PRESIDENT’S PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS VITAL FOOD PROGRAM, PUTS ST. LOUIS SENIORS AT RISK OF HUNGER

ST. LOUIS (February 6, 2007) – President Bush released his Fiscal Year 2008 budget proposal yesterday 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.

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.

In the Greater St. Louis area, seniors represent the second largest segment in need of food assistance and the St. Louis Area Foodbank relies on CSFP to help the organization provide much-needed food boxes to more than 4,000 seniors each month.  “Our network of 500+ agencies are already being stretched to the limit with requests for food assistance,” stated Frank Finnegan, St. Louis Area Foodbank executive director.  “If this program is eliminated, replacing those meals would be impossible.  It’s difficult to understand how a program that does so much good can even be considered for elimination,” Finnegan concluded.

“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.”

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.

We urge Congress not to forget those in need and fund CSFP and other hunger-relief programs to adequate levels.

###