Hello, my name is Jill Hiebert and I am the Communications Manager at Hunger Solutions Minnesota. Hunger Solutions is a comprehensive hunger relief organization that works to end hunger in Minnesota. HSM represents 300 food shelves and 6 food banks. Like my colleagues, we are calling on the Congress to act immediately to address the needs of the ordinary families who live on Main Street. It is urgent that the Congress increase food stamp benefits, funding for the Women’s Infant and Children Program and other programs that provide a life line to struggling families. A nation that can put together nearly one trillion dollars to deal with the crisis on Wall Street surely has the where-with-all to provide help for a need as basic as food.
Here in Minnesota, we have seen a 62% increase in visits to MN food shelves since 2001. But the recent downturn in the economy has forced more people than ever before to seek help in meeting their basic nutrition needs. In 2007, there were 1.9 million visits to Minnesota food shelves. In 2008, we’ve seen double and triple digit increases at many food shelves.
There are two basic trends that are driving the increase in need: First, the downturn in the economy has caused many families to see a reduction in their income. Unemployment is up and many families have seen their income trimmed either by layoffs or by reductions in their hours of work. At the same time, the cost of basic necessities, such as gasoline and food, has risen substantially. According to the Department of Labor, the cost of food at home rose 7.5% from August 2007 to August 2008 – the highest increase in food prices in 20 years. And some food items experienced double-digit increases. Bread, for example, went up by 16%. And while the increase in food prices may be just an inconvenience for some, it is a significant hardship for those with lower incomes. Because low-income people spend a larger percentage of their income on food, they get hurt more by food inflation.
The average food stamp allotment of $1 per person per meal is insufficient under normal circumstances. Under our current economic conditions, it is completely inadequate.
And while we have a moral imperative to take care of families who are struggling to meet basic needs, we also know that boosting food stamp allotments help stimulate a weak economy. In fact, studies by the US Department of Agriculture demonstrate that each $5 in food stamp benefits generates nearly twice that amount in economic activity. So increasing food stamps doesn’t just help people in need, it helps us all by stimulating our economy. In fact, increasing food stamps is one of the best ways to stimulate a sluggish economy.
I will conclude my remarks by simply calling on the Congress not to forget that struggling families have been waiting months for help. Now is the time for Congress to act.
Additional information:
This year’s “perfect storm” of spiking food costs, continued job losses, and rising gas prices have touched all Americans, but low-income families have been particularly hurt. Not surprisingly, food stamp enrollment has reached near-record levels,1 with more than 40 states reporting increases in recipients.2 But with the cost of basic “food basket” items like milk, eggs, bread, and chicken increasing at the highest rate, Food Stamp benefits are not keeping up with inflation.
As reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the inflation adjustment for food stamp benefits is “based on lagged data that are four months old at the beginning of the fiscal year and 15 months out of date by the end of the fiscal year… As a result, in every month of fiscal year 2008, as food prices have climbed, food stamp benefits have been inadequate to enable households to purchase the Thrifty Food Plan [the Department of Agriculture’s lowest-cost nutritionally adequate diet plan].”3
The Center notes that, “Even if food inflation is only half as high next year as it was this year, by Christmas food stamp benefits will fall about $10 behind the monthly cost of USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan for a family of four, and by the spring, a family of four’s benefits will fall more than $20 short. If food inflation next year equals this year’s levels, the shortfalls will be twice as large.”
While the recently enacted Farm Bill will increase food stamp benefits for about half of all recipients by $1 to $5 a month in 2009, the Bill “does not address the increased cost of food over the fiscal year if food inflation proves to be high again next year and will not help many of the poorest families who struggle the most to afford sufficient food,” concludes the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.