Keep Serreze
Mary Serreze's article ["The BID-ding Opens," Jan. 29, 2009] was absolutely excellent, everything I want in a newspaper article. It had the facts, the background, the additional research, the opinions, the players. The writing was evenhanded, well crafted, logical and non-fulminating. Though I happen to know that Serreze has distinct and deeply held opinions on these issues, her writing is silent about them. This is reporting at a level that makes the valley proud. She's a keeper!
Donna Lilborn
via email
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Fight Hunger
January 20th was an historic day for the future of food and anti-hunger programs in the United States. Barak Obama became President and former Governor Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa) was confirmed as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture coming off a confirmation hearing in which he reaffirmed the Obama-Biden goal of ending U.S. childhood hunger by 2015. These men will lead food policy in a country that is one of the largest exporters of food in the world while more than 35 million of its citizens either experience hunger or are uncertain where their next meal will come from.
President Obama and Secretary Vislack must embrace the notion that farm and anti-hunger policies are intrinsically connected if we are to succeed in simultaneously reducing hunger, supporting family farms, preserving the environment and strengthening the economy of rural communities. Shifting government support from large-scale agriculture to smaller farms that grow the food that we actually eat is critical to addressing hunger because it will lower the relative cost of food. Such policies will make nutritious food more accessible to all citizens all the time.
According to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a one-year $12 billion increase in Food Stamps benefits (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) would create or save 113,000 jobs over two years. The good news is that the House version of the economic stimulus package currently circulating on Capitol Hill proposes a $20 billion investment in SNAP.
In western Massachusetts, there are approximately 97,000 SNAP recipients, each of whom receives an average of $181 a month in supplemental food income. Combined, this is about $210 million annually in federal SNAP benefits. An additional injection of SNAP funds as part of the economic stimulus package will guarantee that struggling residents in our towns and cities will be able to keep up with rising prices in order to buy food for their families just like everyone else while supporting local businesses that hire our friends and neighbors. This is a vital way to keep our local economy going during tough times.
Andrew Morehouse, Executive Director
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
