Recognizing Establishment of Hunters for the Hungry
RECOGNIZING ESTABLISHMENT OF HUNTERS FOR THE HUNGRY -- (House of Representatives - July 20, 2009)
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Mr. McGOVERN. I want to thank my friend for yielding and for his leadership on these and so many other important issues.
I wanted to rise as well in support of the resolution by my colleague from Georgia, Mr. Gingrey. I think it's an important resolution, and I think the Hunters for the Hungry organization deserve praise for their work trying to respond to a real need in this country, and that is the issue of people who are food insecure or are hungry.
This is a problem that is getting worse in the United States of America, I am sad to say, and this is an issue that we need to talk more about on this House floor. And I appreciate and I support the efforts of hunters and a whole bunch of other volunteer organizations across the country in their efforts to respond to this crisis, and we need to do everything we can to congratulate them, express our appreciation and urge them to do more.
I would also add that I think we have a moral imperative to do more as a country and as a government to respond to this need. There are more than 36 million Americans who are food insecure or hungry. Every one of us should be ashamed of that fact, and we need to respond to this crisis, and we need to do more than we are doing now.
I'm the co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and we are urging all Members of Congress to take only 1 hour, at least 1 hour, out of their busy schedules during the August recess and visit a hunger relief organization, visit a food pantry, visit a food bank, and see firsthand what is happening. And what people are going to see, what my colleagues will see is not only the incredible work that is going on to help respond to this crisis, but the fact is that these food banks and these food pantries are chock full. They're at capacity. They cannot respond to the need that they are faced with.
And so as we debate other legislation down the road, I hope we will keep these people in mind, but I did want to rise to congratulate and to thank my friend Mr. Gingrey for his leadership on this issue. I think it is important that we do what we can to acknowledge the good work of people who are in the forefront of fighting on behalf of people who are food insecure and hungry, and I want to thank him.
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