Tom Harkin: “for milions of people in the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina has shredded the very fabric of everyday life. As my…”

“for milions of people in the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina has shredded the very fabric of everyday life. As my colleagues from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have already described, the needs are immeasurable. For many people, it will be years before their lives return to normal. And untold others have paid with their lives. We hold the citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in our thoughts and in our prayers. This storm calls on each of us to respond in the best way that we can. And people around the United States are opening their homes and their hearts to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Among the most immediate and pressing needs of many who have been hit by hurricane Katrina is a fundamental one--food. Displaced individuals with no ready source of income must, among all of their daily worries, still struggle with the basic task of feeding their families. This situation is exacerbated by the simple fact that retail food outlets have ceased to operate throughout the Gulf Coast. The Department of Agriculture has estimated that food stamp program caseloads alone are likely to increase by 1.4 million people because of Katrina. Furthermore, the Department says that this is a ``very conservative'' estimate and that the real need may be considerably greater than this. In Louisiana alone, over 400,000 people are already receiving food stamps through the Emergency Food Stamp Program. In Texas, over 100,000 people have received emergency food stamps.…”