Feeding America today issued the following statement attributable to CEO Diana Aviv
“Feeding America applauds Congresswoman Michelle Lujan-Grisham for introducing H.R. 4967, The Food Bank Assistance Act of 2016.
“H.R. 4967 would help food banks across the nation provide more food to more families by increasing the funding levels for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides nutritious American-grown food to low-income households in the U.S.
“TEFAP currently provides the Feeding America network of food banks with approximately 20 percent of the total food they distribute. Feeding America will provide more than 3.7 billion meals in 2016.
“Most of the food banks in the Feeding America network state that the need for emergency food assistance continues at record levels, despite reported improvements in the economy.
“Nearly forty-five million people are currently enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Most SNAP households report that they exhaust all of their SNAP benefit with the first 21 days of any given month.
“At a time when food banks in many states across our nation are anticipating increases in the number of people seeking food assistance because at least 500,000 very poor Americans are losing their SNAP benefits, we again thank Congresswoman Lujan-Grisham for introducing this legislation. It will have an immediate, positive and long-term impact on our network of food banks by providing millions of additional meals to the 46 million Americans our network serves every year.”
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About Feeding America
Feeding America® is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 5.3 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
