Reply #4: Bush doesn't give a damn about the poor. His 2008 budget cuts funds for hunger programs [View All]

[PA Democrat]

CHICAGO --- February 5, 2007 --- President Bush released his Fiscal Year 2008 budget proposal today eliminating funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) - a critical nutrition program benefiting nearly half a million low-income seniors and women with young children each month in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

“CSFP serves the most vulnerable population of low-income Americans in the United States, and in many cases it is their most critical source of nutritious food,” said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of America’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network. “It is morally reprehensible that many of our senior citizens are experiencing hunger. We live in a land of plenty. No one should go without food, especially our seniors who have contributed so much over the years to their communities and to this great nation of ours. If these cuts are passed, the impact will be devastating.”

Additionally, the budget proposal changes the current categorical eligibility structure for the Food Stamp Program, eliminating eligibility for approximately 300,000 low-income American. It also caps funding at Fiscal Year 2006 levels for the Nutrition Services and Administration, weakening the overall administration of Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a critical nutrition program for pregnant women and postpartum women, infants and children under five.

Approximately 95 percent of the Americans participating in CSFP are poor, vulnerable seniors who rely on the food boxes to get them through each month. Eliminating CSFP puts these seniors at significant risk of hunger.

http://www.secondharvest.org/news_room/2007_press_releases/020507.html