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SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, No resident of Illinois should have to be food
3insecure; and
 
4    WHEREAS, 1,873,010, or one in 7, of the residents of the
5State of Illinois are experiencing food insecurity meaning they
6lack access to adequate nutritious food for a healthy life
7style; and
 
8    WHEREAS, 745,310, or just under one in 4, of the children
9in the State of Illinois are experiencing food insecurity; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Food insecurity is experienced in every county in
11the State of Illinois; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Feeding Illinois food banks have seen a 73%
13increase in requests for emergency food assistance over the
14past 3 years; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Hunger increases health care costs, lowers
16workers' productivity, and harms children's development and
17diminishes their educational performance; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Fighting hunger is a public-private partnership,
19and Illinois has a strong private network that has provided 1.4

 

 

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1million people in the State with more than 127 million pounds
2of food in 2010, but private charity cannot do it alone,
3Illinois needs a strong federal hunger relief safety net; 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 one in 6, Illinois residents enrolled
17in the program and just under half of those utilizing the
18program are children; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Any reduction in funding to 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 State Fiscal Year 2011, nearly 97% of whom are
11seniors; and
 
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; therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL
16ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge Congress to
17develop a Farm Bill with a strong Title IV that protects and
18strengthens federal food and nutrition programs; and be it
19further
 
20    RESOLVED, That we believe the 2012 Farm Bill must:
 

 

 

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1        (1) Oppose proposals to cap or reduce funding for SNAP,
2    restrict eligibility, or reduce benefits, and instead
3    support proposals to increase benefit adequacy to ensure
4    that households have the resources to purchase a
5    nutritionally adequate diet; and
6        (2) Support proposals that would make mandatory
7    funding for TEFAP food more responsive to changes in need;
8    and
9        (3) Enhance the Secretary of Agriculture's authority
10    to purchase bonus commodities in times of high need for
11    emergency food relief in addition to times of low commodity
12    prices; and
13        (4) Reauthorize funding for TEFAP Storage and
14    Distribution and TEFAP Infrastructure grants; and
15        (5) Protect funding for CSFP while transitioning the
16    program to a senior-only program and grandfathering in
17    current participants; and be it further
 
18    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
19delivered to the members of the Illinois Congressional
20delegation, the President of the United States, and the United
21States Secretary of Agriculture.