Attributed to Emily Weikert Bryant, Executive Director
This week, Senate Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (MI) released the Rural Prosperity and Security Act bill summary – a critical step forward in advancing a final farm bill. The bill summary reflects the bipartisan priorities of numerous Senators and upholds the pivotal role the bill plays in reducing food insecurity in America.
In Indiana, one in ten households faced hunger in 2022. Feeding Indiana’s Hungry applauds the Chairwoman for releasing a strong farm bill proposal that prioritizes strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), ensuring the continued modernization of benefits under the Thrifty Food Plan, and protects investments in The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to support U.S. farmers and food banks.
The Senate framework ensures SNAP benefit levels and purchasing power are protected through the Thrifty Food Plan, allowing SNAP to account for factors beyond inflation that impact the actual cost of a frugal, nutritious diet for families. Senator Stabenow’s bill summary also includes critical investments that would improve equity, including by improving access to SNAP for military families, college students, and individuals who have paid their debt to society for drug-related felonies. It also provides a pathway to SNAP access for US citizens living in Puerto Rico, addressing long-standing inequities between states and territories.
The proposal also provides investments in TEFAP to help move food from U.S. producers and farmers through food banks, like our members, to families facing hunger, ensuring that families can access healthy foods from food banks and to bolster our U.S. farm economy. Right now, food banks in the Feeding America network across the country are purchasing more food than ever, at higher prices than ever, to respond to the increasing need for food assistance. The Senate Agriculture Committee bill summary commits to strengthening TEFAP which will enable farmers to move more nutritious food to families facing hunger and ensure food banks can better meet the high demand they currently face.
As the farm bill process moves forward, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry urges Congress to work together to pass a bipartisan bill that strengthens and protects the federal nutrition programs that provide food assistance to millions of people across the country, as Senator Stabenow’s draft bill summary appears to do. Alongside a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, 22 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry remains committed to working with our elected officials to support Hoosiers and Americans across the country to ensure that every person has the food they need to thrive.
