Food shortfall affects up to 60,000 homes this December

[phantom power]

Maybe an extra-good year to donate to food banks.

ALBUQUERQUE - Many poor families are going to be hard-pressed to put holiday fare on their tables this season because of a 200,000-pound shortfall of food at food banks statewide.

High fuel costs and rising food prices are causing the shortage.

"We have families that, right now, don't have access to food because we don't have money to buy it," said Jasmin Holmstrup, a spokeswoman for Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's Emergency Food Assistance Program supplies the state with about $950,000 a year to buy food for between 50,000 to 60,000 households, said Laurel Wyckoff, the executive director of the New Mexico Association of Food Banks.

The problem is that money has run out one month early.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/latest/ci_7632302

[EFerrari]

1. K&R. Thank you for posting this.

[Benhurst]

2. ...

Recommended :kick: #2

[sandnsea]

3. $196 million annual, nationally

That's the national budget for this program.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10003010.2005.html

The 2006 budget for abstinence-only was $206 million.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/compassion.html

:argh:

[uppityperson]

4. k&r