Federal Food Donation Act of 2008

Floor Speech

FEDERAL FOOD DONATION ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - May 22, 2008)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues for their support of S. 2420, the Federal Food Donation Act of 2007, which is being passed through the Senate today. I introduced this bill, which will encourage the donation of excess food from Federal agencies and their qontractors to emergency food providers, on December 6, 2007.

In a country as wealthy as ours it is unacceptable that anyone person should go hungry, yet approximately 35.5 million Americans have difficulty affording food. An estimated 732,000 households in my home State of New York live with hunger or the threat of hunger.

Food banks and pantries all across the United States are facing a perfect storm where as the economy suffers and food prices rise, more and more families are relying on their services; yet the pantries are straining to keep their shelves stocked due to the increase in food requests and food costs. According to America's Second Harvest, food banks around the country lare reporting that an estimated 20 percent more people are visiting soup kitchens and food pantries for help this year than last year, and too many people are being turned away. We need to do everything we can to make sure that all families in all communities have enough to eat during these difficult times.

This bill will help make fighting hunger a national priority. In the 1990s, the United States Department of Agriculture created an initiative through which it encouraged the practice of food recovery. During just 1 year of the program, 1998, the Federal Government recovered over 3 million pounds nationwide from cafeterias, farms, research centers, and military bases. For the past decade the Federal Government has strayed away from this important anti-hunger initiative, but this bill would take an important step towards reengaging the Federal Government's involvement in food recovery.

Nonprofits in the business of food rescue serve millions of people, and I would like to thank one such nonprofit, Rock and Wrap it Up!, a national food rescue organization headquartered in New York, for their help in conceiving of and promoting this bill. I commend them for their great work. It is now time for the Federal Government to join the nonprofit and private sectors in doing all it can to feed our Nation's hungry--the need for help is greater now than it has been in a very long time.

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