Groups Urge Increased Funding to help with Heating Bills and Food Costs

Time to End Complacency about the Hunger Epidemic in America

The Hunger Action Network of New York State and the FOCUS Churches of Albany called today for state and federal officials to provide an additional $100 million in funding to assist low and moderate income families with their fuel bills this year.

The groups also said it was time to renew the public’s commitment to end hunger. A recent federal report found that hunger had increased for the fifth year in a row. More than two dozen similar events were held around the state as part of the annual Thanksgiving Action Against Hunger. Speakers at the event included Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network; Rev. Debra Jameson, and Rev. Jill Farnham of the FOCUS Churches; and consumer Suzzane Brown.

“While the state’s 3,000 food pantries and soup kitchens now feed close to a million New Yorkers a week, they were relatively rare in our communities just 25 years ago. As the shocking pictures from New Orleans following Katrina reminded us, we have become too complacent about hunger and poverty in our midst. Hunger exists in our community 365 days a year. We need to do a lot more than just ensuring that everyone has a place at the table on Thanksgiving,” stated Dunlea.

Hunger Action noted that a number of pantries are unable to provide turkeys to guest this Thanksgiving due to a decline in donations. It is thought that many individuals donor have been tapped out donating to the recent natural tragedy relief efforts and are themselves feeling pressed by higher energy costs.

Hunger Action Network said that politicians had to refocus on the issues of hunger and poverty. “We have enough food to end hunger; all we lack is the political will. We need short-term solutions – like increasing state funding for emergency food programs to $30 million and more funding for federal nutrition programs. We need to make sure people have enough resources to heat their homes this winter in the fact of skyrocketing energy costs. But we also need long-term solutions such as living wage jobs, improved access to education and training, affordable housing, and universal health care and child care,” added Dunlea. Many of these issues are addressed ase part of the Empire State Economic Campaign (ES2).

The state presently provides $22.8 million to the emergency food programs through the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program, a decrease of about $2 million from four years ago. A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report shows the fifth consecutive annual increase—and by far the worst increase since 2000—in the number of people living in households suffering from hunger without resources to purchase an adequate diet. The total number of people living in food insecure households in this country went up to 38.2 million in 2004. This number included 24.3 million adults (11.3 percent of all adults) and 13.9 million children (19 percent of all children.) This number grew by nearly two million in 2004 and has grown by seven million in five years. 11.0% of New York households were food insecure in 2004, compared to the national average of 11.9%. It is estimated that close to one million New Yorkers use emergency food programs each week.

The groups noted that Governor Pataki has called for a large increase in funding for HEAP from the federal government but has only committed the state to $25 million if the feds fail to act. HEAP provides grants for heating bills ranging from $40 to $400 depending on a household's income, living arrangement, heating expenses, family members, and type of heat. Both renters and homeowners can be eligible for assistance. Currently, New York State is scheduled to receive $236 million of the federally funded program. Last season 804,640 households were served through the regular component and 165,022 through the emergency crisis component of the program. However, many eligible participants who have not applied in the past may do so in face of the rising heating costs.

The U.S. Senate on Oct. 26 couldn't muster enough support for a proposal to more than double money for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to $5.1 billion in the coming year. It fell six votes short of the 60 needed for passage. The federal government recently estimated that costs for natural gas and oil to heat homes will rise 29% this winter.

While Hunger Action Network supports a single payer universal health care –like Medicare for All – in recent years it has been pushing for a Legislative Commission on Health Care Coverage (A6575) to do independent cost-benefit analysis of all approaches to a state universal health care system, from single payer and employer mandates to HMOs, tax credits and medical savings account. “Medicaid is now the largest part of the county and state budgets. Compared to the rest of the world, we spend way too much money on health care for a system that is ranked only 37th in the world and quality and still manage to leave 5.6 million New Yorkers annually out of the health care system. We don’t need to spend any more money for health care. We have to get much better health care for the enormous amount of money we are already spending.”

The groups were critical of the vote in the House of Representatives last Thursday to cut fifty billions of dollars in funding for an array of low-income program, while an even larger amount of money was set aside for tax cuts for wealthy Americans. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the vote would deny food stamps to 220,000 to 250,000 low-income Americans, including many people in working families. The same vote would also enact large cuts in Medicaid, student loans, and other programs that aid low and middle income Americans.

“We call on our elected officials to strengthen the safety net – not dismantle it. Our state lawmakers must protect the common good – especially the needs of our poorest families and children – rather than supporting the twin social disasters of tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts that hurt the poor,” said Rev. Debra Jameson of FOCUS Churches. “I applaud the leaders in the House who have championed the most recent budget priorities, who have done some soul searching, digging down deep, and taking a stand for the less fortunate. Our health and security as a nation depends on that. This is a unique opportunity for our elected state leaders to prevent bad priorities from moving forward.”

The groups called upon Congress to enact the Hunger-Free Communities Act (S.1120 / H.R.2717). The Act would commit the administration and Congress to achieving two very attainable goals: cutting hunger in the United States in half by 2010 and eliminating it by 2015. Hard working people should not be forced to choose between paying rent and buying food. The US is the only industrialized country in the world that puts up with widespread hunger. In recent years, the number of people at risk of hunger has increased steadily, from 31 million to more than 36 million, and a greater percentage of Americans are at risk.