Due to the anti-hunger program cuts in the recently passed state budget, food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens in Pennsylvania are now confronted with a "triple whammy." The demand for food assistance is on the rise. The cost of food is increasing. To those two challenges, the new state budget has added a third: how to help low-income Pennsylvanians meet the basic human need for food with fewer state dollars.
The relevant figures in the new budget are simple. The State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) funding passed at $18 million, a cut of $750,000, or 4%. While 4% sounds like a small amount, it means losing 2.4 million pounds of food, affecting at least 100,000 of Pennsylvania’s 1.2 million residents who are food insecure.
The Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) was cut by 25%, from $3 million to $2,250,000. FMNP provides coupons to mothers of young children and seniors that are redeemable only at farmers markets, ensuring these people some access to fruits and vegetables. This cut means that tens of thousands of seniors will not receive this benefit, depriving vulnerable citizens of nutritious food, and Pennsylvania farmers of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.
Food assistance organizations statewide are shocked at the budget outcome. Recently, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics quantified what these organizations already knew, that the cost of food was up, 4% in the past year. Many staple food items including beef, chicken, white bread, tomatoes, potatoes and pasta increased at substantially higher rates. The price of eggs was up 24% and the price of oranges was up 28.3%. With the rising cost of food, and the rising need for services, the food assistance network had asked the legislature for a modest increase in these vital programs.
Recent statistics show that nearly 10% of Pennsylvania residents live with the threat of hunger. Nearly 3% are considered “very low food secure,” the federal government’s new phrase for those who experience outright hunger.
More shock comes when facts like these are seen against the fact that Pennsylvania state revenues have actually increased, allowing overall 2007-2008 state spending to increase by 4.4%. In any budget process, there are always difficult choices to be made with more requests for money than the total funding available. But why was it necessary to cut funds to Pennsylvania’s families struggling to put basic food on their tables?
Mary Lou Victor Executive Director of the Washington County Food, expressed what must be on the minds of food bank directors statewide. “This loss of resources will mean the Food Bank will need to depend upon community support more than ever,” she said, “We don’t want to cut back on food and services to the people who depend upon us.”