Monte's March

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on November 6, for the second time, I participated in Monte's March, which is a 26-mile walk from Northampton, Massachusetts, to Greenfield, Massachusetts, to raise awareness about the problem of hunger, not only in our community but throughout America, and to raise funds for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

The march is led by Monte Belmonte, 93.9 FM, The River radio host, who dressed up as Evel Knievel to attract some attention, a very unique personality, but somebody with a heart of gold, who has been doing this now for several years.

Joining us on the march was David Sullivan, the northwestern district attorney; Andrew Morehouse, the executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts; Erika Connell Cooper of Williamsburg, Massachusetts; Georgiann and Rick Kristek of Northampton; Sean Barry, who runs 4 Seasons Liquor store, who was with us last year when we marched, a great guy; Dan Finn of Pioneer Valley Local First; a group called Mutton and Mead, which is a medieval performance troop, that walked with us for a big portion of the walk; Brian Lapis, Channel 22 weather team; ``Steve the Hippie'' Fendell, a local activist, who is well-known in the community; and also joining us was Natalie Blais and Keith Barnicle of my staff in Northampton.

It was a cold and rainy day when we began our march at 6 a.m. in the morning in Northampton. We were greeted by the mayor of Northampton, David Narkewicz, who walked with us to the border and wished us well.

We had many stops along the way. We stopped at the Amherst Survival Center and met with Executive Director Mindy Domb and her incredible crew. The Amherst Survival Center is a place where people go to get food, sometimes to get clothing, to get support and advice, and even sometimes medical attention. It is an incredible place, but when you visit there, you realize the fact that there are so many in our community who are struggling.

We had a brief stop at Chandler's Restaurant in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and met with Chef Greg Monette, who prepared this wonderful meal for us.

We then continued our walk and met with Gordie and Barbara Woodward of Richardson's Candy. That is also in Deerfield--probably the best chocolate you are ever going to taste--and we were given some to keep our sustenance up.

We also were greeted by Emily and Oliver Rich from Tea Guys, which is this remarkable business in Whately, Massachusetts, where they blend teas from all around the world and blend teas to your personal liking, but they met us on this cold and rainy day with their crew and gave us hot tea to keep us going. It was very much welcome.

We ended in Greenfield at 6 p.m. at night and kind of celebrated our achievement at Seymour, the pub, which is a new pub in Greenfield, and we had incredible pizza--the best pizza in the world--from Magpie Pizza, also in Greenfield.

We did this, again, to raise awareness and to raise funds. I want my colleagues to understand that for me, even though the march was physically grueling, it was unbelievably inspirational because, along the way, people would stop their cars and hand us donations for the food bank. They would tell us their stories in which many people struggled to put food on their table and how they got through it.

This was all broadcast live on 93.9 FM. People called in constantly, making pledges and telling stories and offering their support. It made me realize what a generous community that I have the privilege of representing, and it was really uplifting on a whole number of levels.

Mr. Speaker, what happened on November 6 with Monte's March is not unique in the fact that there are people all over this country that are trying to raise funds and that are trying to help people put food on their table.

We live in the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world, and close to 50 million of our fellow citizens are hungry. It is unconscionable. We should be ashamed of that fact.

There are people like Monte Belmonte and others who are doing their part, but what I worry about is that those of us in this Chamber are not doing our part. As we bring this Congress to a close, I think it is important that we reflect on the fact that, when it comes to the issue of hunger, this Congress has done nothing, absolutely nothing; in fact, we have made it worse.

Time and time again, we have had Members of Congress come onto this floor and attack the programs that provide people food--whether it is SNAP or WIC or summer feeding programs or school feeding programs--that have come under attack by Member after Member, on the Republican side in particular, and we have seen an attack on poor people that is really disconcerting. The war on the poor, Mr. Speaker, has to come to an end.

We have had debates on SNAP, which used to be known as Food Stamps, where Members of Congress have come on the floor and said, ``Well, we can cut that program because it is wasteful; it is inefficient,'' when the reality is it is one of the most efficiently run programs in the Federal Government, with a record low error rate and a record low fraud rate.

I wish the Department of Defense had that kind of record when it comes to procuring weapon systems and other things that they utilize. We ought to hold them to the same standard that we hold the agency that oversees our SNAP program.

We have had Members of Congress come on this floor and demean poor people and insult them and belittle their struggle. Maybe it makes it easier for those Members to vote against programs like SNAP when they demonize and belittle poor people, but it is wrong.

The fact of the matter is that more and more people are utilizing food banks and food pantries. They are going to their churches and their synagogues and their mosques trying to get the resources and the food to put on their table for their families.

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Here in Washington, the response of Congress is to cut it. More cuts. And then I read in a publication this morning that next year the Republican majority plans to go after these programs even more.

Let me just say to my colleagues that those who benefit from places like the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts are not just the homeless and the unemployed. Increasingly, their clientele include people who have jobs, but the jobs pay so little that they can't afford to pay their bills and put food on the table.

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The minimum wage in this country is so low that if you go to work, you still live in poverty. Now, we can fix that. But, unfortunately, in this last Congress, the Republican leadership refused to allow us even to bring a minimum wage vote to this House floor for a vote. We could have lifted a whole bunch of people out of poverty and we could have helped make a big dent in the hunger problem if we increased people's wages, but we were told, No, we are not going to do it. And not only are we not going to do it, you can't have a debate and a vote on it in the people's House of Representatives.

It is outrageous.

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that hunger is a political condition. We ought to be talking about how to solve this problem. And it is solvable. There are some problems I am not sure how we solve. This is not one of them. What we need is the political will. What we need is the inspiration, like those who marched with Monte Belmonte from Northampton to Greenfield. I hope that that spirit is contagious so that more people in this Chamber will take this issue seriously. There is no reason why anybody in the United States of America should go hungry. There is no reason at all.

I have called on the White House to put together a White House conference on food and nutrition so we can come up with a holistic plan to deal with this issue. I have pleaded with my colleagues on the Republican side to stop their assault against the poor in this country. And we are going to continue to battle them next year, unfortunately, because it seems like that is the direction they want to go.

But as we recess today to go home for Thanksgiving, we are all going to go back to our respective districts, have a nice turkey dinner, enjoy our family and enjoy the day, but for millions and millions and millions of Americans, they don't have that luxury. They don't know where they are going to get their meal tonight, never mind on Thanksgiving.

So I would urge my colleagues to visit their local food banks, visit their food pantries, talk to people who are on SNAP, talk to families that are struggling with hunger. Listen and learn, and then come back here and act. It may not fit into a particular ideology that some of my colleagues ascribe to in this Chamber, but the fact of the matter is we have a moral obligation to deal with this issue. These are our brothers and our sisters and their children we are talking about. We cannot ignore this problem anymore.

So I just want to say that, Mr. Speaker, for me, joining Monte's march on November 6 was an incredible experience because at the end of the day they raised over $65,000 for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. That march made a difference. People will be fed. That is an important thing. I wish everybody in this Congress would do something similar. I wish that when we come back next year, when we deal with these safety net programs, when we deal with programs that provide people good food and nutrition, we approach these issues with the intent to help people, not hurt people.

I will just close with this, Mr. Speaker. Hunger costs this Nation very dearly: you have lost productivity in the workplace; kids who go to school hungry don't learn; senior citizens taking their medication on an empty stomach because they can't take medicine without food who end up in emergency rooms. There is also a link between food insecurity and obesity, because the cheapest food available is usually junk food.

So we are paying dearly for hunger in America. And when people say we can't afford to deal with this issue, my response is, We cannot afford not to deal with this issue. This is something that we can solve.

To my colleagues who only seem concerned about the bottom line, who say we can't invest in anything because we have a deficit and a debt, I will tell you that the lack of attention that we are giving this issue is costing us, is adding to our deficit, and is adding to our debt. So if all you care about is the bottom line, you should join with me and others and those who do marches like Monte Belmonte all across this country and make a difference.

Let's get together. Let's make it our mission next year to come together in a bipartisan way to end hunger now. That is my hope and that is what I will pray for during this holiday season. I look forward to seeing my colleagues when we come back.

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