Jim McGovern

I speak to high schools, and usually at the end I always ask people what do you want to do? How many want to be in Congress? Nobody.

We ought to have a Veterans Farmer Market Nutrition Program to better connect veterans and healthy foods at VA clinics.

Food safety is a big issue, and my experience has been is that small and medium-sized farms get it.

There is an agricultural renaissance occurring, which is really exciting.

Kids who go to school, who are hungry, don't learn. There is a cost to that.

I like your statement about pay the farmer or pay the doctor.

It is a bad idea to radically change the SNAP Program. It is working as intended.

The SNAP Program is a powerful tool for improving nutrition, insulating families against hardship, and lifting people out of poverty.

If you cut anything, it should not be peoples' food.

I have said in the past the most important thing we can do to improve access to nutritious food is to increase the current SNAP benefit.

I look forward to continuing our work to make it possible for SNAP recipients to purchase groceries online.

It is important that we talk about new approaches that could be taken to improve access to food.

No one, and I mean no one, should go hungry in the United States of America.

If we want to talk about improving access to food, we should be discussing ways to increase SNAP benefits.

Presumably, that has been important, since some parts of your state continue to have unemployment that exceeds ten percent.

As you know, SNAP has a 3 month time limit for adults not raising minor children.

I want to thank Chairwoman Walorski for convening this hearing, and I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today to share your experiences and findings.

That is allowed, right?

What we shouldn't do in this Committee is make it more difficult for them, and especially our veterans, during a time when the economy is still in recovery.

We will face limited resources in 2018 when we begin to authorize the farm bill.

It is important that people be able to have some flexibility with their EBT card.

We need to do everything we can to get our economy moving so we can get people the jobs that pay a livable wage.

We ought to be moving this discussion at some point toward how we boost the overall SNAP benefit.

The average benefit is about $1.40 per person, per meal, per day.

I have been to a SNAP-Ed class, and I learned about issues about what constitutes an appropriate portion.