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Advocacy Center
 Take a stand against hunger.
Let elected officials know that you support hunger-relief programs. Second
Harvest advocates for resources and policies that benefit member agency
partners and help us stock our shelves for the nearly 25,000 seniors,
children and working families who turn to us each year.
Take action now
 Our
Advocacy Center makes it easy to contact your elected officials. You
will find your local legislators on the lists below.
Advocacy Updates
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND
REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009:
State-by-State Estimates of Key Provisions Affecting
Low- and Moderate-Income Individuals
The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 is designed to boost employment and the economy. It
contains a number of spending and tax measures crafted to inject more
aggregate demand into the sagging economy.
Several key parts of the new
law are worth highlighting: The bill’s increases for SNAP (formerly the Food
Stamp Program) are larger than the Farm Bill, and it includes additional
funding for TEFAP to help meet the increased need that you are seeing every
day.
The nutrition program
highlights of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
-
The Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP or Food Stamp Program)
• Includes $19.9 billion for incremental SNAP/Food Stamp spending.
• Includes an initial 13.6 percent increase in the amount of the Thrifty
Food Plan that is likely to begin with the April 2009 allotments; That is
an increase of 13.6 percent in the amount of funding for food available to
over 31 million Americans. The increase remains in effect until food
prices catch up with the 13.6 percent increase.
• Suspends limitations on eligibility for jobless adults through FY 2010.
• Provides $295 million for SNAP/Food Stamp administrative costs to help
states with outreach to increase participation by those in need.
-
The Emergency Food
Assistance Program (TEFAP)
• Includes additional funding of $150 million for TEFAP. $50 million of
the total may be designated by USDA for State and local administrative
costs for storage and distribution. This equates to roughly more than 140
million pounds of nutritious food flowing into the network over the next
18 months.
• Of the $50 million eligible for storage and distribution: USDA has the
discretion to spend up to $25 million in FY 2009 (this year) and up to an
additional $25 million in FY 2010.
Other Nutrition Funding That Benefits Low-Income Americans
• Includes $500 million for the Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC);
$400 million is to cover increased participation rates and $100 million is
for technology upgrades for the program.
• Provides $100 million for school food service equipment grants.
• An additional $100 million for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program
under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), within the
Department of Homeland Security is provided to organizations providing
emergency food and shelter including food banks.
The funding in the bill is a
significant victory that will help us
provide more food to Americans in
need. Members across our
network have responded on short notice to fight for
the needs
of food banks, emergency feeding agencies and millions of
hungry
people across the nation. |
