FL Families Still Struggle to Put Food on Table
Posted March 15, 2013 07:15 am | Public News Service
By Stephanie Carroll Carson
TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida economy may be showing some signs of improvement, but that recovery has yet to trickle down to those who need it the most. Florida ranks 12th on a list of states where people say they didn't always have enough money to put food on the table in the last year. That's more than 21 percent of the state's population, according to a report from the Food Research and Action Center.
Debra Susie, executive director of Florida Impact, said the state was particularly hard hit because of the economy's reliance on the construction, service and travel industries.
Links:
•
Food Research
and Action Center
• Read the report
•
The Basic Facts of Hunger In America
•
Child Hunger in America
"We really got hit with a triple whammy on the way Florida had to weather the economic downturn," she said. "It takes a long time to come out of that."
Susie was in Washington with more than 700 other people for a National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference that started on Sunday, March 3, 2013. They talked about ways the federal nutrition program "SNAP," formerly known as food stamps, can help address the problems of hunger in the country as the economy continues to recover.
As important as SNAP is, the FRAC report points out a
weakness in that food program: it says the benefit
levels aren't high enough to enable people to purchase
enough food to live on. FRAC President Jim Weill says
that when people's nutritional needs aren't met, it's
difficult for them to move ahead in other aspects of
their lives.
"We know from the research that that means parents and
kids aren't doing as well at work and at school as they
would be doing if they were consistently eating a
healthy diet," he said.
Weill said improving SNAP benefits starts with passing a
new Farm Bill in this legislative year that protects and
strengthens the program. Some in Congress have suggested
reducing benefits. The old Farm Bill was simply extended
when it expired last year.
Florida and other Southeastern states join the Southwest
as the two regions of the country most affected by food
hardship, according to the report.
Links and photos added by the Observer
Photo: feedingamerica.org