At a time when food prices are soaring, a growing number of Americans are struggling financially and local social service agencies are seeing record numbers of applicants, advocates are concerned that the purchasing power of food stamps has shrunk since 1996, when Congress recalculated benefit levels. The result slowed the value of food stamps relative to inflation.

This is what the skyrocketing cost of food looks like at street level: Poor people whose food stamps don’t buy as much as they once did rushing into a store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal, eggs and milk so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to a decent meal.

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The farm bill passed both the House and Senate last week with veto-proof majorities, 81 to 15 in the Senate and 318 to 106 in the House. The bill cuts traditional crop insurance programs by $3.8 billion and authorizes a $10.3 billion increase in nutrition programs.

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A number of state and local anti-hunger advocates have been able to get their utility companies to help with summer food outreach. They work directly with their utility companies to get them to include the information in the bills they send out. If you are thinking about taking this approach, you should contact the utility company as soon as possible.

Food prices are way up – more than 5% in the past 3 months alone. For many of the 28 million people on food stamps, that means empty fridges. Advocates say Washington needs to step in.

CNN