas Farmers and 
Hunters Feeding the Hungry, local food pantries, churches and many 
others who work to feed Arkansans in need. Many of these groups are 
also using today as a time to talk about hunger and food insecurity.
  In closing, it's easy for me to be passionate about the issue of 
hunger. As a farmer's daughter I was raised with an understanding of 
the value of having access to food--to good, safe and nutritious food. 
As the daughter of two compassionate, Christian parents I was taught to 
help others and to share my blessings with those in need. As a mother 
of two young boys I can empathize with the fear that a parent feels 
when they must answer a hungry child when there is no food to be eaten. 
Just the other day, one of my boys ran into the house and said ``Mom, 
I'm starving.'' And I replied, ``what would you like?'' Later on I 
thought about the mothers whose children ask the same question but they 
don't have food to offer, they can't just reach into the cabinet to 
pull out food. It was a devastating thought and my heart goes out to 
the mothers and fathers who at times are not sure where the next meal 
is coming from.
  My home State of Arkansas knows hunger. With almost 600,000 Arkansans 
living below the national poverty line, hunger, food insecurity, 
obesity and limited access to nutritious foods are key issues. With a 
State population of 2.6 million, approximately 380,000 Arkansans live 
in food insecure households.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate as well as 
hunger non-profit organizations in my State and across the Nation to 
find solutions to hunger problems plaguing our nation and world. And to 
dream of the day when globally, working together to harness our vast 
resources, we can end hunger.

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