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| PRESIDENT CLINTON TAKES ACTION TO IMPROVE |
| NUTRITION FOR AMERICA?S SENIORS AND FAMILIES |
| November 22, 2000 |
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Today, President Clinton will announce new initiatives to improve nutrition
and food security among senior citizens and low-income working families,
and strengthen community-based food delivery systems. The President will
make these announcements while visiting the Capitol Area Food Bank in
Washington, D.C. and participating in food distribution efforts for
Thanksgiving Day with senior citizen and student volunteers. Helping
parents feed their families and seniors get healthy food means
strengthening the nutrition safety net and supporting community efforts to
address hunger. To address these problems, the President will announce a
new program to enable senior citizens to purchase fresh produce at farmer?s
markets, new grants to support community efforts to address nutritional
assistance, and an expanded federal purchase of produce to get food from
the fields into the emergency food system. These actions will build on the
Administration?s record of promoting food security. Finally, the President
will call on Congress to work with him in restoring benefits to certain
legal immigrants as part of this year?s budget.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new report
indicating that close to nine out of ten American households, nearly 240
million Americans, had enough food for an active and healthy life in 1999.
The number of households that did not get enough food and the number of
households where one member was hungry have both declined significantly
between 1995 and 1999 -- 12 and 24 percent, respectively. However, despite
the lowest poverty rate in 20 years, the success of welfare-to-work
efforts, and new public/private anti-hunger initiatives, too many Americans
still face hunger and food insecurity. In 1999, more than 10 million
people lived in households that suffered directly from hunger. To help
more Americans get the healthy food they need, the President will take the
following steps in partnership with state, local and tribal organizations,
private businesses, and faith-based and other nonprofit groups:
IMPROVING NUTRITION FOR AMERICA?S SENIORS. USDA will create a new $10
million grant program to help low-income senior citizens purchase more
fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, helping more senior
citizens improve their diets and helping family farmers increase their
income. USDA, thorough its Commodity Credit Corporation, will provide
funds to build on existing state and tribal farmer?s market voucher
programs for senior citizens. Such an expansion will provide a modest
benefit to as many as 500,000 low-income senior citizens for purchases at
farmers markets. Seven states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont) and three tribes
(Chickasaw National and Osage, Oklahoma; Choctaw Band, Mississippi) now
have senior farmers market coupons. These grants will support and extend
the existing initiatives, as well as allow other states and tribes to
develop such programs. Many states now operate a similar program for
low-income families with young children, the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition
Program.
PROMOTING COMMUNITY EFFORTS TO ADDRESS NUTRITION ASSISTANCE. The President
will announce $2.4 million for 16 Community Food Project Grants for
nonprofit groups in 13 states (California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas,
Massachusetts, Missouri, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota,
Texas, Vermont, and Washington) to meet the needs of low-income people by
increasing their access to fresher, more nutritious food; increasing the
self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs; and
promoting comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition
issues. USDA also will release a new report outlining the accomplishments
of the USDA Community Food Security Initiative. This report details how the
Administration has worked in all fifty states to help faith-based
organizations and nonprofit groups reduce hunger, improve nutrition,
strengthen local food systems, and help families move from poverty to
self-sufficiency. The report shows that, following the first National
Summit on Food Recovery and Gleaning keynoted by Vice-President Gore in
1997, USDA employees across the nation helped glean or recover over 13
million pounds of nutritious food, which was distributed to the hungry by
faith-based organizations and other nonprofit groups at virtually no
additional cost to the Federal government. The President will challenge
federal employees in the next Administration to sustain these impressive
efforts.
Expanding purchase of fruits and vegetables for distribution in communities
through schools, food banks, and meal programs. The Administration will use
its new authority to dramatically increase the amount of food supplied to
food banks and other community-based feeding programs. Legislation
reforming the crop insurance program signed by the President on June 20,
2000 authorized $200 million in commodity purchases, which will go to food
banks, school meals, food pantries, senior feeding programs, soup kitchens,
and other government supported feeding programs. These purchases are in
addition to the $100 million per year in mandatory commodity purchases
through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and USDA
discretionary buys, which were over $100 million this year.
SupportING Bipartisan Efforts to Address Domestic Hunger. While good
nutrition is one important aspect of strengthening America?s families, we
also must continue our prosperity by giving working families support to
succeed. The President will call on Congress to join him in enacting his
budget proposal to restore food stamp benefits to legal immigrants and
provide other supports for working families like increasing the minimum
wage, improving child support and promoting responsible fatherhood, and
making investments in child care.
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