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HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, No resident of Illinois should have to be
3food-insecure; and
 
4    WHEREAS, 1,873,010, or 1 in 7 residents of the State of
5Illinois are experiencing food insecurity, meaning they lack
6access to adequate nutritious food for a healthy lifestyle; and
 
7    WHEREAS, 745,310, or just under 1 in 4 children in the
8State of Illinois are experiencing food insecurity; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Food insecurity is experienced in every county in
10the State of Illinois; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Feeding Illinois food banks have seen a 73%
12increase in requests for emergency food assistance over the
13past 3 years; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Hunger increases health care costs, lowers
15workers' productivity, harms children's development, and
16diminishes children's educational performance; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Fighting hunger is a public-private partnership;
18in Illinois, a strong private network exists that has provided
191.4 million people in Illinois with more than 127 million

 

 

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1pounds of food in 2010; however, private charity cannot do it
2alone and a strong federal hunger relief safety net is
3required; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The Illinois General Assembly established the
5Commission to End Hunger in 2010 in recognition of the need to
6end food insecurity in the State of Illinois; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The Commission to End Hunger acknowledges in its
8recommendations the critical importance of federal programs
9that address food and nutrition; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The federal Farm Bill establishes the funding and
11policy for vital food and nutrition programs, such as the
12Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), The
13Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Commodity
14Supplemental Food Program (CSFP); SNAP is the cornerstone of
15the nutrition safety net, with 1.9 million, or 1 in 6, Illinois
16residents enrolled in the program; just under half of those
17utilizing the program are children; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Any reduction in funding of the SNAP Program will
19increase the number of food-insecure people in Illinois; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Maintaining the current model of 100% federal
21funding of SNAP assistance is essential to retaining the

 

 

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1program's effectiveness in fighting hunger; and
 
2    WHEREAS, TEFAP is a means-tested federal program that
3provides food commodities at no cost to Illinoisans in need of
4short-term hunger relief through organizations like food
5banks, pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters; and
 
6    WHEREAS, CSFP leverages government buying power to provide
7nutritious food packages to 17,473 vulnerable individuals in
8Illinois in Fiscal Year 2011, nearly 97% of which are seniors;
9and
 
10    WHEREAS, The decisions made in developing the next Farm
11Bill will impact the ability of food-insecure Illinoisans to
12access the food and nutrition safety they need; and
 
13    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago, in partnership with the
14Greater Chicago Food Depository and other anti-hunger
15advocates, wants to fully support addressing food insecurity in
16the City of Chicago; therefore, be it
 
17    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
18NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
19we urge Congress to develop the 2012 Farm Bill with a strong
20Title IV that protects and strengthens federal food and
21nutrition programs; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That we state our belief that the 2012 Farm Bill
2must oppose proposals to cap or reduce funding for SNAP; oppose
3proposals to restrict eligibility or reduce benefits; support
4proposals to increase benefit adequacy to ensure that
5households have the resources to purchase a nutritionally
6adequate diet; support proposals that would make mandatory
7funding for TEFAP food more responsive to changes in need;
8enhance the United States Secretary of Agriculture's authority
9to purchase bonus commodities in times of high need for
10emergency food relief in addition to times of low commodity
11prices; reauthorize funding for TEFAP Storage and Distribution
12and TEFAP Infrastructure grants; and protect funding for CSFP
13while transitioning the program to a senior-only program and
14grandfathering in current participants; and be it further
 
15    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
16delivered to the members of the Illinois congressional
17delegation, the President of the United States, and the United
18States Secretary of Agriculture.