End Hunger Now

Floor Speech

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, each week I come to this floor to talk about ways that we can End Hunger Now. I have a simple premise that hunger is a political condition. We can end hunger now if we simply muster the political will to do so.

Over the past year, I have defended the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps. I have discussed the importance of nutritious school meals and have sung the praises of the WIC program. The Federal antihunger programs are amazing. They are effective, and they are efficient and are preventing hunger from becoming worse than it already is.

The Federal antihunger programs can't do it alone, at least not the way they are currently structured. Despite what many critics claim, the Federal antihunger programs are too meager, and they still don't reach every hungry person in America. They fall under multiple agencies and departments and are not always connected, and they don't target the root cause of hunger, which is poverty.

As a result, we have seen the rise of many nonprofit antihunger organizations. The majority of these nonprofit organizations are food pantries that distribute food to needy people. But there are other innovative organizations that are doing amazing work.

One such organization is Share our Strength, founded by my friends Billy Shore and his sister Debbie Shore. Share our Strength is an amazing organization that is fighting hunger both through Federal and State policy and through programs that directly touch the hungry living in our country.

Their flagship program is the No Kid Hungry campaign. They are working in States across this country to develop statewide plans to end childhood hunger in those participating States. They tailor these programs to fit each State and are focusing through this program on the scourge that is child hunger.

Two more of their locally based programs are Shopping Matters and Cooking Matters. The Shopping Matters program teaches low-income families how to spend their food dollars. Whether it is cash or from an antihunger program, they are taught how to spend it wisely and how to purchase nutritious food with the limited money that they have. The Cooking Matters program teaches these families how to cook food in a healthy way.

These three programs show both how important it is to creatively attack the problem of hunger in America and highlight the ways the Federal Government is failing these low-income families by not doing more.

Just look at the No Kid Hungry campaign. Share our Strength is targeting States because the Federal Government hasn't created a national antihunger strategy. Share Our Strength turned to Governors because they are willing to do what Congress and the White House aren't--develop a plan. That is why I continue to call on this White House to do a White House conference on food and nutrition, to bring everyone together to develop a plan to end hunger now. Governors are doing this for kids. It is time that we do this for everyone.

Look at the Shopping Matters program and the Cooking Matters program. These programs exist because Congress has cut the SNAP nutrition education program, necessitating a private, nonprofit sector program to teach people how to shop for and cook nutritious food.

Share Our Strength is also conducting outreach and education in different ways. They promote and host events at the national, State, and local levels to combat hunger. These range from bake sales, to dining out events, to barbecues. These are not just feel-good events, Mr. Speaker. These are events that come with teaching programs, programs that allow hosts to promote ways to fight hunger in ways that don't seem so daunting.

Mr. Speaker, there are many fantastic antihunger organizations both in Washington, D.C., and around this country. Share our Strength is one of these organizations that does fantastic work. I am proud of all of these groups that have stepped up to do what the Federal Government should be doing. I am proud of everyone who is banding together to fight hunger.

However, my goal, my ultimate goal, is to put Share our Strength and these other groups out of business, not because they aren't a great organization, but because they are no longer needed. But the only way to put these groups out of business is by ending hunger, and the best way to do so is to increase wages as well as expand SNAP and other nutrition programs. Until then, we need to ensure that no person in this country goes hungry. Until the Federal antihunger programs reach everyone they need to in the best possible way, we are going to need organizations like Share our Strength to help vulnerable populations.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, the failure of our government to make ending hunger more of a priority is appalling. To be indifferent, to blame poor people for being poor, as some in this House have done, is something that should make all of us ashamed. Republican leaders have attacked our antihunger programs and the White House, sadly, has been too timid. What we need is a war on poverty in this country, Mr. Speaker, not another war in Iraq. We can all do better. We can End Hunger Now.

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