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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

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PA group works to educate voters on deadlines, registration, mail-in ballots; Suspect in Apparent Trump Assassination Plot Crusaded for Many Causes; Court's 'home equity theft' ruling helps homeowners in NE, nationwide; Local leaders revive Toledo's historic 'Black Wall Street.'

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Maine food banks meet growing demand as Farm Bill lags

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Friday, January 26, 2024   

Food banks in Maine are struggling to keep up with demand as the Farm Bill remains stalled in Congress.

The bill is renegotiated every five years and contains the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which ensures food banks can help the 11% of Maine households facing hunger.

Vince Hall, chief government relations officer for Feeding America, said advocates for these families are asking Congress to double the program's funding as grocery prices remain high and supply-chain disruptions continue.

"That program moves food from local farms to local food banks," he said, "and it helps to close the gap between the food that's been donated and the food that's needed."

Hall said the current Emergency Food Assistance Program is still operating on a 2008 cost basis, which limits its impact. He said the consequences of not securing this additional funding are dire; one in five children in Maine is coping with food insecurity.

Feeding America is partnering with the Farm Bureau, International Dairy Farmers Association and the Pork Producers Council to raise awareness of the negative impacts of a delayed Farm Bill, but infighting within the GOP-led House has stalled legislative priorities. Hall said if the Farm Bill isn't updated soon, the current hunger gaps will only widen.

"We may have a crisis where not enough food is available to feed people in need," said Hall, "where distributions have to be closed or distributions run out of food."

Maine has had the highest rate of food insecurity in New England for nearly two decades. State officials hope to reverse that trend with their Roadmap to End Hunger by 2030, but there are significant structural challenges. Among food-insecure Mainers, more than 40% have incomes higher than the eligibility threshold for available relief programs, including SNAP and WIC.


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