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1
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); and
 
15    WHEREAS, SNAP is the cornerstone of the nutrition safety
16net, with 1.9 million, or 1 in 6, Illinois residents enrolled
17in the program; just under half of those utilizing the program
18are children; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Any reduction in funding of the SNAP Program will
20increase the number of food-insecure people in Illinois; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Maintaining the current model of 100% federal
2funding of SNAP assistance is essential to retaining the
3program's effectiveness in fighting hunger; and
 
4    WHEREAS, TEFAP is a means-tested federal program that
5provides food commodities at no cost to Illinoisans in need of
6short-term hunger relief through organizations like food
7banks, pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters; and
 
8    WHEREAS, CSFP leverages government buying power to provide
9nutritious food packages to 17,473 vulnerable individuals in
10Illinois in Fiscal Year 2011, nearly 97% of which are seniors;
11and
 
12    WHEREAS, The decisions made in developing the next Farm
13Bill will impact the ability of food-insecure Illinoisans to
14access the food and nutrition safety they need; therefore, be
15it
 
16    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
17NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
18we urge Congress to develop the 2012 Farm Bill with a strong
19Title IV that protects and strengthens federal food and
20nutrition programs; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That we state our belief that the 2012 Farm Bill

 

 

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