[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 20, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ANDREW SCHIFF

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Andrew 
Schiff, an extraordinary community leader, who after 17 years of 
service, will retire from his role as chief executive officer of the 
Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
  In helping meet the basic needs of Rhode Island's most vulnerable 
people, Andrew has led the Rhode Island Community Food bank through 
some challenging times. He took the helm at the food bank back in May 
2007, mere months before the Great Recession began, and continued to 
lead the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. During 
Andrew's tenure, demand for food assistance has increased--but so has 
the food bank's capacity to help. Indeed, Andrew helped double the 
amount of food distributed to those in need each month by the food bank 
and its 147 member agencies.
  During the COVID-19 pandemic, when hunger in Rhode Island jumped by 
41 percent in a matter of months, Andrew and the food bank were there 
to help, serving over 70,000 Rhode Islanders each month by the end of 
2020. More than that, Andrew helped keep Rhode Island's local growers 
and harvesters afloat buy developing new partnerships to deliver 
locally produced food to those in need.
  Demand for food assistance in Rhode Island and across the Nation 
remains high as pandemic-era assistance programs have ended. But under 
Andrew's leadership, the Food Bank has stepped up to the plate and now 
serves a record number of Rhode Islanders--over 84,000 people each 
month. That is a tremendous statistic but isn't the whole of Andrew's 
work.
  Recognizing that those in need also deserve the dignity of choice in 
their food, Andrew has also focused on expanding the food bank's 
offerings of healthy and culturally relevant foods to ensure that Rhode 
Islanders receiving food bank assistance have access to foods they are 
familiar with and that suit their tastes. Andrew has also advocated on 
the State and Federal levels to expand other food access programs, like 
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special 
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, (WIC); 
and access to universal school meals, to ensure that no Rhode Islander 
goes hungry.
  Before joining the food bank, Andrew was assistant director at 
Project Bread--the Walk for Hunger, an anti-hunger organization in 
Boston, director of professional services at Jewish Family and 
Children's Service in Boston, and director of mental health at the 
Neponset Health Center in Massachusetts. He attended Haverford College 
as an undergraduate and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from 
Emory University.
  As a result of his years of effort to alleviate hunger, countless 
Rhode Islanders have ended the day with full stomachs, and the State as 
a whole is better off. I join many others in thanking Andrew for his 
work and distinguished service to our State. I wish him and his family 
all the best as he embarks on this next chapter.

                          ____________________