![]() ![]() Provide investments to further extend the benefit for fruits and vegetables and to ensure program operations can respond adequately to changes in the economy and rising caseloads and food costs. Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): Fully fund the WIC nutrition program ensuring that all families in need have access to life-saving nutritional and health services.Faith communities and other charities are essential in providing food packages to hungry seniors in their local communities and are critical partners in the TEFAP program. The CSFP should maintain full funding to help ensure adequate food assistance is provided to the growing population of low-income seniors. It should be strengthened through additional mandatory funding, allowing the Department of Agriculture to retain the authority to purchase bonus commodities in times of high need and low prices, increasing support for the Farm to Food Bank program without the state match requirement, and supporting policies to make food donation easier. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP): The TEFAP program is the backstop for food security in communities across the country, providing roughly 20% of food distributed by local hunger-relief organizations.We ask you to provide funding to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables through programs such as the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Incentive Program, the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), and through infrastructure support to food banks for refrigeration and distribution of fresh produce. Formerly incarcerated individuals should be able to access SNAP. Access should also be improved for students, military families, lawfully present immigrants and refugees, and seniors. State flexibility around waiving or scaling back work requirements should be preserved given present and future economic uncertainties. ![]() territories should participate in SNAP and be brought into parity with the states. Additional funding is requested for SNAP Employment and Training as well as SNAP Education. SNAP should be strengthened through updates to calculations that account for rising food prices, improvement to the standard medical deduction, eliminating the cap on the Excess Shelter Deduction, and increased benefits for households with young children. It is responsive to increased and decreased periods of need and continues to have one of the lowest fraud rates for federal programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helped feed more than 41 million Americans in 2022 and lifted nearly 3 million out of poverty.At a minimum, we urge you to maintain FY 2023 funding levels for these programs. To help families and service providers cope with rising costs, please increase funding for the vital programs listed below. We must work to ensure every person has enough nutritious food to sustain a life with dignity, promote good stewardship of the land and natural resources, and provide support to struggling farmers, ranchers, and farm workers. In the words of Pope Francis, “Hunger is criminal, food is an inalienable right.” 1 In this environment, nutrition programs that support the basic right to food should be strengthened. This puts particular stress on the poorest families to get enough to eat and be healthy. The cost of food has increased significantly due to inflation. Here, we wish to address the moral and human dimensions of the FY 2024 Agriculture Appropriations legislation. The respective Catholic organizations we represent work with Congress each year on a range of our priorities, including supporting the poor and vulnerable, protecting migrants and refugees, and protecting the preborn. We write on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on International Justice and Peace, joined by Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, and Catholic Rural Life. The Honorable Sanford Bishop, Jr., Ranking Memberĭear Chair Heinrich, Ranking Member Hoeven, Chair Harris, and Ranking Member Bishop: Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food / Drug Administration, and Related Agencies The Honorable John Hoeven, Ranking Member ![]() Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food / Drug Administration, and Related Agencies ![]()
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