Darlene Hooley: “when Americans think about hunger, we usually think about mass starvation in faraway countries. But hunger too often…”

“when Americans think about hunger, we usually think about mass starvation in faraway countries. But hunger too often lurks in our own back yards. In the United States, over 33 million people live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. In many homes in my State of Oregon, an estimated 720,000 people ate meals from emergency food boxes at least once last year. Children comprise nearly 40 percent of those receiving emergency food, yet this administration is considering making changes to the verification process for the free and reduced-price school meals that could eliminate more eligible low-income children. Today, four of my Oregon colleagues and I sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman asking her to reconsider making such costly changes to the system until we better understand the potential consequences of these changes. It is my hope that the administration will continue to work to remedy the hunger crisis in our Nation without using costly and ineffective measures that will impede our children's access to nutritious and low- cost school meals that they need to grow and learn. I am committed to finding a solution to the problem, and I ask my colleagues to come together and find effective solutions and show that hunger does indeed have a cure.”