[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13844-13845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             END HUNGER NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, supporting healthy families and strong 
communities starts with access to healthy food, but for many families, 
it is a struggle just to put food on the table. A growing body of 
research shows why we should all be concerned with hunger as a health 
issue.
  For the 49 million Americans who struggle with food insecurity--or 
hunger--access to nutritious food and enough healthy food is a real 
challenge that can have serious negative health consequences far beyond 
just a growling stomach.
  Hunger can exacerbate underlying medical conditions like diabetes, 
heart disease, and cancer and can result in life-threatening 
complications; not only that, hunger can result in more trips to the 
emergency room and more hospitalizations which only increases 
healthcare costs across the board.
  A recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found 
that households with low food security had 49 percent higher healthcare 
costs than those who didn't have to worry about where their next meal 
was coming from. Healthcare costs were an astonishing 121 percent 
higher for those with very low food security.
  Similarly, a 2014 article in the journal Health Affairs reported that 
hospitals saw a 27 percent increase in hypoglycemia cases among low-
income individuals at the end of the month as compared to the beginning 
of the month.
  You might wonder why that is. The sad truth is that these cases of 
hypoglycemia--or low blood sugar--are likely more prevalent at the end 
of the month because this is when SNAP benefits run out for many 
individuals and their families.
  When families don't have enough to eat, their health suffers. We hear 
time and time again that the current monthly SNAP benefit is 
inadequate. That families must scramble to cobble together enough to 
eat from food pantries and charities.
  Seniors are especially vulnerable to hunger as a health issue. Many 
seniors live on fixed incomes and are often faced with the tough choice 
of paying for their medications or paying for their food. For seniors, 
taking medication on an empty stomach can be especially dangerous and 
may land them in the hospital.
  It is astounding that some of America's most vulnerable families must 
face these challenges month after month, year after year; but the good 
news is that hunger can also be one of the most treatable health 
conditions. Hunger is solvable. We have the resources, but we need to 
muster the political will to end hunger now.
  One organization that has for years been doing incredible work to 
reframe the paradigm of hunger as a health issue is Community Servings, 
a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that delivers free meals to homebound 
individuals and their families. Their meals are medically tailored to 
meet the specific dietary needs of the recipients.

[[Page 13845]]

  The Community Servings model addresses two of the biggest barriers 
that low-income individuals who are dealing with extended illness face: 
shopping for food and preparing meals. Community Servings takes care of 
that so that patients can focus on getting better without worrying 
about where their next meal is coming from.
  The Community Servings model shows great promise in not only fighting 
hunger but also in saving money in our healthcare system. A survey last 
year of doctors and nurses who care for Community Servings clients 
found that 96 percent said that the meals improved their clients' 
health and 65 percent said they believed the meals had resulted in 
fewer hospitalizations.
  We also need to do a better job of connecting our hospitals and our 
community health centers and VA hospitals with farmers markets. 
Organizations like Wholesome Wave are effectively expanding their fruit 
and vegetable prescription program, where doctors can write a 
prescription for fruits and vegetables that individuals could then 
immediately fill at a farmers market that might be set up on the 
hospital grounds 1 or 2 days a week.
  Boston Medical Center has addressed hunger as a health issue head on 
with its Preventive Food Pantry permanently located in the hospital 
itself. Here, low-income families can work with a dietitian to choose 
foods that meet their dietary needs with an emphasis on fresh fruits 
and vegetables.
  Food banks and food pantries are finding innovative ways to partner 
with local farms to provide more fresh produce to low-income families. 
I am proud to represent one such forward-thinking partnership in my 
congressional district. Every year, the Community Harvest Project, run 
through a local farm in Grafton, Massachusetts, donates hundreds of 
thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the Worcester 
County Food Bank.
  Finally, we ought to do a better job of educating doctors and nurses 
about what hunger looks like. I am always surprised when I talk to 
medical students, that they only take one or two, if any, classes in 
nutrition. That is why I am a cosponsor of my friend Congressman Tim 
Ryan's bill, the ENRICH Act, which would provide grants to improve 
nutrition education among healthcare professionals.
  Mr. Speaker, as Members of Congress, we talk a lot about finding ways 
to save money in our healthcare system. In that same conversation, we 
need to do a better job of understanding that food is medicine.
  We can't just address hunger and health as two separate issues; they 
are two sides of the same coin. Hunger is a health issue, and it should 
be treated as such. We can and we should do more to end hunger now.

                          ____________________