[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 41 (Monday, March 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INTRODUCTION OF THE SCHOOL FOOD RECOVERY ACT OF 2009

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 9, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the School Food 
Recovery Act of 2009. The purpose of this legislation is simple: to 
keep excess school food out of the garbage and get it into our food 
banks.
  Our Nation's food banks and food pantries are struggling to keep up 
with demand. On average, client visits are up more than 30 percent over 
the past year. Families in northern Virginia and all around the Nation 
are going hungry. Our food banks and food pantries are their last 
resort.
  Consider that for a family earning $45,000 a year, it costs an extra 
$1,000 today to maintain the same food, gas, and basic good purchases 
compared to 2006--a 9.6% increase. That reality has led some families 
in my district who had been donating food in the past to now turn to 
the same pantries for food assistance.
  Unfortunately, we are not doing enough to prevent the waste of 
perfectly good food as these families go hungry. According to a USDA 
report on waste in the National School Lunch Program, it was reported 
that an estimated ``30 million Americans were in danger of going hungry 
and 96 billion pounds of food were being wasted at the retail and food 
services level.''
  To address this, former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman awarded 
twelve $10,000 grants to school districts during the 1998-1999 school 
year to develop models to donate unused food to local food banks and 
food pantries and the results were published in a ``best practices'' 
manual in 1999. However, since the conclusion of the one-year grants, 
little has been done at the Federal level to encourage school districts 
to donate surplus food to food banks.
  In 1993, Congress passed the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act, which 
protects donors who give to food banks in good faith from all 
liability. This law has helped encourage many businesses and civic 
organizations to donate more and to build connections with food 
agencies.
  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about our school cafeterias. 
Far too few school districts have been willing to donate excess food, 
primarily due to administrative resistance and a misperception that 
Federal regulation doesn't allow it.
  The School Food Recovery Act will clarify--once and for all--that 
schools are covered from liability under the Good Samaritan Act and 
will allow each school to authorize an employee who has the discretion 
to release excess school food to local food banks on a regular basis.
  I believe this legislation will cut through the red tape and ensure 
that excess school food is used to feed the hungry, not to fill a 
school's dumpster. It only requires schools to identify local food 
banks and pantries, identify the employee authorized to release food to 
those agencies, and create a database of these contacts at each school 
that food banks can use to connect with these individuals.
  Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring 
this straightforward legislation to help feed the hungry.

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