Every good parent, no matter their income, worries about whether their child is getting enough to eat. For the parents of the one in five children living in poverty in Pittsburgh, that worry is all-consuming.
Families who are having trouble putting food on the table now have a number of options to help make sure their child is getting the nutrition they need to keep them healthy and happy all summer long.
Many children depend on their school for free, healthy meals. But just because school is out doesn’t mean our kids have to go without that nutrition. The USDA Summer Food Program operates at dozens of locations in the area and can help feed children and teens 18 and younger through August 21. Most sites are open every day and will provide children with 1 or 2 meals (a breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner).
Find a Summer Meal Site In Your Neighborhood:
• Text “MEALPA” to 877-877
• Call 211 for the United Way hotline
• Visit USDA’s online Summer Meal Site Finder at https://www.fns.usda.gov/ summerfoodrocks or call their Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HAMBRE (for Spanish) Monday through Friday (8 am-8 pm)
• At more than 125 sites and food truck locations GrubUp Pittsburgh provides summer meals and activities to all children up to 18 years old as well as individuals with mental disabilities up to 21 years of age. Find program details and location information:
• Online at www.grubpupgh.org
• By calling (412) 244-3911
The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or “food stamps” is the nation’s cornerstone anti-hunger and anti-poverty program, helping millions of eligible individuals and families and providing economic benefits to our communities.
• PA households receive an average of $240 each month to spend on food.
• In the U.S. seniors receive an average of $100 each month.
• For every $1.00 in food stamps received, $1.73 goes back into the local economy.
You may qualify even if…
• You own your home
• You are employed
• You are receiving unemployment, or SSI, Medicaid, or other disability benefits
• You own a car
• You have some savings
• You are going to school
• You are living with others
Find out if you are eligible today. Call Just Harvest at (412) 431-8963 for a five-minute screening and get help completing your application over the phone.
Unfortunately, despite the high need for these programs and their clear benefit to Pittsburgh and our region, several of these programs are on shaky ground.
Following the 2014 election Republicans became the majority in the U.S. Congress, but the 2016 fiscal year budget they’re proposing for the nation will only benefit a slim minority of Americans. Current majority leadership has helped create a climate that favors slashing funds for domestic programs in order to keep corporate and wealthy individuals’ taxes low and defense spending high.
Though final approval has not yet been reached, the House and Senate are moving forward to cut more than $5 trillion over the next 10 years from education, transportation, healthcare, and programs that are critical lifelines for the poor and hungry, while increasing military funding. If passed, this budget would be disastrous for low- and middle-income Pennsylvanians. The House version of the budget would:
• Cut the SNAP/food stamp program by reductions to eligibility and benefits in the amount of $125 billion, or by 15%. Under these cuts, SNAP participants would lose 220 meals a year or 10 weeks’ worth of food.
• Block grant SNAP and Medicaid, which would allow states to further divert funds from these programs – an idea that’s been rejected for two decades.
• Cut Medicaid to the tune of $913 billion.
• Cut hundreds of billions of dollars from other entitlement programs like WIC and school meal, summer, after-school, and child care center food programs, reducing low-income children’s access to the one to two free meals a day they receive.
• $1.1 trillion in further unspecified cuts to mandatory spending, which includes such programs as food stamps, disability payments for veterans, Pell grants for students, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
In the midst of legislative wrangling over these proposed cuts, federal funding for summer food programs is due to expire on September 30.
However, momentum is building in Congress behind two bipartisan bills—the Summer Meals Act of 2015 and the Stop Child Summer Hunger Act of 2015—that have great potential to dramatically reduce hunger during the summer months.
Just Harvest joined the City of Pittsburgh and local anti-hunger advocates in launching GrubUp last week, to expand local access to summer meals for hungry children in this city.
Help is needed to propel the Congress to pass a robust child nutrition bill so that GrubUp and other summer meals programs will be here for summers to come. We must also contact our federal legislators to make sure they enact a budget that reflects the priorities and values of the majority of this nation’s citizens. Hunger is injustice; together, we can end it.
About Post Author
