Congressional Black Caucus: Hunger in America

Floor Speech

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Thank you to my dear colleague from Nevada, Congressman Horsford, also to my colleague from Brooklyn, Representative Jeffries, and also Chairwoman Marcia Fudge of the CBC.

Mr. Speaker, a special ed teacher contacted my office last month, worried about cuts to food stamps and the impact that they would have on her classroom. One of her sixth grade students had burst into tears in the middle of her lesson because she heard on the news that benefits would be cut on November 1.

Mr. Speaker, this teacher was compassionate enough to take the child's concerns quite seriously. She gave them a voice by contacting our office. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to be this child's voice--and the voice of all of those who live in the wealthiest Nation on Earth but still live in hunger.

Mr. Speaker, if you look at the list of the most

food insecure districts in the country, you see populations of every race and every ethnicity. Even in the State with the least food insecurity, 15 percent of families still struggle to find their next meal. So while I speak today as a member of the esteemed Congressional Black Caucus, we stand with all Americans.

Sadly, my congressional district in the great Hoosier State of Indiana holds the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the entire country. Over 30 percent of families in Indiana struggle to put food on the table and don't always know where their next meal is coming from.

To be clear, this is not a criticism of the local food banks or not-for-profits that serve the poor very honorably. Hoosiers take care of one another, which is why we have some of the best service organizations in the entire country. But sadly, even the best food banks can't pull food out of thin air.

Over the past few years, Mr. Speaker, I have heard from many Indiana food banks that donations are down as more people struggle to make ends meet in our economic downturn. With high unemployment and underemployment, Federal assistance simply isn't buying enough food to meet their demand. The shelves just aren't as full as they used to be. This leaves many low-income constituents to rely on SNAP, also known as food stamps, a program that will be cut by $5 billion next year as recovery provisions expire.

Even with ideal funding levels, food stamps never means large, multicourse meals for poor families. The average person receives less than $1.50 per meal.

For many of these families, Mr. Speaker, a healthful meal is already a luxury that remains out of reach. These families just want to put food on the table. The program means a few hundred dollars a month per family, which is enough for some bread, cereal, and canned food, but rarely is it enough for fresh vegetables or meat. No one gets rich off of food stamps, but at least they can eat. Yet, for some reason, the program remains one of the prime targets of the Members of Congress who are now fighting to cut nearly 4 million people from this program. This is unacceptable, and it has real-life implications.

Fortunately, in our district, the Seventh Congressional District of Indiana, we have the Indy Hunger Network, the Butler University's Center for Urban Ecology, the Indiana Healthy Weight Initiative, Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, FSSA, and the Indy Food Council. They are working with our local farmers' markets to encourage people who are receiving assistance to reinvest in our local economy by matching the SNAP dollars spent on fresh fruits and vegetables. These types of partnerships are not supported when we decide to cut benefits and eligibility. We must invest in these types of creative initiatives, programs that feed our communities and incentivize healthy living, programs that create jobs and rebuild our economy so that people are fed and healthy enough to go to school, to work and to contribute to our economy.

Some of my colleagues argue that our debt is out of control, that we need to rein in spending, and that every American should be asked to sacrifice equally, but we have to put this thing into perspective. If you are a person who makes millions of dollars every year, you might lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe. If you own a business, you might decide to invest a little less. By contrast, if you make a minimum wage and live under the poverty line year after year, what might you lose? Monetarily, very little--$50 here, $100 there. There would be a small impact on our debt, but that small amount--those few dollars here and there--equates to food on the table.

When looking for so-called ``equitable treatment,'' no one is ever asking a wealthy person to go hungry, but that is exactly what some of my Republican colleagues are doing with their proposal to cut $39 billion to SNAP. They are suggesting that some Americans, like those in poor neighborhoods in Indianapolis, simply don't deserve to eat because it is too expensive. Other Republicans argue that SNAP is only meant as a temporary stopgap.

For most people, Mr. Speaker, poverty isn't a temporary stop on the way to prosperity. If a family is fortunate enough to pull itself out of poverty, it could take many years, maybe even a decade. Unfortunately, our recession pushed many families in the wrong direction, costing jobs, incomes, and homes. It also moved people deeper into poverty. This means more children will go to school on empty stomachs. It means more aging seniors already on fixed incomes are forced to choose between buying groceries and medication. It means more poverty, not less. In fact, between 2007 and 2012, during the height of the Great Recession, the number of food stamp users rose 77 percent because more people needed them.

I am standing here with my brilliant and esteemed colleagues, Representative Horsford and Representative Jeffries and the Congressional Black Caucus, because our districts are some of the hardest hit, but this isn't a Black issue, Mr. Speaker. This is a nationwide problem that impacts every color and ethnicity in every city, county, and town. Yet some of our colleagues in this House are willing to ignore millions of their constituents--those who are struggling to eat--just to pass a bill to cut SNAP by $39 billion. We should be increasing SNAP funding, not decreasing it. We should learn the lessons of European austerity measures. We should be debating an extension of expiring provisions to avoid benefit reductions next year. We should be focused on ending hunger in America, not just on cutting programs that might reduce the debt.

Mr. Speaker, as I close, many of us take for granted that we can grab a sandwich or make a salad when we need to eat. Most people here--I know I will--will celebrate Thanksgiving next week and will have tables full of good food, some of the best food that money can buy. Yet, for many in America, Thanksgiving is just another day spent in hunger. For these people, a traditional Thanksgiving meal is simply out of reach. Yet we believe that struggling families across the country would say that, on Thanksgiving, they are thankful for any amount of food they can buy--the food that SNAP helps them buy.

Instead of taking this away, let's fight for a higher quality of life, and let's stand together to make sure our neighbors, our children, and our vulnerable seniors never go hungry.

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