‘Hunger has not gone away’
To the editor,
Thank you, Hearst Newspapers, for publishing Editor John Breunig’s column (Sunday, “When milk and salt run out”) about the ad hoc group of mothers who gathered groceries, toothbrushes, and other needs for families that could not afford them when the school meals became unavailable for the summer and the Senate blocked a desperately need COVID assistance bill.
Hunger in America seems to be a constant problem, but it is worse than ever during the pandemic. With more than 40 million Americans unemployed while food prices are rising, people are being forced to choose between rent and groceries. In Sunday’s article we meet mothers who are diluting milk to make it last through the month or are finding they cannot afford to buy salt.
The pandemic is an extraordinary situation. Stamford’s Helping Families initiative shows some of the best of public responses, but it has disbanded with the return to school. And hunger has not gone away. Feeding America (feedingamerica.org) estimates that 54 million Americans, 18 million of them children, may experience food insecurity in 2020.
In Connecticut, 426,620 people were food insecure in 2018, and 57 percent of those people were below the threshold for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. You can be sure that, given the devastation of COVID-19, those numbers are higher today. And yet, while the House has long since passed a $3 trillion assistance bill that includes a 15 percenty increase in SNAP benefits, the Senate came back from its month-long recess with $1 trillion, which did not include the SNAP increase, and refused to consider compromise.
Since the Senate is the bottleneck, call Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and refer them to John Breunig’s article. Tell them about the mother diluting the milk. Tell them to share the stories with their colleagues. Tell them to tell U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell to get out of the way so that the Senate can do its job. Our children need their action.
Stamford resident William Baker is a volunteer advocate for RESULTS, a movement of passionate, committed everyday people using their voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty.