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It's
Budget Cuts Vital Food Program, Puts Seniors
At Risk Of Hunger
Nearly 500,000
Seniors and Low-Income Families Would No Longer
Have Access To Monthly Meal Boxes
CHICAGO --- February 5, 2007
--- President Bush released his Fiscal Year 2008
budget proposal today eliminating funding for
the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP)
- a critical nutrition program benefiting nearly
half a million low-income seniors and women with
young children each month in 32 states, the District
of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
“CSFP serves the most vulnerable population
of low-income Americans in the United States, and
in many cases it is their most critical source
of nutritious food,” said Vicki Escarra,
president and chief executive officer of America’s
Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank
Network. “It is morally reprehensible
that many of our senior citizens are experiencing
hunger. We live in a land of plenty. No one should
go without food, especially our seniors who have
contributed so much over the years to their communities
and to this great nation of ours. If these cuts
are passed, the impact will be devastating.”
Additionally, the budget proposal
changes the current categorical eligibility structure
for the Food Stamp Program, eliminating eligibility
for approximately 300,000 low-income American. It
also caps funding at Fiscal Year 2006 levels for
the Nutrition Services and Administration, weakening
the overall administration of Women, Infants and
Children (WIC), a critical nutrition program for
pregnant women and postpartum women, infants and
children under five.
Approximately 95 percent of the Americans participating
in CSFP are poor, vulnerable seniors who rely on
the food boxes to get them through each month.
Eliminating CSFP puts these seniors at significant
risk of hunger.
High health care costs, spiraling
housing costs and special dietary needs associated
with aging present critical problems for the
seniors living on low-and fixed incomes. Senior
participation in food stamps is low and the average
monthly benefit is only $65. The food boxes provided
through CSFP offer the equivalent of an additional
$50 in cost to seniors to secure nutritious top
quality food. This
is more than twice the value of food that needy
seniors could purchase with their own limited resources
on a monthly basis. And, many of the seniors receiving
CSFP food boxes are homebound or lack the resources
necessary to access food through federal nutrition
programs or prepare a meal due to lack of transportation,
functional limitations, or health problems.
“Our Network will inevitably see additional
requests for food assistance and feel the demands
of an already overly taxed emergency food distribution
system with a budget like the one presented today,” said
Escarra. “We urge Congress to listen
to people on the front lines and those in need,
and fund CSFP, the Food Stamp Program and WIC at
adequate levels.”
Seniors have unique nutritional needs and often
require special diets for medical conditions. Ensuring
they are able to access wholesome, nutritious foods
is extremely important, as hunger increases the
risk for stroke, exacerbates pre-existing health
conditions, limits the efficacy of many prescription
drugs, and may affect brain chemistry increasing
the incidence of depression and isolation. The
monthly food boxes provided through CSFP are geared
toward these needs including staples like cheese,
meat, canned fruit and vegetables, milk, beans,
pasta and cereal.
Nearly 10 percent of America’s elderly live
below the poverty line and the nation’s growing
boomer population threatens to worsen this statistic.
The America’s Second Harvest Network now
serves nearly three million seniors each year.
Elimination of CSFP will impose additional strains
on already tight food bank budgets as hundreds
of thousands of seniors will be turning to America's
Second Harvest Network Members for a meal.
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