U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown on the National Food Bank Crisis
Yesterday I stood on the Senate floor and asked for emergency money for the nation's food banks. I asked for that funding because there are massive shortages of food bank supplies, empty shelves, and those shortages place children, the elderly and working families, people who have lost jobs, people who have had a string of bad luck, families across this nation at risk.I spoke of Norm in Cleveland, who, after spending his few dollars on rent, on utilities and medicine, has $19 left. He needs the Cleveland Food Bank which, I add, was awarded best food bank in the country last year. But it is running short on food, as food banks everywhere are. I spoke of Christian, a nurse who just gave birth. She is unable to find a job as a nurse's assistant although she is well trained to do that. She runs short of food and relies on neighborhood programs supplements such as the Cleveland Food Bank, church groups and others in greater Cleveland. Too many cases, no dinner on the table, no food at Christmastime, just not enough food.
We are the wealthiest nation in the world but we cannot feed our own people! This is an emergency and an outrage. Yesterday I talked of emergency funding to overcome that shortage, asking for $40 million until we pass the farm bill with dollars in it to provide some support for these food banks. We found out that there were food banks projected to run out of food in February. Food banks in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Baltimore, are running out of food.
Yesterday, I talked about emergency funding, some $40 million, to overcome that shortage. Today, I want to talk about how to pay for it. We can pay for it through shared sacrifice. The budget for Congress includes firewood for fireplaces in the capitol, fireplaces that do not even get used. When children are hungry we can give up firewood and give up some travel and some new technology, we can make easy sacrifices to address a tragic need. The budget for federal agencies includes annual buying sprees to exhaust what is left in departmental budgets. When children are hungry, buying sprees are offensive. We can sacrifice. We can pay for emergency funding for food banks by shaving some unnecessary spending in some budgets.
Food banks need resources. We don't need firewood. We don't need buying sprees. We can do without some other things. We do need to help hungry people. I'm going to propose a package of cuts to pay for emergency increase of this food bank funding. I hope every member of this body supports me on that.