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Breakout Session I—The Face of Hunger
in America
Part 1: What Does It Mean To Be Hungry and
Poor in America?
Moderator: Bill Shore
Speakers: Donna Pususta
Neste, Sharon Thornberry, Cecilia Munoz, Deborah Leff
Recorders: Carol
Olander, David Burr, Carolyn Foley
Purpose: This session
was intended to strengthen the political will to end hunger in America
by highlighting both the success of the anti-hunger network and
its future. How can the network be made more effective in the 21st
century? This session humanized the problem of hunger and concluded
by focusing on strategies to marshal the nation's resources and
commitment to eliminate hunger.
Goal: To humanize the problem of hunger and
poverty by presenting the experiences of former nutrition assistance
recipients.
Hunger Speaks: The Voice of Experience
Donna Pususta Neste, Mt. Olive
Lutheran Church
Ms. Neste described the struggles she faced 17 years ago when she
was pregnant and her husband became unemployed. Even though her
husband eventually found a minimum-wage, full-time job, life continued
to be difficult. The food stamp and WIC benefits provided her family
with nutritious food and prevented them from going hungry. Ms. Neste
emphasized the following:
- The food stamp and WIC programs allowed her family
to regain financial stability because they could concentrate on
paying bills, such as rent and medical expenses, without sacrificing
meals.
- The WIC program was responsible, in large part,
for enabling her son to become a bright, healthy, and athletic
teenager.
- The laws prohibiting immigrant families from participating
in the Food Stamp Program will have a negative impact on the long-term
health of their children.
- Small children and infants who do not participate
in the Food Stamp Program should be studied in their later teen
years to determine if they suffered from negative effects with
respect to their general health and learning ability.
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Sharon Thornberry, Oregon Food
Bank
Ms. Thornberry shared her story of her family's participation in
the Food Stamp and WIC Program following the breakup of her marriage.
Speaking from her experience as a single parent, Ms. Thornberry
emphasized the following:
- Minimum wage jobs are not sufficient to bring families
out of poverty.
- Working poor households often face negative attitudes
about their participation in assistance programs.
- Working families must be provided with a living
wage, and program rules must accommodate their job schedules and
expectations. This is especially true in the Food Stamp Program
where people often must choose between taking or keeping a job
and adhering to the program's required periodic interview with
a caseworker.
- The Food Stamp and WIC programs did not make her
family dependent but rather "helped us to succeed."
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Cecilia Munoz, National Council
of La Raza
The National Council of La Raza is an organization dedicated to
protecting the civil rights and representing the interests and needs
of Hispanic Americans. Even though the vast majority of Hispanics
in America are legal immigrants or are American-born citizens, the
perception exists that all Hispanics are illegal aliens. The Hispanic
population experiences poverty at a higher rate than the rest of
the country. While 12 percent of the population of the United States
is Hispanic, 25 percent live in poverty and are at risk of experiencing
hunger. Legislation enacted in the past few years at the Federal
and State levels has helped fuel the confusion and fear many Hispanics
feel about participating in Federal initiatives, such as the Food
Stamp Program. To ensure that nutrition assistance is provided to
the Hispanic American community, we must
- Restore Food Stamp Program eligibility for all
legal immigrants, regardless of their age or the year they entered
the United States.
- Conduct aggressive outreach programs to eliminate
confusion and fear among the food stamp-eligible households in
the Hispanic community.
- Establish policies to support work that will assist
eligible households to apply for food stamp and WIC benefits.
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Deborah Leff, America's Second
Harvest
Second Harvest is a network of food banks assisting the efforts
of more than 50,000 emergency feeding organizations in the United
States. The organization also conducts research on food, hunger,
and related issues. One in every 10 Americans will visit a food
bank this year, even though this fact is inconsistent with the current
economy. One in 5 people served in a soup kitchen line is a child,
and 40 percent of those visiting food pantries are employed—one-half
of those full time. The safety net needs to be strengthened to
- Make the USDA nutrition assistance programs, especially
the Food Stamp Program, less complex and more accessible.
- Provide the working poor with a living wage.
- Measure welfare reform policies in terms of the
effect on peoples' lives instead of the impact on caseload numbers.
- Better support work by allowing the working poor
to apply for and continue to receive food stamp benefits.
- Work with public and private agencies as a part
of food stamp outreach and other program areas.
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Audience Comments Following the Panel Presentations
- The Food Stamp Program is too complex. People who
may be eligible for benefits are going instead to food banks or
food pantries because access to the program is too difficult.
- Perceptions about the Food Stamp Program could
be changed by showing how it helps the working poor to remain
employed.
- The benefit of the Food Stamp Program to retailers
and farmers could be illustrated by developing a formula to clearly
determine how the program helps the community as a whole.
- A living wage must be established to bring working
poor households out of poverty.
- The methodology for establishing the Federal poverty
level should be redesigned to provide a more accurate definition.
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