[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 10, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5450-S5451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY (for himself, Mrs. Dole, and Mr. Kohl):
  S. 3108. A bill to require the President to call a White House 
Conference on Food and Nutrition; to the Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, in 2003, I made my maiden floor speech on 
hunger issues and how we as a Nation can tackle them. I have continued 
my strongest efforts to raise awareness that 1 in 10 U.S. households is 
affected by hunger and to advance legislation and programs that aid the 
hungry.
  Today is Hunger Awareness Day, and as I have in years past, I welcome 
the opportunity to speak about the food insecurity problems that 
persist throughout this country and the world. Most importantly, I come 
to offer ideas and invigorate the discussion about solutions.
  With food and energy prices on the rise, we must be particularly 
cognizant of the hungry. Not only do hard economic times generate a 
greater need for food assistance, but the very agencies and 
organizations that provide assistance are trying to meet growing 
demands while food and gas grow more expensive.
  In the past few months, I have read numerous stories in North 
Carolina newspapers about soup kitchens and food banks struggling to 
serve all those in need and even schools strapped for cash to pay for 
their lunch programs.
  For example, last weekend, the Asheville Citizen-Times ran a letter 
to the editor from MANNA FoodBank which said:

       In 2006, we estimated that 115,500 different North 
     Carolinians sought emergency food aid from MANNA partner 
     agencies in a single year--one in six of our neighbors. 
     However, that data has rapidly become outdated by shifting 
     economic tides. Surging energy and food prices combined with 
     stagnant economic growth have dramatically increased the 
     ranks of those seeking help from food banks.

  In the May 29, 2008 Raleigh News & Observer, David Reese, the chief 
operating officer for food recovery and distribution at the Inter-Faith 
Food Shuttle, is quoted as saying:

       A lot of people don't realize or don't take into account 
     the dramatic effect that high fuel prices have, that trickle-
     down effect. . . . It doesn't only affect the regular 
     consumer who is driving to the store. It also affects the 
     distributor, also affects the retailer and then the end 
     result, it affects us as a food-rescue organization.

  Unfortunately, we know too well high food prices and hunger problems 
are not unique to North Carolina or even just to the United States. 
Indeed, as food prices continue to soar, the impacts are felt around 
the globe, especially among the poor in developing nations. The 
increase in food costs has led to international shortfalls of food 
supplies, resulting in food riots and civil unrest in many regions. In 
fact, the World Bank recently estimated that more than 100 million 
people are being pushed into poverty as a result of the escalation of 
food prices.
  Congress needs to take action to ensure that policies are helping, 
not hurting, global food supply. For example, I believe we must 
reconsider mandating the use of certain biofuels which is, in part, why 
food prices are escalating. Last month, I joined several of my 
colleagues in introducing legislation to freeze the corn-based ethanol 
mandate at this year's level, preventing the Environmental Protection 
Agency from increasing the corn-based ethanol mandate included in the 
Energy Act of 2007 to the mandated 15 billion gallons. Instead, my 
legislation maintains the current level at 9 billion gallons.
  During consideration of the 2007 Energy bill, I tried to include a 
safeguard in the renewable fuel standard which would have helped 
prevent a situation such as we face today. Mandates have led to more 
than 25 percent of America's corn crop being diverted to make fuel. In 
the last 2 years, the price of corn has nearly tripled, thereby 
resulting in feed price increases that impact the cost of items such as 
milk, eggs, and meat. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food 
inflation rose by 4.9 percent last year, and studies suggest the cost 
of food will continue to escalate over the next few years.
  While we continue to push for efforts to address rising food prices, 
we can celebrate some hard-fought victories in the recently passed farm 
bill that will support healthy foods in schools and health food banks, 
community kitchens, and other organizations that feed the hungry. For 
instance, I am pleased the farm bill's nutrition title expands the 
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program to all 50 States. In North Carolina, 
nearly 1.4 million children are enrolled in this program, which helps 
schools purchase locally farmed fruits and vegetables to provide 
healthy meals and fight childhood obesity. The bill also includes $1.25 
billion for commodity purchases for food banks, including $50 million 
for 2008 to immediately address shortages at these organizations.
  The farm bill also implements the Food Employment Empowerment and 
Development Program, the FEED Program, which I worked on with my 
colleagues Senators Frank Lautenberg and Blanche Lincoln. This program 
helps fight hunger by combining food rescue with job training and, 
thus, teaching unemployed and homeless adults the skills needed to work 
in the food service industry. It is a wonderful program.
  Around the corner from the U.S. Capitol, students are hard at work in 
the DC Central Kitchen's culinary job-training class. Earlier today, I 
visited the kitchen which has a model FEED-type program that began in 
1990. It is always a privilege to visit the kitchen and meet with 
individuals who faced adversity but who are now on track for a career 
in the food service industry. I look forward to the FEED Act supporting 
numerous similar programs, such as the Community Culinary School in 
Charlotte, NC, and others around the Nation.

[[Page S5451]]

  In my ongoing efforts to stamp out hunger, today I am joining my 
colleague, Senator John Kerry, to introduce legislation requiring a 
White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health to be held by the 
end of 2010. It has been nearly 40 years since the first and only White 
House summit reviewed national nutrition policy. I actually helped 
organize that conference while working for the White House Office of 
Consumer Affairs.
  Positive developments and effective policies came out of those 
discussions. With more than 35 million Americans today facing food 
insecurity issues, it is high time we make ending hunger and improving 
health and nutrition national priorities. I encourage my colleagues to 
sign on to my bill.

  This week, I also plan to offer an amendment to the tax extenders 
bill that addresses four tax issues which will encourage food donations 
and volunteering to help the hungry. This package was included in the 
Senate-passed farm bill but, unfortunately, was removed in conference. 
It will extend for 2 years a provision from the Pension Protection Act 
that allows any taxpayer to claim an enhanced deduction for donations 
of food. It allows restaurants to qualify for this deduction. It 
simplifies the rules that allow farmers and ranchers to take advantage 
of this deduction for donating their products. And it allows volunteers 
to receive a tax deduction for mileage incurred while transporting food 
donations.
  Along these lines, I also have a bill that will provide a tax credit 
for the cost of transporting food to assist the hunger relief efforts 
of charitable organizations. The hunger relief trucking tax credit will 
benefit groups such as the Society of St. Andrew, which helps recover 
food for the needy. The society is very active in the area of gleaning, 
Mr. President, where excess crops that would otherwise be thrown out 
are taken from farms, packinghouses, and warehouses, and distributed to 
the needy. Each year in this country, 696 billion pounds of good, 
nutritious food is left over or thrown away. Gleaning helps eliminate 
this waste. It helps the farmer because he doesn't have to haul off or 
plow under crops that don't meet exact specifications of grocery 
chains, and it helps the hungry by giving them nutritious fresh foods. 
It has been a joy to glean fields in North Carolina with the society's 
dedicated volunteers.
  In addition to working closely with the Society of St. Andrew, I have 
been fortunate to meet with a number of organizations that are doing 
tremendous work to combat hunger in North Carolina--from our food banks 
to Meals on Wheels and others. These organizations rely on dedicated 
staff and volunteers who truly live by the ideal of helping others in 
their time of need.
  Before I close, let me share an experience I had as president of the 
American Red Cross. I visited Somalia during the heart-wrenching 
famine. In Baidoa, I came across a little boy lying under a gunnysack, 
and I thought he was dead. His brother pulled back that gunnysack and 
sat his little brother up, and I could see that he was severely 
malnourished. There was no way that he could eat the rice and beans 
that were in a bowl there beside him, and so I asked for camel's milk 
to feed him. And as I put my arm around that little boy to lift that 
cup to his mouth, it was incredible, the feeling of the little bones 
almost piercing through his flesh. It is something I will never forget. 
That is when the horror of starvation becomes real, when you can touch 
it.
  Since I encountered that little boy in Somalia so many years ago, I 
have been determined to do everything in my power to fight hunger, not 
just at home but also internationally. For example, I have been proud 
to work with Senator Dick Durbin in promoting the McGovern-Dole 
International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program. It has 
reduced hunger among school-aged children and improved literacy and 
primary education enrollment in areas where conflict, hunger, poverty, 
and HIV/AIDS are prevalent.
  While tackling hunger beyond our borders is a greater challenge, in 
the United States, the land of plenty, no American--no American--should 
wake up wondering whether he or she will have enough to eat today. I 
firmly believe with dedicated organizations, caring citizens, and a 
focused government working together, ending hunger in America is 
certainly a victory within reach.
                                 ______