[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 9768]]

       MILLIONS OF AMERICANS MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN FOOD OR MEDICINE

  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week, I went on a hunger tour in 
Appalachia in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia; and I heard 
about a man by the name of Tom Nelson who is one
of the tens of millions of poor Americans we do not see. He was a 
senior citizen who worked at a food bank in Huntington.
  A few months ago, the food bank was not able to pay Mr. Nelson, in 
large measure because it had not received funding promised by the State 
for nearly a year. To stretch his Social Security check, Mr. Nelson 
tried to stretch his blood pressure medicine. The cause of his death 
was listed as a heart attack, but the truth is he died trying to feed 
his family.
  The poorest 2\1/2\ percent of Americans rank with the poorest people 
in the world, according to the World Health Organization. I think the 
only thing more shameful than that is the fact that too few of us know 
about people like Mr. Nelson.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the People's House, and I urge all of us, 
including the Nation's media, to look harder for the 30 million 
Americans who go hungry each year, and for many more who every day must 
make the choice Mr. Nelson made between paying for food or paying for 
medicine.

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