June 5 is Hunger Awareness Day, an education and action project of America’s Second Harvest and many other organizations. America’s Second Harvest is a network of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue organizations. Already, there’s a lot of information available, such as a press release from America’s Second Harvest with basic details, and a blog post from Amy Sherman with some ways you can help.

America’s Second Harvest has an online library of fact sheets and reports about hunger. Here are a few statistics from their fact sheet on hunger and poverty:

• In 2005, 35.1 million Americans lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households — 22.7 million adults and 12.4 million children
• In 2005, 11% of households (12.6 million households) were food insecure, down from 11.9% in 2004.
• In 2005, 3.5% of all U.S. households accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times, or 21.5% of all food-insecure households.
• America’s Second Harvest Network provides emergency food assistance to an estimated 25 million low-income people annually, an 8% increase from 23 million since Hunger In America 2001.
• America’s Second Harvest provides emergency food assistance to approximately 4.5 million different people in any given week.
• Among members of America’s Second Harvest network, 65% of pantries, 61% of kitchens, and 52% of shelters reported an increase in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites since 2001.

Hunger and the Food and Farm Bill

Believe it or not, the Food and Farm Bill is where the Food Stamp Program is authorized (in Title IV, “Nutrition Programs”).

Why is an anti-hunger program in the “Farm Bill”? Like many parts of the legislation, it was originally attached to provide an outlet for agricultural products while also helping the hungry. Dan Imhoff’s Food Fight covers the history in some detail, as does this page at the USDA. The Great Depression led to the creation of the first food relief program in the first “Farm Bill” (the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933). The agency was the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, and it purchased, stored, and distributed surplus crops to the needy.

World War II, the booming post-war economy, and American “fend for yourself” ideology led to a phaseout of the relief program, until President Kennedy made food aid a priority of his administration. He reinstated a modest food aid program in 1961, and after his death Congress passed the Food Stamp Act in 1964. Eventually, the reauthorization of the Food Stamp Program became part of the Farm Bill. These days, the Food Stamp Program accounts for more than 50% of the expenditures in the Food and Farm Bill, about $50 billion per year (source: page 6 of Previewing a 2007 Farm Bill).

The recent Congressional Food Stamp Challenge — in which some members of Congress and their staff tried to spend less than the average food stamp allowance on food (about $3 per day) — brought some attention to the difficulties faced by those relying on food stamps. One of the participants was Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who recently introduced legislation to improve the reach and efficiency of the Food Stamp Program (H.R. 2129). As we approach the markup sessions for the Nutrition Title (probably the week of June 11), keep your eyes open for other proposals and watch out for surprises that would prevent eligible people from signing up (for example, a requirement to show five pieces of ID or adding unnecessary complications to the registration process).

Some of the smaller parts of the Nutrition Title should be of interest to Ethicurean readers. One is the “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Farmers’ Markets program,” which helps WIC participants buy fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. It receives about $25 million annually (that’s about 2 days’ worth of corn subsidies). Another is the Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition program, which gives vouchers to seniors that can be used at farmers markets. It receives about $15 million annually. Finally, there are a few programs that authorize funds to buy local foods for school meals and Department of Defense installations.

Although funds for programs like these are in short supply on Capitol Hill, perhaps with enough requests from the public, Congress will manage to direct more funds to food assistance programs that can help improve local food systems while reducing hunger.