Support Federal Nutrition Safety Net Programs!

As regular blog readers may recall, St. Anthony’s has been tracking the actions of the Congressional “super committee” that is charged with creating a plan to identify $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction strategies.

The deadline for the Super Committee to develop their plan is only weeks away (they must complete their plan by November 23). Some of the ideas that are being considered by the Super Committee include cutting vital nutrition assistance programs like:

• SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is California is known as “CalFresh” — the new name for the Food Stamp program),
• WIC (the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides healthy food to pregnant and nursing moms and their young children)
• TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides fresh produce and other staples to food banks, which are distributed to community-based food providers like St. Anthony’s)
• CSFP (the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides commodity foods to low-income seniors)

Today, I participated in a conference call with Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, an anti-hunger champion who urged those of us who are concerned about the fate of the federal nutrition safety net to reach out to our congressional representatives over the next three weeks to tell them about our priorities.

Our friends at Feeding America have made it easy to reach out to our legislators and inform them about our priorities.  To send an email to your representatives, click here and follow the prompts.