Sanders Works to Stop Cuts to Critical Program Providing Food to More Than 4000 Low-Income Vermont Residents
Sanders Works to Stop Cuts to Critical Program Providing Food to More Than 4000 Low-Income Vermont Residents
Washington DC-Congressman Bernie Sanders today led a bipartisan coalition of 121 members of Congress in calling on the Appropriations Committee to stop President Bush's attempt to eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). The CSFP provides 4,000 Vermonters with key nutrients typically lacking in their diet. The program serves low-income seniors, as well as mothers, infants and children. In his recently proposed budget, President Bush eliminates all funding for this program, leaving thousands of Vermonters and more than 400,000 recipients nationwide without this vital assistance.
Sanders said, "Seniors, mothers, and children in Vermont depend on the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for the food they need to stay healthy. It is absolutely unconscionable for the Bush Administration to attempt to take this program away from the people who depend on it."
Congressman Sanders' coalition today sent a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, who oversee funding for the program, urging them not to follow the Bush Administration's request to eliminate the program. The coalition will continue to work to make sure that the program is not eliminated during the upcoming appropriations process.
Last year, The Vermont Food Bank distributed 1.8 million pounds of CSFP food to 151 sites across Vermont. To be eligible, seniors must have income at or below 130% of the federal poverty line (currently about $12,400 per year for a single person and $16,700 for a couple.) The CSFP also provides food packages to low-income pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to age six that are at or below approximately 185% of the poverty line.
Sanders said, "This program is critical for Vermont and I will do everything I can in Congress to keep the Bush Administration from eliminating it."
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/document.asp?issueNum=4826