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“OHIO HUNGER TOUR TRIP REPORT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E390-E391 on March 17, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OHIO HUNGER TOUR TRIP REPORT
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HON. TONY P. HALL
of ohio
HON. DEBORAH PRYCE
of ohio
HON. ROBERT W. NEY
of ohio
HON. TED STRICKLAND
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 17, 1998
Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we commend to our colleagues' attention the following report from a March 2-3, 1998 ``hunger tour'' of central and southeastern Ohio, in which we participated. The purpose of the trip was to investigate reports of increasing demand for emergency food at Ohio's food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens. We were surprised by what we found. Despite Ohio's strong economy, significant numbers of working poor and senior citizens are having great difficulty making ends meet, and are turning to charities to obtain adequate food. We encourage our colleagues to consider a similar tour in their own communities, to get a close-up view of the changing face of hunger, and the challenges facing the working poor and senior citizens in particular.
INTRODUCTION
Despite a booming economy, record low unemployment, a balanced federal budget, and unprecedented surpluses in many state coffers, there is mounting evidence of worsening hunger among the poorest Americans.
For more than a year now, foodbanks, pantries, and soup kitchens across Ohio and around the country have reported sharp increases in demand for emergency food, which are outstripping the charitable sector's capacity to respond to growing needs. A December, 1997 report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that demand for food relief was up by 16%. In January, 1998, my own informal survey of 200 of the nation's foodbanks revealed even sharper increases in hunger relief needs in many parts of the country. A September 1997 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that in the Dayton area, one in eight people seek emergency food assistance every month.
To investigate such reports, and better understand the nature of this trend, I conducted a fact-finding mission to feeding programs in urban and rural Ohio communities from March 2-3, 1998. I was joined by my colleagues Representative Deborah Pryce (OH-15th), Representative Bob Ney (OH-18th), Representative Ted Strickland (OH-6th) at site visits located in their districts. Ohio Senator Mike DeWine also was represented by an aide who accompanied the delegation for a full day.
Non-profit groups who supported the trip included the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, the Ohio Food Policy & Anti-
Poverty Action Center, and the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland, as well as individual foodbanks, pantries, and soup kitchens who hosted the delegation at stops in Columbus, Zanesville, Logan, MacArthur, and Dayton.
FINDINGS
What we saw and heard in the communities we visited strongly confirmed several emerging trends reported by foodbanks across Ohio and around the country:
Working people account for a large share of the increase in demand for emergency food, specifically people in low-wage and part-time jobs that offer few benefits and do not cover the cost of basic needs, including food.
Ohio is attempting to move over 148,000 households containing 386,239 persons from welfare to work over the next three years. The latest national data for December 1997 found that Ohio's twelve month growth in employment since December 1996 was 52,800 jobs, a slow growth rate of 1.0%. During the same period, Ohio lost 3,900 manufacturing jobs. New job growth has been in service sector employment, which generally paying minimum or just above minimum wage with few or no medical benefits. Despite a robust economy and an abundance of low-wage jobs in Columbus and other urban centers, significant pockets of joblessness and high unemployment persist in the more economically depressed parts of the state's Appalachian region.
The delegation visited the Southeastern Ohio Foodbank, which provides food to local charities in one of the poorest and most economically depressed areas of the state. In three of the nine counties served by that foodbank, between 40% and 50% of the people requesting emergency food were working full or part-time. In Meigs county, more than half of the people seeking emergency food assistance were working.
Not one person we spoke with did not want to work, and all expressed their shame and frustration at having to resort to foodbanks to put food on the table at the end of the month. One woman explained: ``My children get excited to see food coming into the house--kids should get excited about toys, and circuses, and special treats, not the food we need to feed our family.'' According to the pantry director in MacArthur, Ohio, a rare job opening for a clerking position at a video store recently drew more than 100 applicants. Highest on that pantry's wish list were buses to transport people to minimum-wage jobs in Columbus.
At the Franklinton Food Pantry, the largest pantry in Franklin County, where more than 11,000 people seek food assistance each month, over 60% of all households in the community have incomes below $15,000 per year (well below the $16,050 poverty line for a family of four). A visit to the home of one food pantry client belied the common stereotype that people seeking charitable assistance are lazy freeloaders. Here was a couple with strong faith and family values, struggling to keep their family of seven together. Like many Ohio working families, for these people the pantry is no longer an emergency food source, but a regular part of their monthly coping and budgeting process to keep their family from going hungry. Their net income of
$600 every two weeks barely affords a food budget of $100 a week, which must stretch to feed five teenagers (two of them taken in from a troubled family member). Their coping mechanisms include purchasing low-cost food, limiting the types of food they consume, and once a month getting food from the local food pantry, which helps feed the family ``between pay checks.'' Such families have no cushion against unexpected expenses, such as major car repairs, illnesses, or high heating bills in unusually cold months.
Elderly people on fixed incomes are resorting to food pantries and soup kitchens in growing numbers. They frequently cite the cost of medical care and prescriptions as competing with their limited food budgets.
At various stops on the tour, we repeatedly heard about the dilemma seniors face when their monthly Social Security checks are eaten up by medical fees and prescriptions, leaving little money for food. As we approached a MacArthur, Ohio food pantry, we observed a line of nearly 1,200 people, mostly senior citizens, waiting along the road to receive a box of food. Inside the pantry, clergy and church volunteers serving this crowd described deplorable living conditions--run-down shacks with no heat or running water, dilapidated trailers with holes in the floor, even chicken coops and buses. We repeatedly heard that their pride and the stigma of accepting charity keep many seniors from asking for help until their situation is truly desperate. As one nun told us, ``we know we are really in trouble when the elderly start showing up at pantries in large numbers.''
Part of the ``traditional'' clientele at food pantries and soup kitchens are those for whom hunger is a symptom of deeper problems--
illiteracy, a lack of education, a history of substance or domestic abuse, mental illness, or homelessness. It will be difficult if not impossible for many of these individuals to compete in the job market without intensive rehabilitation, and some of them may never be able to hold jobs.
Everyone who has ever volunteered at a soup kitchen knows these faces--people who may never have been able to hold a job, and are not counted in unemployment data because they are unemployable or have given up trying to find work. This described many of the people we met at the Zanesville soup kitchen we visited--people who have ``failed to thrive'' and live life on the margins for one reason or another. As one volunteer put it, ``with the right kind of help, some of these people may be able to pull themselves up by their boot straps, but a lot of them never had boots to begin with.'' And, in the words of a food pantry director, ``I am tired of selectively talking about the types of clients we serve, so that people will care. Some of these people are plain old poor folks, who've had a hard time getting it together for whatever reason. But they still need to eat.''
Churches and charitable food assistance agencies are doing their best to rise to the challenge of growing demands, but their capacity is overwhelmed by the increased need they are now facing.
In attempts to meet increased needs, every church group and private charity we spoke with had stepped up efforts to raise additional funds through church collections, food drives, pie sales, and appeals to businesses and other donors. Yet, in many cases pantries report having to reduce the amount of food they distribute, or turn people away for lack of food. A Zanesville soup kitchen reported taking out a bank loan for the first time ever last year, to cover operating costs. Within the last year the number of food relief agencies serving the hungry in Ohio reportedly declined by 23% as many closed or consolidated with other operations.
CONCLUSIONS
Our limited sampling of sites serving hungry people, and discussions with charitable food providers, state officials, and advocacy groups, provided only a snapshot of the conditions that are underlying the increases in requests for relief that foodbanks, soup kitchens and pantries are reporting. Yet it confirmed to us, in clear and human terms, disturbing evidence that more of our citizens than ever are vulnerable to hunger, despite a robust economy.
As states work to replace the federal welfare system with structures of their own, the number of people turning to food banks for emergency assistance is growing. New strategies are being tried, many with success, and they need to be encouraged. Food banks have been doing the hard work on the front lines of fighting hunger for decades. They are supported by their communities, and they are the organizations that increasing numbers of citizens turn to for help. But to ensure that Americans who turn to food banks for help do not go hungry, food banks need additional support.
They need the goodwill and charitable contributions of their community, and the participation of more individuals and businesses.
They need public and private initiatives that complement their efforts and address the root causes of hunger and poverty.
They need jobs that pay a living wage and laws that encourage generosity and charitable giving.
And they cannot do without the significant support of federal funds and federal commodity foods.
The job of the federal government was not finished when the welfare reform bill was enacted. Congress and the Administration have a responsibility to monitor what the states are doing, to measure how the poor are faring, and to make adjustments as necessary as problems arise.
Even as we give policy reforms a chance to work and aggressively attack the underlying problems that make people vulnerable to hunger, we cannot stand by and watch growing numbers of Americans go hungry. If, as the evidence suggests, increasing numbers of people are so hungry they're willing to stand in line for food, we cannot rest knowing that, too often, there is no food at the end of that line.
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