[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10341-10342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now 
be a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators 
permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today is National Hunger Awareness Day, 
and I rise to recognize the importance of ending domestic hunger.
  Domestic hunger has affected the lives of more than 38 million people 
in the United States annually. This includes over 14 million children 
who live below the poverty line.
  The face of hunger is diverse. In Illinois, one in every ten people 
is food insecure. Homeless people are often hunger, but so are single 
mothers working two jobs to make ends meet. So are our senior citizens 
whose income does not allow them to eat adequately.
  In Chicago, only 9 percent of the half-million people who seek 
services from the Chicago Food Depository are homeless. Many people 
simply cannot afford the food they need and often seek emergency food 
programs.
  How can this happen in a country as privileged as ours?
  Remember that 37 million Americans are living in poverty.
  Many low-income families are supported by jobs that do not pay 
livable wages.
  It could be that paying the health care or housing bills is more than 
they can manage.
  America's Second Harvest released a National Hunger Study showing 
that in Chicago, 41 percent of households neglect their food budget to 
cover utility costs.
  It may be a combination of factors, but the food budget is often the 
first thing they cut.
  Today, we celebrate and commend the heroic efforts of emergency food 
banks, soup kitchens, school meal programs and community pantries 
working to ease the pain of hunger.
  Federal nutrition programs work, but they are not reaching enough 
homes. Many parents are still skipping meals so their children can eat.
  Hunger drains the strength of people who, for a variety of reasons, 
are unable to provide enough food or the right kinds of food for 
themselves or their families. In a land of abundance, this kind of 
sacrifice is as deplorable as it is unnecessary.
  We should end hunger in the United States and, working together, we 
can.
  Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, for the past 3 years I have come to the 
Senate floor on National Hunger Awareness Day to help raise concerns 
about the far too prevalent problem of hunger, both here in the United 
States and around the world. In fact, as a freshman Senator, I 
delivered my maiden speech on this topic and have since made it one of 
my top priorities in the Senate. Two years ago on Hunger Awareness Day, 
Senators Smith, Durbin, Lincoln, and I launched the Senate Hunger 
Caucus, with the express purpose of providing a forum for Senators and 
staff to focus on national and international hunger and food insecurity 
issues. Today we have 37 Members dedicated to this cause. I have stated 
repeatedly that the battle against hunger can't be won in a matter of 
months or even a few years, but it is a victory that we can certainly 
claim if we continue to make the issue a top priority.
  It is truly astounding that 34 million of our fellow citizens go 
hungry or are living on the edge of hunger each and every day. In my 
home State of North Carolina, nearly 1 million of--our 8.6 million 
residents are dealing with hunger. Our state has faced significant 
economic hardship over the last few years, as once-thriving towns have 
been hit hard by the closing of textile mills and furniture factories. 
I know this story is not unlike so many others across the Nation. While 
many who have lost manufacturing jobs have been fortunate to find new 
employment in the changing climate of today's workforce, unfortunately 
having a steady income these days doesn't always guarantee a family 
three square meals a day.
  Our Nation is blessed to have many faith-based and other nonprofit 
service organizations that seek to address this need. Feeding the 
hungry is their mission field--groups such as the Society of St. 
Andrew, the only comprehensive program in North Carolina that gleans 
available produce from farms, and then packages, processes and 
transports excess food to feed the hungry. In 2005, the Society gleaned 
nearly 7.2 million pounds of food--or 21.5 million servings--just in 
North Carolina. Amazingly, it only costs about 2 cents a serving to 
glean and deliver this food to those in need. And all of this work is 
done by the hands of 13,000 volunteers and a tiny staff.
  The Society of St. Andrew has operations in 21 other States, and just 
last year, the organization saved 29.5 million pounds of fresh, 
nutritious produce and delivered 88.6 million servings to hungry 
families in the 48 contiguous States.
  We should be utilizing the practice of gleaning much more extensively 
today--considering that 96 billion pounds of good food--including that 
at the farm and retail level--is left over or thrown away in this 
country each year.
  Like any humanitarian endeavor, the gleaning system works because of 
cooperative efforts. Private organizations and individuals are doing a 
great job--but they are doing so with limited resources. It is up to us 
to make some

[[Page 10342]]

changes on the public side and assist in leveraging scarce dollars to 
help feed the hungry.
  One of the single biggest concerns for gleaners is transportation--
how to actually get the food to those who need it. I am proud to say 
that with the help of organizations like the American Trucking 
Association, America's Second Harvest, and the Society of St. Andrew, 
we are taking steps to ease that concern. Last year, I reintroduced 
legislation, S. 283, which would change the Tax Code to give 
transportation companies incentives for volunteering trucks to transfer 
gleaned food.
  I am also proud to be an original co-sponsor of S. 1885, the so-
called FEED Act, with my colleagues Senators Lautenberg and Lincoln. 
The basic idea behind this legislation is simple: Combine food rescue 
with job training programs, thus teaching unemployed and homeless 
adults the skills needed to work in the food service industry.
  It is astonishing that each year, approximately 20 percent of the 
food produced in this country never even reaches a consumer's table. 
With support from the FEED Act, community kitchens across our Nation 
have the potential to make good use of this food and to serve more than 
2 million meals to those in need each year. In Charlotte, NC, the 
Community Culinary School is already recruiting students from social 
service agencies, homeless shelters, halfway houses and work release 
programs who rescue food from restaurants, grocers and wholesalers and 
then prepare nutritious meals, while receiving training for jobs in the 
food service industry.
  Hunger also affects far too many children in our Nation. In fact, an 
estimated 13 million children in America are dealing with hunger. This 
is a travesty that can and must be prevented. As we know, when children 
are hungry they can not learn, but the obvious way to ensure that these 
children have a hot meal--and therefore the potential to do well in 
school--is through the National School Lunch Program. It feeds more 
than 28 million children in 100,000 schools each day. While the program 
provides reduced price meals to students whose family income is below 
130 percent of the poverty level, State and local school boards have 
informed me that many families struggle to pay this fee, and for some 
families, the fee is an insurmountable barrier to participation. That's 
why I am a strong supporter of legislation to eliminate the reduced 
price fee for these families and to harmonize the free income guideline 
with the WIC income guideline, which is 185 percent poverty.
  I am very proud that a five State pilot program to eliminate the 
reduced price fee was included in the reauthorization of Child 
Nutrition and WIC in 2004. And this year, 13 of my colleagues, 
including the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture 
Committee, have joined me to encourage the Appropriations Committee to 
include funding for this pilot program. I look forward to working with 
them on this important issue that truly has the potential to alleviate 
hunger for many American children and to help ensure their success in 
school.
  In closing, I implore our friends on both sides of the aisle--as well 
as the good people throughout our great country--to join us in this 
heartfelt mission--this grassroots network of compassion that 
transcends political ideology and provides hope and security not only 
for those in need today--but for future generations as well.

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