S.Amdt. 1166

1. Adds SEC. 12___. SENSE OF THE SENATE RELATING TO EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE on page 1150, line 15

   Adds a sectionPrinted page

   Inserted: SEC. 12___. SENSE OF THE SENATE RELATING TO EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

   Inserted: (1) food insecurity and hunger are a fact of life for millions of individuals in the United States and can produce physical, mental, and social impairments;

   Inserted: (2) recent data published by the Department of Agriculture show that approximately 50,000,000 individuals in the United States live in households experiencing hunger or food insecurity, and of that number, 16,700,000 are children;

   Inserted: (3) the Department of Agriculture data also show that households with children experience food insecurity nearly twice as frequently as households without children;

   Inserted: (4) 5.1 percent of all households in the United States (approximately 6,100,000 households) have accessed emergency food from a food pantry 1 or more times;

   Inserted: (5) the report entitled "Household Food Security in the United States, 2011", published by the Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture, found that in 2011, the most recent year for which data exists--

   Inserted: (A) 14.9 percent of all households in the United States experienced food insecurity at some point during the year;

   Inserted: (B) 20.6 percent of all households with children in the United States experienced food insecurity at some point during the year; and

   Inserted: (C) 8.8 percent of seniors living alone were food insecure;

   Inserted: (6) as of the date of enactment of this Act, long-term unemployment is still at a record high, with over 37 percent of unemployed individuals nationally out of a job for 6 months or longer, an additional 7,900,000 people working part-time due to reduced hours, and rising gas prices and State budget cutbacks having left millions of hungry Americans struggling;

   Inserted: (7) the problem of hunger and food insecurity can be found in rural, suburban, and urban portions of the United States, touching nearly every community in the Nation;

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   Inserted: (8) although substantial progress has been made in reducing the incidence of hunger and food insecurity in the United States, many Americans remain vulnerable to hunger and the negative effects of food insecurity;

   Inserted: (9) the people of the United States have a long tradition of providing food assistance to hungry individuals through acts of private generosity and public support programs;

   Inserted: (10) the Federal Government provides nutritional support to millions of individuals through numerous Federal food assistance programs, including the emergency food assistance program established under the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (7 U.S.C. 7501 et seq.) (commonly referred to as "TEFAP");

   Inserted: (11) more than 61,000 local, community-based organizations rely on the support and efforts of more than 200 food banks and thousands of volunteers nationwide to provide food assistance and services to millions of vulnerable people;

   Inserted: (12) emergency feeding organizations like food banks and food pantries rely on nutritious commodities provided through the emergency food assistance program to feed hungry Americans; and

   Inserted: (13) emergency feeding organizations have seen a significant decline in TEFAP food distributed in 2012 while demand has increased by 46 percent between 2006 and 2010 according to the Hunger In America 2010 study with no signs of abating.

   Inserted: (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the Senate--

   Inserted: (1) recognizes the importance of the emergency food assistance program and the significant positive impact the program has on communities and families nationwide that are struggling with hunger; and

   Inserted: (2) commits to work together in a bipartisan manner to increase funding for emergency feeding programs, specifically food provided through the emergency food assistance program, under this Act.

   Original wording

   On page 1150, after line 15, add the following:

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As printed