[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11944-11945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL HUNGER AWARENESS DAY

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today in honor of National Hunger 
Awareness Day. On this day, we focus on the more than 35 million people 
in the United States without enough to eat and reassert our commitment 
to assist those in need.

[[Page 11945]]

  Millions of families live each day not knowing if they will have 
enough to eat. Rather than thinking about what the next meal will be, 
these parents worry if there will be a next meal. Rather than 
concentrate on homework, these children are trying not to think about 
their hunger pangs. In a nation as economically wealthy and 
agriculturally abundant as ours, this is inexcusable. If children--or 
adults--are hungry in America, that is a problem for all of us.
  This administration has seen the number of people living in poverty 
rise from 31.6 million in 2000 to 36.5 million in 2006. The number of 
people living in households facing food insecurity rose from 31 million 
in 1999 to 35.5 million in 2006. In Illinois, over 158,000 households 
experienced hunger in 2005. If we include households that have had to 
struggle to put food on the table or have had to skip meals to make 
sure the food would last through the week, it adds up to 500,000 
households in Illinois living with food insecurity. These are working 
families who just aren't able to make ends meet.
  At a time when millions of middle class Americans are struggling to 
keep up with higher gas prices, grocery bills, and health care costs, 
more and more families are looking to Federal programs for assistance. 
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, applications for food 
stamps are on the rise at the same time recipients are making more 
frequent use of food pantries to fill gaps in their grocery needs. Over 
26 million people nationwide are dependent on the Federal Food Stamp 
Program. In April, 594,590 families in Illinois received food stamps, 
an increase of 5.84 percent from last year and the highest level ever 
in Illinois, equating to 1.3 million people. And since December, 
participation in the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, food 
assistance program has increased 4 percent to a total of 296,000. But 
for the millions of people who don't have assistance, everything is 
different.
  We know hunger is a reality in our communities. We see long lines at 
our food pantries. We have heard from seniors forced to choose between 
groceries and medication. And children are in our schools who have not 
had a decent meal since the previous day's school lunch. We see 
families showing up a day earlier than normal at the food pantry 
because the monthly pay is not stretching as far it once did. Parents 
are giving up their own meal to make sure their child has something to 
eat at night.
  In the Nation that prides itself as the land of plenty, we cannot 
hide the fact that we need to do a better job at making sure everybody 
has at least enough to eat. The passage of this year's farm bill is a 
strong first step toward better addressing hunger in our country. The 
farm bill provides 10 billion additional dollars over 10 years for 
domestic nutrition programs that help lower income families put food on 
the table, including $7.8 billion for the Food Stamp Program, $1.25 
billion for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and $1 billion for 
the fresh fruits and vegetables snack program. In Illinois, over the 
next 10 years, this bill will provide $373 million in additional 
funding to help families that haven't been able to outrun hunger.
  But with one hungry person in our Nation, hunger will be a problem 
for all of us. I hope that we will continue to work together to fulfill 
our duty to end hunger in our Nation and the world.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I rise today to bring to my colleagues' 
attention the fact that today, June 10, 2008, is National Hunger 
Awareness Day.
  As a founder of the bipartisan Senate Hunger caucus and an original 
cosponsor of the legislation establishing this commemoration, I believe 
hunger is an issue that deserves our full attention.
  For the past 4 years, my fellow caucus cochairs Senator Smith, 
Senator Dole, as well as Senator Durbin and I have executed a food 
drive in our Senate offices with donations helping those in need in the 
Washington area. The collection began last month and culminates today 
National Hunger Awareness Day when we donate the collected goods to 
needy organizations.
  I have worked with my Senate colleagues to draw attention to this 
issue because hunger and poverty are not just global issues they are so 
pervasive that we all have some experience with them in our local 
communities.
  Worldwide, 3 billion people--nearly half the world's population--live 
on merely $2 per day. In our Nation alone, almost 35.5 million 
Americans struggle day in and day out to find adequate nutritious food. 
More than 13 million children live in households that are food 
insecure.
  According to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance in my home State, 
approximately 80 percent of supplemental nutrition assistance goes to 
households with children, many of them in working families, including 
military families. Older Americans and those with disabilities also 
depend on these benefits. Every month, nutrition assistance programs 
enable almost 385,000 Arkansans 13.7 percent of my State's population 
to purchase groceries for themselves and their families.
  As a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 
Committee, I worked to address this issue in the recently passed Food, 
Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, and I am proud the bill aims to 
reduce food insecurity among our children and our elderly, and others 
in need. This bill commits $10.36 billion to continue the fight against 
hunger. It represents the largest amount of funding for nutrition 
programs in our Nation's history. One billion dollars is allocated to 
the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provides free fresh fruits 
and vegetables to low-income children in schools nationwide. It also 
expands the senior farmers' market program by $50 million to help them 
purchase fresh food at places like farmers' markets and roadside stands 
throughout the country.
  In the coming weeks and months, I encourage my colleagues to become 
more aware, more educated, and more informed about the effects of 
hunger and poverty and to find out what impact you can have in your 
State and in your community. Government cannot do it alone, though.
  It has been said: To those to whom much is given, much is required. 
We must continue to work together to devote our time and resources to 
organizations in our communities committed to this cause and develop 
public/private partnerships to combat food insecurity in this country. 
Hunger is a disease that has a cure. It is our responsibility to strive 
hard each and every day to eliminate hunger in our country and around 
the world.

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