It has been a quick start to the year for me as Monday saw the release of “Freedom from Hunger: An Achievable Goal for the United States of America.” I was a co-chair of the bipartisan commission established by Congress to look at the issue of hunger in America and propose solutions. Our report is the result of 18 months of hard work by volunteers from diverse backgrounds, with perspectives ranging the entire political spectrum. The fact that we were even able to produce a report with unanimous backing is an accomplishment in itself.
There’s a lot in the report — too much to summarize here. But the highlights for me are:
1)We picked the right measure of the problem. Using an annual survey of households, we identified “Very Low Food Security at the Household Level” as our definition of hunger. A household is defined as falling in this category when a respondent reports that one or more members of the household had to reduce food intake because they did not have enough money to purchase food.
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Using this measure, the percent of households experiencing hunger increased from 4.1% in 2007 to 5.4% in 2010, and the rate has remained elevated (5.6% in 2014) — even as the economic recovery enters its sixth year and despite a large increase in food assistance spending by the federal government.
Now, 5.6% of households means almost 7 million households, which is a lot and too many, but it is not 45 million—the number often promoted by groups who try to make the problem sound worse than it is. Picking the right measurement will help us to more successfully choose the best, most cost effective, solutions.
2) There was agreement on the Commission that the best defense against hunger is earnings from employment, and that our government programs, including SNAP, should do more to help low-income Americans find work. We recommended that SNAP case workers refer more beneficiaries to employment programs, and that states be given more flexibility to experiment with their SNAP Employment and Training funds. We also think USDA should report more information on whether states are succeeding in moving SNAP recipients into work.
3) We also agreed that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should do more to help recipients make healthy nutritional choices. Boldly, we unanimously recommended that a carefully defined class of sugar-sweetened beverages be restricted from the list of allowable purchases with SNAP benefits. So Food Stamp recipients will still be able to buy these products (which have no nutritional benefit and are the leading contributor to obesity), but not with dollars provided from the government through a program intended to promote good nutrition.
4) The report also contained an important discussion of the root causes of hunger. We noted the importance of work, the negative consequences that come with single parenthood, and the significance of personal responsibility, among others. This added a fuller understanding of the causes of hunger than is often seen in reports on this issue.
I was pleased to have been asked by former Speaker Boehner to serve on this commission and to help write this report. I hope you’ll give it a read.
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