For Immediate Release: 1/6/16
Contact: Celia Cole, 512.590.0659 or ccole@feedingtexas.org
Statement attributable to Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas:
Yesterday the National Commission on Hunger released a new report, Freedom from Hunger: an Achievable Goal for the United States of America. This bipartisan group was commissioned by Congress in the last Farm Bill to explore solutions to hunger, and includes our fellow Texan Jeremy Everett, Director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, among its members.
First, we wish to thank the Commission for their diligence and commitment to the difficult work of finding common ground in our divided Capitol. We further applaud the Commission for including the input of people struggling to avoid hunger in El Paso and across the nation. Their testimony is the primary and most important witness to the grave problem of hunger in America, and we are grateful to these individuals for sharing their experiences.
Finally, we applaud the Commission for highlighting the extraordinary value and success of federal nutrition programs like SNAP in combating hunger, poverty and poor health. The report's findings in this area align with the recent White House Council of Economic Advisors report celebrating SNAP.
The Commission's report contains twenty recommendations of various scope and levels of detail for reducing hunger in America. We look forward to engaging Congress in a conversation about these proposals, some of which we support and some of which we oppose.
While the Commission fails to offer a large-scale vision or comprehensive solution to hunger in America, the report does underscore the urgent need for our nation's leaders to mount such a response. Hunger is a problem that we cannot afford to ignore, but that we can afford to solve. We urge our members of Congress to look to the Food Research & Action Center's recent Plan of Action to End Hunger in America for a complete reckoning of what is needed to finally end hunger in America.
In the meantime, we thank the Commission for opening the door to a reasoned policy debate both in D.C. and here in Texas, and we look forward to bringing the expertise and unique perspective of Texas food banks to that conversation.