A critical component of the bill gives $4 billion more to the federal food stamp program that helps feed the 25 million hungry Americans. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act had significantly scaled back food stamps, giving the average individual a stipend of $21 a week—or $1 a meal. The farm bill would belatedly adjust the stipends for inflation and provide more money to food banks, which supply food pantries and soup kitchens. The legislation also helps those abroad by allocating $840 million in US hunger-aid programs.

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What are those “basic” needs? The JOBS NOW report assesses the cost of food, housing, health care, transportation, child care, clothing and taxes in various regions of the state, and uses that data to develop “budgets” for various family models – single-parent, two-parent, etc.

These are no-frills budgets. JOBS NOW models its food budget, for example, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Low-Cost family food plan. None of the family budgets includes money for “luxuries” like higher education, retirement savings, vacations or restaurant meals.

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With some food prices rising 7 to 33 percent in June, including staples such as milk, bread and eggs, some consumers are finding new discounters and rediscovering old outlets.

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The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community recently donated $5,000 to Loaves and Fishes of Minneapolis, a food shelf that provides meals at eight metro locations.

Another $1,000 went to the Centre for Asians and Pacific Islanders in Minneapolis, while another $1,000 donation went to Hunger Solutions of St. Paul. The tribe also made donations to the Emergency Foodshelf Network of New Hope.

Other SMSC donations in 2007 went to the Division of Indian Works, the Department of Indian Works and Dakota Baptist Church to support food shelves.

The summer months mean hunger for many children who depend on school meals. Washington, D.C.‘s Brooklyn Manor Housing Development offers a meals program to help children stay nourished during the summer. Debbie Hammill, site director of Brooklyn Manor, is joined by Maura Daly of America’s Second Harvest to talk about issues driving seasonal child hunger.

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The future of the bill — officially titled the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007 — now waits for the Senate to pass its own version of it, and then a conference committee will sit down and combine both versions so it can be sent to the president to be signed into law.

Albert Lea Tribune

The new initiatives, including more money for research on alternative fuels, were not the only nod to technology. Acknowledging that most people who receive food stamps no longer use paper coupons but electronic transfers, the bill renames the food stamp program as the Secure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

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Miller said that most people forget or don’t realize that over half of farm bill funding goes to the federal food stamp program, to the benefit of close to 24 million people. He said the 2007 farm bill recommended by Peterson includes a $4 billion increase in food stamps and other nutrition spending.
Fergus Falls Journal

Many of us are asking new questions about the food we eat: “Where does it come from?” “Is it nourishing in body and in spirit?” “Are my choices helping others?”

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NPR’s Madeleine Brand discusses the 40th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” with historian Robert Dallek.

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