Abigail Spanberger

Thank you so very much, Mr. Chairman. And to our witnesses, I thank you so much for your time for being with us today.

The benefits for new farmers to get to that next step, whether it is buying the tractor, buying the land, that capital is so important

Healthy forests, both public and private, are critical to our fight against the climate crisis.

This hearing of the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry entitled, A 2022 Review of the Farm Bill: Forestry, will come to order.

On June 30, less than 3 weeks from today, the child nutrition waivers that provide schools with flexibilities to feed children will expire.

TEFAP is a great program. We support it 100 percent. We want to see additional funding because that food is a lifeline, in particular for smaller food banks serving smaller communities.

Now more than ever, food banks rely on this program.

I urge my colleagues in the House and the Senate to heed the pleas from our local school districts, take up the bipartisan legislation, Keeping School Meals Flexible Act (H.R. 6613), to extend these waivers.

Failure to act and extend these waivers will mean more hungry kids, higher costs for parents, and a lot of confusion and lack of planning for school districts across the country.

I sent a letter to the House and Senate leadership urging immediate action to prevent the hunger cliff that looms ahead.

I also have to acknowledge the incredible work that these programs and their grantees and administrators have done during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Seniors Farmers' Market Nutrition Program provides over 800,000 low-income seniors with coupons each year...

And as we turn towards the 2023 Farm Bill, I am especially interested in examining the ways that we can improve flexibilities for those who rely on SNAP to put food on the table, and I am particularly interested in discussion related to…

SNAP and Congressional actions to enhance SNAP both prevented hunger and strengthened local economies in the communities we represent across this country.

I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss SNAP and to reflect on the program's efficacy since the farm bill was last enacted in 2018.

The USDA's Economic Research Service put out a report in March predicting an up to five percent increase in food prices this year.

We need a whole-of-government approach to hunger. We need a whole-of-government approach to nutrition.

But, basically saying to somebody that because you are struggling, because you are poor we are going to tell you what you can buy and what you can't buy.

And, here we are coming out of this pandemic, there is worldwide inflation, food costs are going up, gas prices are going up...

We spend a lot of money on a lot of programs in Congress. Programs that feed people have to be included in those numbers.

I heard directly from veterans on how the lack of access to the SNAP program negatively impacts their lives, their ability to look for work, their mental health, and their nutrition needs.

We are pressing on our European partners to not divert humanitarian resources from other parts of the world to Ukraine.

I am on the phone almost daily with my European Union partners.

We do think there are a couple of flexibilities that could be pursued as part of the farm bill...

I am curious kind of in a broader scale if you could speak to some of the role of USDA or USAID in helping Ukraine rebuild its agricultural capacity.