[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17033]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HUNGER IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, last Wednesday, I had the privilege of 
joining Monte Belmonte, who is a radio host at WRSI in Northampton, 
Massachusetts, on a 26-mile walk to raise awareness about the issue of 
hunger and to raise money for the Western Massachusetts Food Bank. It 
was an incredible experience. My legs are sore, but it was inspiring to 
be part of that march.
  For the entire 26 miles we were joined by a diverse group of people, 
people like Bill Stapleton, who is the president of the Northampton 
Cooperative Bank; Andrew Morehouse, who is the director of the Western 
Massachusetts Food Bank. We were joined by Dan Finn of Pioneer Valley 
Local First and a fellow named Sean Berry, who runs Four Season Liquor 
Store in Hadley.
  Along the way, various people joined us for part of the march. We met 
with school groups along the way. We even marched along with a group 
called Mutton and Mead, who put on a medieval festival every year in 
western Massachusetts.
  And as we marched, people would stop their cars to offer their 
support and offer some money; but they would also tell us stories about 
people they knew who are hungry in our community. Young kids in 
schools, some of them who marched with us, told us stories about how 
they had seen firsthand hunger. Some of them raised money to support 
the march.
  We also stopped at a place called the Amherst Survival Center. It is 
a food pantry, a place for low-income people to get clothes, sometimes 
medical advice, sometimes counseling. And when we stopped there, the 
director handed me a bunch of plates, paper plates, where people who go 
to the Amherst Survival Center, and some people who work there, wanted 
to send a message to me and to Congress.
  I want to read some of these plates. This one says:

       Try going hungry. Hunger hurts. The pantry provides.

  This one is:

       I read the news about SNAP and I am afraid my family will 
     go to bed hungry. How is this possible?

  Another person wrote:

       I think everyone has a right to healthy food, which is why 
     the pantry is so important.

  Linda wrote:

       Dear Congress, please help us who need the help. I didn't 
     think I would ever be like this.

  This person wrote:

       No SNAP, no food.

  This person wrote:

       I work and I am seeking more work. My husband works. It is 
     not enough.

  ``Dear Congress, access to affordable food is a basic human right,'' 
signed by Shelley.
  ``What's for dinner? Nothing without the pantry,'' wrote Emily.

       Working in the pantry has opened my eyes to see all the 
     wonderful people struggling in the community.
       Dear Congress, we need your help. Blessings.
       Food stamps help American agriculture.
       Hunger and homelessness in America?

  I could go on and on and read some of these plates, and the reason 
why I am doing this is because we are so inundated with facts and 
figures and statistics that somehow I think we have lost our ability to 
feel them.
  These are real people. These are real people who are struggling, real 
people who are working with struggling families. They deserve a voice. 
And one of the things that people are concerned about is Congress 
making their lives worse.
  We are considering a farm bill; and in the House version of the farm 
bill, there is a $40 billion cut in SNAP--3.8 million people would lose 
their benefits. Hundreds of thousands of kids would no longer have 
access to free breakfast and lunch at school; 170,000 veterans would 
lose their benefits.
  Mr. Speaker, we can do so much better. One of the things we are here 
for is to help the people like those who go to the Amherst Survival 
Center. One of the things that we are here for is to respond to the 
concerns that we heard along the way as I marched with Monte Belmonte 
and his crew.
  You know, it is nice that this march was a success and they raised a 
lot of money for the Western Massachusetts Food Bank, but it is not 
enough. These food banks and these food pantries are at capacity. We 
can't make things worse.
  Surely in the richest country in the history of the world we can do 
better. We can end hunger.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I would urge all my colleagues, as we start to 
consider the farm bill, please do not support a farm bill that makes 
more people hungry. Let's do the right thing. This is a problem that we 
can solve.
  Again, I want to thank Monte Belmonte and all the people at WRSI and 
Northampton for their compassion, for their activism, for helping 
people in need; but we need to be inspired by people like those who 
marched with me from Northampton to Greenfield, and we need to do the 
right thing.

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