[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E4-E5]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     VERMONT FOODBANK FIGHTS HUNGER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 4, 2005

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, even though this is the richest and most 
productive nation in the history of the world, hunger is still a major 
problem in the United States. In my State of Vermont alone, 55,000 
households are living in poverty. In Vermont, many of these people find 
that the existence of food shelves provides the final protection to 
keep them from sinking into malnutrition and even starvation. Of those 
who go to food shelves, almost one out of four is elderly and over half 
are families with children. Most of these are working families. It is a 
terrible fact that 21,000 children under the age of 12 either go hungry 
or are at risk of hunger in Vermont. The situation is so severe that 
nationwide, over 29 percent of households that received emergency food 
last year literally had to choose between paying for food or paying for 
medical care.
  Clearly our Nation's governmental policies are entirely wrong, 
placing as they do tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate welfare as 
high priorities, and ignoring the need to feed the hungry, guarantee 
health care to all, support the construction of affordable housing, and 
make college available to those who wish to attend. We need to change 
our skewed priorities which, rather than to making life better and more 
secure for the vast majority of Americans, lead to the increasing gap 
between rich and poor, and to ever-increasing economic pressures faced 
by the middle class.

[[Page E5]]

  But while we struggle to change the United States, to make it into a 
more just and equitable society, we also need to make sure that no 
American goes hungry.
  I want to commend, today, the Vermont Foodbank for its years of 
exemplary service to fighting hunger. The Vermont Foodbank serves food 
shelves, community kitchens, homeless shelters, domestic abuse programs 
and programs which provide services for the elderly and children. Well 
over 100,000 people are served through Foodbank's network of 295 
agencies each year. From its building in Barre, the Foodbank supplies 
agencies and NGOs all over Vermont with food for those who are hungry. 
It is greatly assisted in its work by hundreds of volunteers, who 
contributed over 23,000 hours--over 11 years of work weeks--in just the 
past year alone.
  The Vermont Foodbank helps assure that none among us go hungry, that 
every community group and agency that seeks to combat hunger has a 
resource upon which it can call. It, together with our many community 
food banks, the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, the work of 
shelters, the Salvation Army, churches, and countless other groups, is 
doing essential, life-sustaining work in throughout our State.

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