Below is an excellent testimony crafted to be shared at tonight's Governor Budget Hearing in Spokane by our board member, Scott Hallett. It is most definitely worth sharing....
My name is Scott Hallett and I work for a non profit agency called the Council on Aging & Human Services in Whitman County. I administer food programs, commodity distributions and food banks at a job I was able to take because I am retired from USDA.
Through our emergency commodity distribution and food bank programs we currently serve approximately 700 families each month. Our recipients are roughly 1/3 children and 1/3 senior citizens, with the balance being mostly single parents of the children.Most of the parents work, they just don’t make enough money to meet all of the family needs.
In our state/country, as bad as things have become, there is still no excuse for people not getting enough food to eat. According to USDA figures, we actually waste approximately 25% of the food that we produce, but much of that food can be salvaged and used to feed those that don’t have enough food. Both parties in the legislature have done much to ensure that people are fed through their funding of the Emergency Food Assistance Program and other efforts. These are the programs most needed when so many people have lost their jobs or have been downsized into lower paying jobs. People still have to eat.
I would suggest that we not implement an across the board reduction in state services, but rather continue to constructively evaluate programs and make the reductions where the impact will have the least impact on the basic services and needs of our people. Certainly adequate food is one of the most basic of all needs.
I would further suggest that we look closely at the programs that the federal government funds in our state and continue to provide the required match for those programs to ensure that we continue to receive those federal funds. Especially for food programs.
It makes no sense to economize by saving relatively small amounts of money that are currently actually bringing money into our state in the form of federal dollars. Matching funds are an investment, not an expenditure, when the resulting increase is many times the actual cost to the state.
You will have many suggestions today and in the days to come. I would ask that you continue to provide food to those that need it, especially the children and the seniors that have little or no control over the amount of money that they have to spend on food.
I will leave you with a short story that has had a large impact on me. At one of our food banks, I walked down the row of individuals standing in line, making small talk with them in an attempt to make the feel welcome. As I greeted the adults with a smile and asked “how are you?” the answer was almost always the same “fine”. I bent down to a young girl of about age 5 and said with a big smile on my face “so, how are you today?”
Her answer was shockingly truthful. She looked at me and in a small, but strong voice full of seriousness said “hungry.” As a parent that answer would have devastated me if it had been my child. We need to eliminate that as an answer.
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