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4 IN THE MATTER OF: )

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FARM BILL NUTRITION FORUM Atlanta, Georgia - November 2, 2005 )

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TRANSCRIPT OF

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PUBLIC HEARING

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9:00 a.m.

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Atlanta Community Food Bank

16 732 Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard, N.W.

Atlanta, Georgia

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Christopher M. Artman, CCR B-2325

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1 APPEARANCES

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3 On behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

4 ERIC M. BOST, Under Secretary

5 DONALD E. ARNETTE, Regional Administrator

6 CLARENCE CARTER, Food Stamp Program \-- HQ

7

8 On behalf of the Atlanta Community Food Bank:

9 BILL BOLLING, Executive Director

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11 Guest Speakers:

12 LESTER CYPHER, The Volunteer Way

TERRY VORHEES, Southeast Produce Council

13 DON WAMBLES, Alabama Farmers Market Authority

CHARLES HALL, Georgia Fruit and Vegetable

14 Association

KATHY PALUMBO, Atlanta Community Food Bank

15 RAJONIA ROBERTS, DHR/DFCS

BARBARA HOPKINS, American Dietetic Association

16 TONY FLORES, Flores Consulting Services

ERIC DARRACQ, Georgia Department of Natural

17 Resources

TAMI WILLADSEN, The Nature Conservancy

18 TIM LOWRIMORE, Georgia Forestry Association

DENISE GRIEWISCH, Second Harvest of the Big Bend

19 Food Bank

MARY CARR, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

20 DOROTHY INMAN-JOHNSON, Capital Area Community

Action Agency

21 DEBRA A. SUSIE, Florida Impact

EARLINE E. MIDDLETON, Food Bank of Central and

22 Eastern North Carolina

JOYCE P. O\'HEAL, Food Bank of Central and

23 Eastern North Carolina

LARK HAYES, Southern Environmental Law Center

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25 - - -

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1 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Good morning.

2 First of all, welcome. We\'re glad that you\'re

3 here. I\'m Eric Bost, the Under Secretary. I

4 would first like to thank Bill Bolling and his

5 staff for allowing us the opportunity to come to

6 this wonderful facility.

7 Actually, I had the opportunity to be here

8 for the ground breaking when it was just some

9 mud out there and actually to come back and see

10 it after it was completed. It\'s a beautiful

11 facility, and I would encourage all of you, at

12 some point in time, to come back and volunteer.

13 It affords all of us an opportunity to make a

14 positive difference.

15 And speaking of differences, this is my

16 11th forum. And the purpose of these forums is

17 essentially this \-- it\'s very simple: It is an

18 opportunity to hear from all of you about what

19 your thoughts, recommendations, and suggestions

20 would be to us as we look in terms of putting

21 our ideas into the old 7 Farm Bill.

22 You are afforded a wonderful opportunity

23 to share with us what you think, and we would

24 encourage you to do so. Of the Farm Bill, there

25 are six programs that are part of the nutrition

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1 type, the largest, of course, being the Food

2 Stamp Program and the CFSP and TEFAP and people

3 on Indian reservations; those are all part of

4 it, too. The farmers markets; those are all

5 part of it, too. But the issue for us is to

6 hear from you.

7 The one thing that I would say to you is

8 that there are some guiding principles that will

9 be constant. First and foremost, since I\'ve

10 been Under Secretary, there has been a move on

11 our part to ensure that people that are eligible

12 to participate in our programs have the

13 opportunity to do so; that they have easy access

14 to our programs.

15 And on the other side, that our partners

16 who have the responsibility for implementing

17 those programs, that we make it easy for them to

18 carry those programs out.

19 But the third piece that\'s also very

20 important to me is to ensure that we maintain a

21 high level of integrity in our programs.

22 So there are three pieces that will still

23 remain constant as we move forward.

24 The one thing that I would say about the

25 largest of our nutrition programs is the Food

5

1 Stamp Program. Right now we\'re serving

2 approximately 25 million Americans every month.

3 And I mention it not because it\'s the

4 largest but because as we look at what occurred

5 to our sister states down in the Gulf and how it

6 adversely affected a significant number of

7 people, the Food Stamp Program did what it was

8 supposed to do: It quickly and efficiently got

9 food in the hands of hungry people and their

10 children and their families. And in many

11 instances, people that never, ever thought that

12 they would participate in the Food Stamp

13 Program \-- never thought \-- but it did what they

14 were supposed to do.

15 In addition to that, with our Commodity

16 Distribution Program, in concert with our

17 partners, America\'s Second Harvest and the food

18 banks, that worked exceptionally well. And I\'m

19 here to congratulate Bill and all of his

20 partners in the food bank industry to say thank

21 you for the outstanding job that they did in

22 working with us, in coordinating with us, and in

23 partnering with us in terms of getting food

24 quickly to a significant number of people.

25 It would not have been possible if it had

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1 not been for the work that they did. And that\'s

2 why I wanted Bill here for my intro, to thank

3 him and all of his folks, because we\'re just so

4 pleased and happy with the partnerships that we

5 have. It\'s about working together. It\'s about

6 making a positive difference in the lives of

7 people that we have a responsibility of serving.

8 My parents, who are very close to me, they

9 have this saying that I always try to keep in

10 the back of my mind: \"You never know when

11 you\'re going to need someone else\'s help.\" You

12 know, you might be on top today. Many of those

13 people were doing quite well in New Orleans.

14 Actually, some of them you would say were fairly

15 rich, wealthy. They lost everything, and now

16 they have an EBT card. You never know, do you?

17 And so the issue for us is to be there so

18 that we\'re able to respond to the needs of

19 hungry people in this country quickly. With

20 your help, with our partnership with folks at

21 America\'s Second Harvest and the food banks,

22 we\'re here to hear from you about what we can

23 continue to do to, one, strengthen those

24 relationships, and to make it better, to make it

25 more efficient, more efficient to respond more

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1 quickly if need be. That\'s why you\'re here.

2 This is not a dialogue. I\'m going to

3 listen. We\'re going to listen. There might be

4 instances where we might ask a couple of

5 questions in seeking some clarification, but

6 this is an opportunity for you to talk with us.

7 As I said, this is the 11th forum that

8 we\'ve had. The last one was scheduled for

9 Columbia, South Carolina, on the 17th of

10 November. And what we will do is that we will

11 take all the comments that we\'ve gotten and

12 compress them and put them on the website toward

13 the end of the year, the first of the year, so

14 that everyone can see what everyone else had to

15 say.

16 We\'ll take all of those comments, and over

17 the course of the next several months, we will

18 review them and make some determination as to

19 what we believe \-- \"we\" being the

20 administration \-- what we believe needs to be

21 done in terms of addressing many of the issues

22 that I\'ve talked about.

23 So with that in mind, I\'m going to sit

24 down. But I wanted Bill to be here to make a

25 couple comments, and then we\'ll turn it over to

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1 Don to go through the ground rules, and then

2 we\'ll go ahead and get started.

3 Don is going to tell you this, but I\'m

4 going to add a little bit to it. We have a time

5 keeper, and I think that there are people that

6 will give you the little yellow \"Yield\" sign

7 that you have so many minutes, and then they\'ll

8 put up the \"Stop\" sign. But there are a couple

9 people that keep talking after they see the

10 \"Stop\" sign. If you do, I\'m going to tell you

11 to sit down. You don\'t want to have me to do

12 that, because it is so embarrassing. And it\'s

13 embarrassing on purpose.

14 You do have the opportunity to submit

15 written comments. And after you\'ve heard

16 everybody else, and you say, \"I wanted to say

17 that, too,\" later on you can send those to us.

18 Bill?

19 MR. BILL BOLLING: Thank you. I want to

20 also thank you for being here. This is exactly

21 what we wanted. We didn\'t have a ground

22 breaking, we had a ground blessing. And it had

23 been raining all night and it was muddy out here

24 when we put the tent up. Eric came, the mayor

25 came, and you can see the outcome of that

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1 effort.

2 We consider the Under Secretary our top

3 food banker in the country. I know the

4 President considers him the Under Secretary of

5 Ag., but as far as food banking, we have never

6 had a better friend. We\'ve never had as much

7 support as we\'ve had, and I think we\'ve never

8 had as much flexibility.

9 One of the difficult things in handling

10 the USDA food is that there\'s a lot of

11 accountability. There should be. The two

12 hurricanes that we just experienced, I think,

13 was an example for us of, as soon as it

14 happened, sitting down with the regional office,

15 sitting down with the national office, and

16 saying, \"How are we going to go forward?\" And

17 the answer was, \"What do you want to do? How

18 are we going to get the food out?\" And that\'s

19 what we\'ve done.

20 So for that, we thank you for your

21 leadership, we thank you for your friendship,

22 and we thank you for your partnership with the

23 food bank.

24 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

25 MR. BILL BOLLING: I\'ve been called a few

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1 times where the Secretary said, \"That\'s time.\"

2 I think I\'m getting the signal right now. Thank

3 you for being here \--

4 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you for

5 having us.

6 MR. BILL BOLLING: \-- so that we can

7 listen to each other. I mean, that really is

8 the basis of trust and having a partnership, and

9 we do that very thing.

10 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

11 MR. BILL BOLLING: So Don, Eric, thank you

12 very much.

13 MR. ARNETTE: Good morning, everyone. I\'m

14 Donald Arnette, the Regional Administrator for

15 the Southeast region here in Atlanta, Georgia.

16 And I would like to introduce the Deputy

17 Administrator of the Food Stamp Program,

18 Clarence Carter, who is here, and we\'re here in

19 support of the Under Secretary.

20 In providing that support, there are

21 several things that all of you will need to do

22 to help us today, and I\'ll read them to you so I

23 don\'t miss anything at all. These are

24 housekeeping issues. Of course, the restrooms

25 are out the door to the left. Follow the signs,

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1 and you\'ll be there. But for the forum itself,

2 do pay attention.

3 One: Attendees that have written comments

4 may leave them in boxes designated for written

5 comments. One is at the registration table, and

6 one is here in the forum area (indicating),

7 which is on the table here to my right.

8 Two: For attendees making oral

9 statements, you were provided a blue card with a

10 number and a location, either left or right. If

11 your card has \"right,\" then you will speak from

12 the microphone on your right. If it has \"left,\"

13 you will speak from the microphone on your left.

14 Three: At the front of the room, Karen

15 Dean will hold up a card with a number on it.

16 That will be your cue to move to the cueing line

17 so that you are ready to speak when your turn

18 comes.

19 Four: Before you begin to make your

20 statement, please state your name, your

21 affiliation, and provide your city and state.

22 It\'s very important.

23 Five: Originally, we had allotted a time

24 limit of three to five minutes for each speaker.

25 However, it appears that we will have ample time

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1 to accommodate everyone, even if your comment

2 exceeds five minutes, but watch the sign. If

3 your time becomes an issue, Karen will hold up

4 the \"Yield\" sign, and we ask that you cooperate.

5 And when she holds up \"Stop,\" it means stop, or

6 the Under Secretary will do as he said.

7 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: It\'s embarrassing.

8 MR. ARNETTE: Six: We will not be taking

9 a break. We will not be taking a break. So if

10 you need to leave the forum area, please feel

11 free to do so.

12 And seven: Finally, I want to thank those

13 of you who have volunteered to participate in a

14 service opportunity here at the food bank. Our

15 goal is that the food bank continues to do its

16 work. There have been individuals who have

17 signed up saying that you would like to donate

18 time today, and we just want to thank you for

19 that.

20 And with that, we can start with our first

21 speaker.

22 MR. LESTER CYPHER: My name is Lester

23 Cypher. I\'m the CEO of The Volunteer Way, which

24 is in Florida. It\'s a Florida faith-based,

25 hunger-relief charity located in New Port Richy,

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1 Florida.

2 First, I would like to thank you for

3 allowing us to be here and express our concerns

4 with the new T-5 contracts that started

5 April 2004. I represent The Volunteer Way Food

6 Bank and approximately 2- to 300 faith-based and

7 community organizations in Florida.

8 The Florida Department of Agriculture,

9 FDA, tried to make sure that all the

10 nutritionally challenged in Florida had an equal

11 opportunity to receive their share of USDA

12 commodities. We also believe that there were

13 areas that were underserved that needed to have

14 an opportunity to receive these share of

15 commodities.

16 As you know, faith-based and community

17 charities have a long and tireless record of

18 helping people of their community and have been

19 applauded many times by government and the

20 business community for all the good works they

21 have done.

22 Our concerns are that these new contracts

23 put many small, faith-based and community

24 charities at risk of closing their doors. This

25 is already happening in Florida. The average

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1 church, which most people do not realize, is

2 approximately 75 people, and they struggle just

3 to pay their overhead and their pastor. This

4 has not allowed many funds to pay for food or

5 handling fees to feed the nutritionally changed

6 of Florida.

7 These new contracts give the authority to

8 the contract holders to pick which food pantries

9 or soup kitchens will receive commodities and

10 which will not. We have many complaints from

11 small churches that they have been told by the

12 contract holder that they cannot receive

13 commodities because their communities are

14 covered by other food pantries and soup

15 kitchens.

16 When these contracts were given out,

17 85 percent of all Florida\'s counties were given

18 out to members of one Florida association, which

19 also met with FDA before the contracts were

20 written. FDA had good intentions when they

21 changed these T-5 contracts and were behind it

22 100 percent. But what they did not take into

23 consideration is that just like people, all

24 charities do not have the best of intentions.

25 FDA should have more control over the

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1 contracted charities and an impartial board to

2 resolve complaints. At the present time, there

3 is no procedure if a problem exists. We need

4 your support for these small, faith-based

5 charities and community charities.

6 I\'ve written a more-detailed report that I

7 put over there (indicating) with suggestions on

8 how to solve some of these problems. And they

9 are solvable, but they need to be addressed as

10 soon as possibly if you can in the new

11 contracts.

12 Thank you for your attention and for

13 giving me the opportunity to talk.

14 MR. TERRY VORHEES: Good morning. My name

15 is Terry Vorhees. I\'m the Executive Director of

16 the Southeast Produce Council based out of Sun

17 City Center, Florida.

18 We are a regional trade association with

19 over 400 members. Membership consists of

20 growers in the Southeast, many of which are

21 second- and third-generation family-owned

22 farmers. Our membership also consists of

23 national companies like Dole, Chaquita, Fresh

24 Express, and Del Monte. Our retail members

25 include companies such as Kroger, Buy-Low,

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1 Harris Teeter, and SuperValue, and also, we have

2 major food service distributors as members such

3 as U.S. Food Services.

4 Our primary goal is to promote the fresh

5 fruit and vegetable industry in the Southeast,

6 and we know of no better way than introducing

7 fruits and vegetables to children. Early

8 consumption of nutritious fresh fruits and

9 vegetables prepares a child for a lifetime of

10 healthy eating habits.

11 I am here today to ask for your continued

12 and expanded support for the Fresh Fruit and

13 Vegetable Snack Program. The 2005 dietary

14 guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of

15 Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health

16 recommends that all Americans eat five to 13

17 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day.

18 These guidelines are the strongest statement

19 ever about the need to increase consumption of

20 fresh fruits and vegetables.

21 The Fresh Fruit and Snack Program

22 increases children\'s consumption of fresh

23 produce, and the program results in immediate

24 behavior change. Students started eating more

25 fruits and vegetables the first week the program

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1 was introduced into their schools. We know the

2 children like fresh fruits and vegetables and

3 that they eat more if they are more accessible

4 and readily available where the children are.

5 On average, children eat less than

6 one-half the recommended daily amount of fresh

7 fruits and vegetables. We also know that

8 childhood obesity is increasing at an alarming

9 rate. Children\'s poor eating habits, including

10 inadequate intake of fresh fruits and

11 vegetables, contributes to becoming overweight

12 and in developing diabetes, high blood pressure,

13 and heart disease.

14 Students who participate in the Snack

15 Program ask their parents to buy more fresh

16 fruits and vegetables. And the program has

17 demonstrated that students ate more fresh fruits

18 and vegetables and consumed less soda, chips,

19 and candy.

20 The Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program is

21 currently available in 14 states. We would like

22 to ask and possibly see that this program be

23 expanded to all 50 states. I would just like to

24 say that, in addition to talking about the Fresh

25 Fruits and Vegetables Snack Program, the

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1 Southeast Produce Council has supported other

2 programs in the Southeast. One of them we feel

3 is very important, and that is the EFNEP

4 program, the Extended Food and Nutrition

5 Education Program.

6 We currently work with the program in

7 South Carolina. And when we first started

8 working with EFNEP, we were surprised to learn

9 that the in-home educators had no specific

10 program dedicated to fruits and vegetables. We

11 have basically started a program with them in

12 which we fund a coupon where the low-income

13 families can go into their local supermarkets

14 and refund this coupon for fresh produce.

15 Thank you.

16 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Are you aware that

17 I just spoke with Congress and that we\'ve added

18 six additional states?

19 MR. TERRY VORHEES: Yes, I know. I\'ve

20 mentioned 14 states now.

21 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Okay. And then you

22 also know that it would be in excess of almost

23 \$10 billion?

24 MR. TERRY VORHEES: Let me just add that

25 if we could certainly be \-- we have a lot of

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1 growers who are members in the Southeast, and we

2 would be more than willing to work with you any

3 way we can and possibly work a program where

4 some of our growers/shippers could maybe work at

5 offering these fruits and vegetables at a

6 discount.

7 Thank you.

8 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

9 MR. DON WAMBLES: Thank you very much,

10 Mr. Secretary. My name is Don Wambles. I\'m the

11 Director of the Alabama Farmers Market Authority

12 in Montgomery, Alabama.

13 I\'m here to speak this morning on behalf

14 of the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

15 Albeit all of our programs that are up for

16 discussion this morning are extremely important,

17 as you so eloquently stated earlier, our Food

18 Stamp Program is the largest of all of these.

19 And I do not mean this in a negative

20 connotation, whatsoever, in regards to the Food

21 Stamp Program. I want to predicate that by my

22 remarks. I don\'t want to get any emotion

23 incited, but with the Food Stamp Program,

24 particularly here in the Southeast in years

25 past, it has had a negative connotation with

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1 poor people. And the EBT Program has helped

2 overcome that significantly, and we greatly

3 appreciate that. However, at the same time,

4 what the EBT Program has done, it has precluded

5 the food stamp recipients from being able to

6 shop at farmers market. So we have an issue

7 with that, but I won\'t speak to that. But I do

8 want to put that on the record.

9 But coming back to the Senior Farmers

10 Market Nutrition Program, this is one of the

11 most creative, most innovative means of

12 providing fresh fruits and vegetables to a

13 sector of our citizenry that so greatly needs

14 them. You know, the USDA and all of our health

15 institutions in society have documented that

16 fresh fruits and vegetables in the diet greatly

17 increases our health. So whatever means we can

18 utilize to increase the consumption of fruits

19 and vegetables in our diet, we need to do it.

20 Through the Senior Farmers Market

21 Nutrition Program, we have not only done that

22 and we are having healthier seniors, we\'re

23 assisting our agricultural community to be

24 strong and viable, which is so extremely

25 important to us.

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1 And when I speak about the agricultural

2 community, that might be a little far into the

3 Food and Nutrition Service, because you really

4 do not focus too much on production agriculture.

5 But without fresh fruits and vegetables that the

6 gentleman just prior to me was talking about, we

7 wouldn\'t have those vegetables for our school

8 programs or whatever if our farmers and our

9 agricultural community was not strong and viable

10 here.

11 And what\'s so important with the Senior

12 Farmers Market Nutrition Program is it is all

13 small farmers, small family farmers. These are

14 not individuals who are receiving any of the

15 government subsides in the Farm Commodities

16 Program, whatsoever.

17 The Senior Farmers Market Nutrition

18 Program should not, and in my opinion, cannot be

19 viewed as a substantive program, because we\'re

20 providing food assistance to seniors that they,

21 in turn, have the choice to shop at farmers

22 markets and spend that food dollar on whatever

23 food and vegetable is of their choice.

24 And the farmer is selling a product that

25 he has got out there and has worked his land to

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1 produce. So he\'s just getting paid for a

2 product that he\'s produced.

3 And you\'re putting that fresh product

4 directly in the hands of the consumer that no

5 other program that we have is doing. We\'re

6 putting someone with the food coupon and the

7 producer together at the same place at the same

8 time.

9 Now, the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition

10 Program, along with the WIC Farmers Market

11 Nutrition Program, but particularly the Senior

12 Program, is a very creative and innovative means

13 of providing that food to those elderly

14 citizens. It\'s been operated for the past four,

15 five years under the Competitive Grants Program,

16 and each individual grantee has written grants

17 and submitted those grant proposals telling the

18 USDA how they\'re going to implement and run

19 their programs, and the grants have been awarded

20 accordingly.

21 We have a proven track record that not one

22 size fits all. We have creativity and

23 innovation, and most importantly, Mr. Secretary,

24 we do have integrity. I encourage anyone in

25 this room to come to Alabama and look at the way

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1 we\'re running our program. Is it perfect? No,

2 sir. But we\'re working on getting there.

3 But what we do not need is for the Senior

4 Farmers Market Nutrition Program in the next

5 Farm Bill or with the implementation of the

6 final regs that are coming out hopefully within

7 the next few months, we do not need to be put in

8 a box where one size fits all.

9 You know, this program is different from

10 most other programs. We\'re dealing with an

11 elderly population that we\'re having to work

12 within the elderly system that is set up across

13 America, which is quite different from most of

14 the programs that FNS is currently dealing with,

15 and we\'re also dealing with farmers and

16 agriculture.

17 And as we all have seen recently here in

18 the Southeast, we\'re at the mercy of the weather

19 with our production of crops. So we can\'t just

20 draw a box around this thing and say that we\'re

21 going to have to stay in that box. We need some

22 creativity and some ingenuity.

23 The one thing that the Seniors Farmers

24 Market and the WIC Farmers Market does is that

25 we are limited to only fresh fruits and

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1 vegetables. There is a wide, vast array of

2 products available at farmers markets. And

3 there have been studies out that fresh nuts have

4 reduced cholesterol levels. Honey is a

5 tremendous thing that our seniors have asked

6 for.

7 And I would ask and encourage that you

8 give serious consideration to expanding the food

9 package in the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition

10 Program. It would not only benefit our

11 producers, but we would make those seniors a lot

12 happier than what we have right now. It\'s not

13 easy standing before an elderly lady and telling

14 her, \"You can\'t buy that.\"

15 Thank you for your time, and we appreciate

16 you being here.

17 MR. CHARLES HALL: Good morning, Under

18 Secretary Boss and Mr. Arnette. My name is

19 Charles Hall. I\'m the Executive Director of the

20 Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association of

21 LaGrange, Georgia. Our association represents

22 30 growers, packers, and shippers throughout the

23 State of Georgia. The farm-gate value of

24 Georgia\'s fruit and vegetable industry in 2004

25 was \$830 million.

25

1 Mr. Bost, I want to express our

2 appreciation to you and the Secretary for the

3 effort that y\'all are putting into the input and

4 comments for the 2007 Farm Bill. I\'ve had the

5 opportunity to attend two of the other listening

6 sessions, and we certainly appreciate all your

7 time and effort on that.

8 As our Nutrition Under Secretary, I know

9 you recognize the important role that fruits and

10 vegetables have not only in America\'s

11 agricultural production but also in the

12 citizens\' quality of life.

13 The timing of the new dietary guidelines

14 just issued by the USDA and DHH and the Farm

15 Bill sets the stage to focus on the need to

16 bring the United States agricultural policy in

17 line with these guidelines. One of the keys to

18 doing this is increasing consumption and making

19 fruits and vegetables more accessible and

20 readily available to the youth of our nation.

21 On average, children eat less than half

22 the daily allowance as recommended by the new

23 guidelines. Childhood obesity, poor eating

24 habits, and disease is contributing to this by

25 the inadequate eating of fruits and vegetables.

26

1 And as we look to the 2007 Farm Bill, it offers

2 us an excellent opportunity to address these

3 problems and encourage better nutrition by our

4 children.

5 One of the top Farm Bill priorities for

6 the produce industry is to expand the Fresh

7 Fruits and Vegetables Snack Program to all 50

8 states, and we realize there is a cost in doing

9 that. Unfortunately, as we know, and you

10 mentioned earlier, we are only in 14 states at

11 this time. And we certainly appreciate your

12 efforts and the conference committee\'s efforts

13 last week to have that expanded by the eight

14 states that were added last week during the

15 appropriation\'s hearings.

16 As you mentioned, we\'re now in 14 states

17 and three Indian tribal organizations. We

18 encourage this continued expansion of the

19 program because we know that this has effects.

20 We know that children eat the fruits and

21 vegetables when they\'re available and that they

22 look for more fruits and vegetables when they

23 get home. They\'re asking for additional fruits

24 and vegetables from their parents.

25 From our discussions with several members

27

1 of the Georgia Congressional Delegation, we hope

2 that this program will be expanded into Georgia

3 schools in \'07. We\'re working on that

4 appropriation that we could get it into Georgia

5 soon. But short of that, if we can work with

6 the \'07 Farm Bill and expand it to all 50

7 states, that would mean healthier and less obese

8 children in this country.

9 Our association also has, as a second

10 nutritional goal for the \'07 Farm Bill, double

11 the funding of the Department of Defense Fresh

12 Program for schools. As you know, this is a

13 very efficient and cost-effective mechanism to

14 get fresh fruits and vegetables into DOD school

15 lunch programs. This is working.

16 The emphasis is placed on utilizing local

17 grower organizations. It\'s all of our producers

18 and suppliers. Now I believe there\'s 300

19 produce items now available to schools through

20 the DOD Fresh Produce Program. We believe that

21 more schools, of course, would participate in

22 this program if the funds were available, and we

23 would want to work in the 2007 Farm Bill

24 discussions to see that program expanded.

25 You also mentioned the Food Stamp Program

28

1 in the earlier comments, that it is a very large

2 program and touches a large sector of our U.S.

3 population. We support this discussion of farm

4 policy during the 2007 Farm Bill discussion.

5 They encourage food stamp recipients to eat a

6 healthy diet rich in a variety of fruits and

7 vegetables consistent with the 2005 dietary

8 guidelines.

9 We support the Farm Bill in providing

10 funds in the development and implementation of

11 innovative programs that would encourage food

12 stamp recipients to increase their consumption

13 of fruits and vegetables with some type of

14 incentive, whether it\'s an added deposit or a

15 bonus or additional funds added to the EBT cards

16 when those purchases are made.

17 The Georgia Fruits and Vegetables Growers

18 Association is committed to participate in the

19 Farm Bill discussions over the next two years.

20 We look forward to working hand-in-hand with our

21 nutritional consultants and other children\'s

22 healthcare advocates as we work to benefit our

23 children\'s youth.

24 Mr. Secretary, we appreciate you being

25 here. Thank you.

29

1 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

2 MS. KATHY PALUMBO: Good morning. My name

3 is Kathy Palumbo. I\'m Community Services

4 Director here at the Atlanta Community Food

5 Bank. This morning I\'m also representing The

6 Georgia Food Bank Association.

7 The first thing I would like to say,

8 Mr. Bost, is just compliments to the FNS Staff

9 Regional Office and the State Food and Nutrition

10 Unit for DHR on the work you all did during

11 Hurricane Katrina. It was exemplary. It was a

12 model for other federal departments. We can\'t

13 thank you enough. You got food to people when

14 they needed it in a timely way and released some

15 of the burden on the non-profits. Thank you,

16 everybody, so very much.

17 I do want to talk to you about two

18 specific programs: One is the Food Stamp

19 Program, and the other is the TEFAP Program.

20 The ability to respond so well during

21 Hurricane Katrina really exemplifies the

22 strength of the Food Stamp Program structure.

23 It is a national design, a national eligibility

24 standard, a funding mechanism that\'s central to

25 the program\'s success, and those things have to

30

1 be preserved. I think they are just really core

2 to the strength of the Food Stamp Program.

3 Each month in Georgia, about 300,000

4 persons with limited resources are able to eat

5 regularly because of food stamp programs. It is

6 also the premiere child nutrition program in our

7 country. It provides nutrition to low-income

8 families at home 12 months of the year, seven

9 days a week, 24 hours a day. There\'s no other

10 nutrition program that has that reach.

11 The Food Stamp Program is the principal

12 reason why this region in this state, which

13 historically has been extremely poor, no longer

14 has severe hunger. It\'s a remarkable

15 accomplishment. And what we would like to do is

16 offer some suggestions to bolster that strength.

17 The first thing I would like to suggest is

18 that USDA consider asking for additional

19 administrative funds to the states. In Georgia,

20 I think the State\'s share of administrative cost

21 is close to 60 percent, and some people can

22 correct me on that if I\'m wrong. It leaves the

23 State with a huge expense, and it prohibits some

24 innovation.

25 I think we have a division here in the

31

1 State of Georgia right now that is absolutely

2 committed to fighting hunger and making sure

3 that people are food secure. But I think the

4 lack of some additional administrative money

5 prevents the innovation and expansion.

6 We would really like to see the USDA be

7 able to provide food stamps to all eligible

8 regions. Access to adequate food is just

9 absolutely necessary. It impacts health and

10 productivity. Our nation invites the same class

11 of residents to join our armed forces and fight

12 in our wars. Surely we can offer the families,

13 when they\'re eligible, some food stamps.

14 We would like to see the minimum food

15 stamp benefit for senior citizens increase to at

16 least \$50 a month and extend the certification

17 for older adults without earned income to \$40.

18 We would like to see the elimination of

19 the interview requirement for re-certifying

20 households in a face-to-face interview. Perhaps

21 these households could be allowed to reapply

22 either electronically or by mail. This would

23 conform to most states\' Medicaid rules and would

24 allow folks that are working and have to take

25 time off work to do the re-certification to meet

32

1 their primary responsibility to their employer.

2 We would like to see the continued and

3 expanded funding for EBT services at farmers

4 markets. Several gentlemen have spoken about

5 this this morning. Access to locally produced

6 foods increases nutrition to poor people and

7 helps with getting some more value to the local

8 farmers.

9 We would really, really encourage you \--

10 and I know this is nay impossible \-- to

11 calculate the benefit allotments using the

12 moderate or low-cost food plan rather than the

13 food plan.

14 About two years ago, we did a random

15 sample of retail grocers in the metropolitan

16 area to see what the cost locally of the

17 distributed food plan was. It was nearly

18 30 percent more than the benefit level.

19 Certainly we take some responsibility as our

20 mission to make sure that people get food.

21 And we know that a lot of people that food

22 banks serve through our partner agencies are

23 food stamp recipients, but that 30 percent

24 difference seems extreme. So if we could think

25 about recalculating using the moderate or

33

1 low-cost food plan, I think it would be an

2 enormous help.

3 I could go on. I could be verbose, but

4 I\'ve got written comments, so I\'ll move along.

5 Thank you.

6 MS. RAJONIA ROBERTS: Good morning. I\'m

7 Rajonia Roberts, the TEFAP Project Administrator

8 with the Georgia Department of Human Resources

9 Division of Children and Family Services. I\'m

10 here today representing our Unit Manager,

11 Batista Edwards, who is not able to attend due

12 to a scheduled conflict. However, I do have a

13 statement which she submitted concerning the

14 Food Stamp Program. She writes:

15 \"Dear Under Secretary Bost: Thank you for

16 allowing us an opportunity to share our thoughts

17 on the administration of the Food Stamp Program.

18 \"The 2002 Farm Bill enacted many positive

19 changes for the simplification of the Food Stamp

20 Program. The change we appreciate the most as

21 administrators of the program is the simplified

22 work requirement. This simplification relieves

23 clients of inadvertent errors that historically

24 reduce the monthly allotment of food stamps to

25 households often because of uncertainty about

34

1 the rules.

2 \"Also, with consistent increases in

3 caseloads and decreased State revenues due to

4 high unemployment, this provision has helped our

5 state to maintain the respectable payment rate.

6 Please continue to implement program changes

7 along this line.

8 \"Other Farm Bill options Georgia

9 implemented to help us improve our ability to

10 manage the program are simplified definitions of

11 \'incomes\' and \'resource.\' While we did not

12 observe a significant increase in food stamp

13 participation because of these options, we have

14 enjoyed simplification in the program

15 administration. We greatly appreciate all

16 measures to reduce administrative burdens.

17 \"Other challenges of the Food Stamp

18 Program we would like to see simplified are as

19 follows: We need a standardized medical

20 deduction for the elderly and our disabled

21 applicants and recipients. If we could use a

22 standard, similar process used for the Medicare

23 drug discount card, we could further simplify

24 the Food Stamp Program and relax some of the

25 verification requirements on one of our most

35

1 vulnerable population.

2 \"Current resource policy, especially as it

3 pertains to vehicles, is not in line with

4 today\'s applicants and recipients. Is it

5 possible to exclude vehicles altogether, apart

6 from mechanical eligibility?

7 \"The policy on able-bodied adults without

8 dependants, or A-BODs, the laws on the time

9 limit benefits has to be the most time

10 consuming, burdensome, and ineffective policy in

11 the Food Stamp Program. Most A-BODs accumulate

12 two to three months with the first violation.

13 Some accumulate three months not as a result of

14 noncompliance but due to the nature of our

15 business.

16 \"If a state does not have any

17 discretionary exemption, the 15 percent

18 exemption is to be used. Then the A-BOD is at

19 risk of hunger and not as a consequence of his

20 or her actions. For example, a household that

21 has a simplified reporting requirement that has

22 an individual that unknowingly becomes subject

23 to the A-BOD provisions during the certification

24 period is at risk of losing eligibility for the

25 remainder of the 36-month period.

36

1 \"If a state chooses to provide services to

2 assist these individuals with employment and

3 training opportunities, the pro rata share of

4 the 90 million ENT grant is not nearly enough

5 funding to provide the meaningful services that

6 will lead to self-sufficiency. And yet, so much

7 time and money is spent on such a small

8 population of food stamp recipients.

9 \"Another concern about the effectiveness

10 of the ENT Program is the recent interpretation

11 that federal funds cannot be extended to support

12 acceptance of new employment. It seems that

13 acceptance of gainful employment should be the

14 focus of the program and that funds used to

15 support this goal is not only acceptable but

16 encouraged.

17 \"Think of the scenario: An A-BOD has

18 applied and been approved for food stamp

19 benefits. He or she does not have any income

20 because he was laid off from his or her job at a

21 major airline a year ago. He has been in our

22 ENT Program in a training component. This A-BOD

23 attends a job fair and has been made an

24 acceptable offer. The only hindrance is that he

25 or she has to have his tools to begin work.

37

1 \"If we do not assist this able-bodied

2 individual who has no income with the one thing

3 that stands between him and the respectful gain

4 of employment, we are violating the spirit of

5 the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and the very

6 nature of the Food Stamp Employment Training

7 Program.

8 \"Another concern is the \$10 minimum

9 benefit to all categorically eligible

10 households. In most cases, this is an elderly

11 or disabled person. This benefit needs to be

12 increased to be aligned with the current

13 inflation rates. If we could increase the

14 minimum allotment to \$25 monthly, it would make

15 the application process more attractive for this

16 at-risk population.

17 \"Our final recommendation is for a system

18 for calculating eligibility for performance

19 goals and for accuracy. When determining

20 superior performance, the stylification of

21 paperwork should be taken into consideration.

22 \"Respectfully, Batista Edwards, Unit

23 Manager, Food Nutrition Program.\"

24 Thank you.

25 MS. BARBARA HOPKINS: Good morning. My

38

1 name is Barbara Hopkins, and I am a dietician

2 here in the Atlanta area. I\'m also an educator

3 at the university in the city of Atlanta, and

4 I\'m submitting my comments on behalf of the

5 American Dietetic Association.

6 It is the opinion of the American Dietetic

7 Association that the public needs an

8 uncompromising commitment from their government

9 to advance nutrition knowledge and to help

10 people apply that knowledge to maintaining their

11 health. Millions of Americans benefit from the

12 USDA Food Assistance Program where we still see

13 hunger in the United States and coexisting

14 problems of overweight and obesity. In fact,

15 what we see is the largest manifestation of

16 malnutrition in the United States today.

17 We request that the next Farm Bill

18 addresses four key areas:

19 First, that the USDA Foods Assistance

20 Program be known to those in need and that it is

21 adequately funded.

22 Second, that improving the nutritional

23 status of Americans needs to combine priority in

24 food assistance programs and other food programs

25 in all states for all Americans.

39

1 Third, that increased investment in

2 nutrition education and nutrition research is

3 necessary, and it must be sustained.

4 And fourth, that having up-to-date

5 knowledge of the nutrition composition of the

6 food supply is essential for all that work in

7 food nutrition and health.

8 If we expect consumers to take personal

9 responsibility for making healthy choices, then

10 we have the responsibility to make sure that

11 they are adequately prepared. The government

12 must invest in the nutrition research and

13 nutrition education necessary to give Americans

14 the knowledge and ability to make their own

15 nutrition decisions. Those nutrition

16 recommendations and programs for the public must

17 be based on sound science.

18 Only the federal government has the public

19 mandate and resources to carry out research on

20 human nutrition needs and to develop dietary

21 guidelines that form the basis for all federal

22 nutrition programs. We believe federal research

23 exploring the relationship between diet,

24 particularly dietary patterns and health, is

25 particularly important.

40

1 On a personal note, I just want to thank

2 the USDA for all of its wonderful nutrition

3 education materials that our students can

4 benefit from.

5 And I also, on a personal note, want to

6 thank you for the comments that were made about

7 the Atlanta Food Bank because they provide

8 wonderful resources for my students. And I do

9 require my students to follow the Food Stamp

10 Program for a week, to keep a diary, and to do

11 the nutritional analysis to see and experience

12 why it is important for people in the United

13 States.

14 Thank you.

15 MR. TONY FLORES: Good morning. My name

16 is Tony Flores, and I represent Flores

17 Consulting Services. I\'m formerly with the

18 Georgia Department of Human Resources. I was in

19 charge of implementing Title VI.

20 I would like to enlighten you about the

21 growing Hispanic community, not just in Georgia

22 but throughout the Southeast, with the exception

23 of Florida. This is a growing market which is

24 being ignored to a certain extent. When you

25 look at diversity issues and you look at

41

1 representation of Latinos in the State of

2 Georgia, even at the federal level and at the

3 State level, there\'s less than 1 percent

4 Hispanics employed in any management positions

5 to implement community outreach programs to make

6 all these USDA programs happen.

7 In Georgia, there are about 800,000 senior

8 citizens, and the percentage of Latinos is very

9 small. But you have a large Latino workforce

10 that could be trained to help senior citizens

11 down the road, like in New York City, where they

12 become nutrition assistants. They come to the

13 home and they cook. They take them to the

14 doctor. They take them for a walk. They go to

15 the pharmacy for them. And they take people and

16 they train them. And they make ten to \$12 an

17 hour. In Georgia, we don\'t have this.

18 The other thing is, a lot of the

19 promotional materials that we do and we

20 translate in different languages, most of them

21 go to the health clinics and to some of the DHR

22 offices. But they don\'t make themselves

23 available to faith-based associations or

24 non-profit associations where a lot of these

25 people come and go.

42

1 And you have to more or less train them to

2 eat nutritional food rather than wait till they

3 go to the clinic and have the doctor tell them,

4 \"Hey, you\'re off your diet.\" We have to be more

5 proactive and think outside of the box. And if

6 the box is not right, let\'s create a new box and

7 come up with new ideas on how to promote health

8 and wellness.

9 I was talking to a colleague yesterday

10 from the WIC Program here in Georgia. I said,

11 \"You know, the State of Georgia has so many

12 vehicles, and here we\'re promoting NASCAR. Why

13 can\'t we put a lot of this health and wellness

14 on some of these State cars that travel up and

15 down the state? People would see that.\"

16 The other thing is that for senior

17 citizens, there\'s only one day a week in the

18 supermarkets for them to buy and get a discount.

19 Why can\'t they extend that to at least Sunday?

20 A lot of minorities, they shop on weekends.

21 They don\'t shop during the week, especially if

22 you\'re a senior citizen that depends on a family

23 member to take them to the store.

24 Lastly, I represent and I\'m a member of

25 MING, when is the Medical Interpreters Network

43

1 of Georgia. And they train people in eight

2 different languages. And a lot of them are out

3 of work because they\'re never called upon. A

4 lot of State agencies will call The Language

5 Line for interpretation services, which is very

6 costly.

7 Secondly, I\'m also a member of The

8 Hispanic Health Coalition with major hospitals

9 in the area, and I\'m also a volunteer with

10 (inaudible), which is a free cancer screening.

11 They have promotions where we go out and get

12 Hispanic food companies from New York to come to

13 Georgia to promote, because in Georgia, they

14 don\'t listen to Latinos.

15 And what\'s happening is that everybody

16 thinks that a large portion of us are illegal.

17 But the key players in this market are Puerto

18 Ricans, Cubans, and Mexican-Americans. And we

19 have to be thankful that a lot of the Mexicans

20 that are on our farms, they\'re short. They\'re

21 closer to the ground. They are the ones that

22 cultivate the crops and vegetables that we see

23 on our tables or the ones that work in the

24 poultry industry.

25 But you have to be aware. Right now

44

1 there\'s a concern among Hispanics about their

2 very food. And yet, a lot of them work in the

3 poultry plans. Nobody\'s getting to them. So

4 these are opportunities for you to think about

5 and rethink your strategies on how to market to

6 Hispanics in the Southeast.

7 There\'s no market research. We take data

8 from New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

9 Latinos here are different. I have a son that

10 grew up on WIC. He\'s a professor at Graves

11 College. His name is Anton Flores, and he\'s a

12 promoter of social work. He\'s the chair of the

13 sociology department at LaGrange College.

14 He works with community organizations. He

15 even has his own little farm for the community

16 in a black and white low-income area that\'s

17 being revitalized in the City of LaGrange. And

18 a lot of senior citizens live there.

19 We have to look outside of Atlanta,

20 because a lot of the same people that we\'re

21 trying to reach are being ignored and are being

22 denied services because of language barriers.

23 And I\'m not talking about just Hispanics. I\'m

24 also talking about refugees from Africa,

25 especially Ethiopia, which most of them are

45

1 vegetarians.

2 Well, with these remarks, I want to thank

3 you. And I hope you could focus on these areas,

4 because I think there\'s a large potential to

5 come up with good ideas.

6 And lastly, please shorten your food stamp

7 forms. You know, they\'re too long. A lot of

8 white Americans that have lost their jobs have

9 complained, while poor people that have been

10 filling them out for years never complained

11 because nobody listens to them. But the table

12 is turning. Thank you.

13 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Let me respond to

14 one of the things you said about the food stamp

15 forms: We don\'t dictate the forms. It\'s the

16 states that \--

17 MR. TONY FLORES: Well, you\'ve got to get

18 on their case.

19 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Well, hold on a

20 second. Hold on a second.

21 Clarence will tell you we\'ve met with all

22 the states to have them reduce the forms. And I

23 know that in my state of Texas, the form went

24 from ten pages down to two when I was

25 commissioner. So it\'s a decision that\'s made by

46

1 the State. It\'s not made by the federal

2 government, okay? So maybe you should send

3 those comments to the State of Georgia, okay?

4 MR. TONY FLORES: I did, but\...

5 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

6 MR. ERIC DARRACQ: Good morning. My name

7 is Eric Darracq. I work with the Georgia

8 Department of Natural Resources Wildlife

9 Resources Division. I\'m the Private Lands

10 Program Coordinator working out of Social Circle

11 with statewide responsibilities.

12 The Georgia Department of Natural

13 Resources Wildlife Resources Division strongly

14 supports maintaining wildlife as a co-equal

15 objective with soil, water, and other natural

16 resources in the 2007 Farm Bill.

17 WRD encourages full funding of wildlife

18 conservation programs and practices and a

19 provision of funding for more adequate technical

20 assistance and program delivery in conservation

21 programs at the local level.

22 WRD fully supports the consensus

23 recommendations and guiding principles that were

24 recently submitted by the Southeast Forestry and

25 Wildlife Farm Bill Working Group, and we are

47

1 particularly supportive of maintaining and

2 enhancing programs and practices that provide

3 posture to establish native habitats to restore

4 American ecosystems and provide wildlife

5 habitats to wildlife like the northern Bob White

6 quail and any other grassland-dependent wildlife

7 species that are in serious decline.

8 For example, programatic funding is needed

9 to increase the establishment of native fuel

10 buffers like CRP Practice CP 33. This is a

11 great practice that benefits multiple resources

12 and should be continued and able to be expanded.

13 Additional producer enrollment can be encouraged

14 by increasing financial incentives for native

15 buffers or on irrigated fields, such as the

16 actual cash rental rates on these fields are

17 much higher than the dry land rental rates that

18 are currently being paid.

19 Programs and practices are needed for the

20 establishment and management of natural

21 vegetation in crop field corners for heavy

22 thinning and prescribed burning in pine stands

23 to restore prime savanna habitats and for

24 continuing the long-leaf pine conservation

25 priority areas.

48

1 We support the integration of Conservation

2 Title programs with comprehensive written

3 landscape-oriented conservation plans, such as

4 the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation

5 Strategy, Partners in Flight, and The North

6 American Bob White Quail Initiative and other

7 comprehensive conservation plans.

8 Farmers in the public at large need Farm

9 Bill conservation programs if we are to maintain

10 and pass along our great wildlife legacy to

11 future generations.

12 Thank you for this opportunity to provide

13 comments on this critically important issue.

14 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you. I pride

15 myself on being geographically informed, but I

16 don\'t think I know where Social Circle is. I

17 know that of every little town in this country,

18 I have some clue. But where is Social Circle?

19 MR. ERIC DARRACQ: It\'s about 40 miles

20 east on I-20 from Atlanta.

21 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Okay. Is that the

22 place where the stop light stops working \--

23 never mind.

24 MS. TAMI WILLADSEN: Good morning.

25 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Good morning.

49

1 MS. TAMI WILLADSEN: I\'m thrilled to be

2 here and want to thank you for the opportunity

3 to provide input into the development of the

4 administration\'s 2007 Farm Bill proposal. I\'m

5 Tami Willadsen with the Georgia chapter of The

6 Nature Conservancy right here in Atlanta,

7 Georgia.

8 The Nature Conservancy is an international

9 non-profit conservation organization with

10 chapters in every state and over 1 million

11 members nationwide. Our mission is to preserve

12 the plants, animals, and natural communities

13 that represent the diversity of life on Earth by

14 protecting the lands and waters they need to

15 survive.

16 All programs within the scope of the Farm

17 Bill have a direct or indirect impact on our

18 environment. Knowing that clean air and water,

19 along with nutrition, are vital building blocks

20 for healthy communities and a prosperous farming

21 economy, I would like to submit nine specific

22 comments addressing questions from the USDA Farm

23 Bill Forum website, \"How can farm policy best

24 achieve conservation and environmental goals?\"

25 First, the Farm Bill should maintain

50

1 habitat-friendly agriculture and forest while

2 increasing funding available for long-term

3 easements. Generally, revisions to the 2007

4 Farm Bill should eliminate the provision that

5 encourages conversion or intensified production

6 on ecologically sensitive lands. Also,

7 revisions should strengthen existing

8 conservation programs and create new programs to

9 encourage conservation back to native habitats

10 and discourage conversion to more intensive

11 uses, especially development.

12 Secondly, the bill should eliminate

13 barriers to participation by non-industrial

14 private forests in all USDA conservation

15 programs. One such example would be the

16 elimination of the requirement that eligible

17 forest land must be incidental to a registered

18 farm operation.

19 Third, include the development of a

20 broad-ranging forestry program intended to aid

21 in the management and protection of small,

22 non-industrial private forest lands.

23 Fourth, the bill needs to address invasive

24 species threats associated with agriculture and

25 forests. This would include an amendment to The

51

1 Plant Protection Act to bolster federal

2 capabilities of preventing the introduction of

3 plants and pests that cause harm to both our

4 natural environment and agricultural economy.

5 Five: We suggest targeting Farm Bill

6 conservation programs by granting the National

7 Resource Conservation Service Chief and the Farm

8 Service Agency Administrator the ability to

9 select sites or species to target a portion of

10 program funds where USDA programs have the

11 largest broad-scale impact per dollar spent.

12 Six: The Farm Bill provisions need to

13 promote improved water quality and flow regimes

14 that are impacted by agriculture and forest

15 management. Specifically targeting water

16 quality programs on a watershed-by-watershed

17 basis will address water quality and quantity

18 concerns.

19 Seven: We would like to see an increase

20 in incentives for adaptive management of native

21 species, including funding for management of

22 land under USDA rental agreements and easements

23 in order for two purposes: one, to mimic

24 natural disturbances such as prescribed burning,

25 and, two, to control invasive species.

52

1 Eight: The bill should specify

2 requirements for ecologically based measures

3 tied to the purpose of conservation programs and

4 use performance measures to inform and modify

5 program rules and implementation.

6 And lastly, The Nature Conservancy

7 recommends an increase in resources to monitor

8 compliance of existing conservation requirements

9 within the Farm Bill.

10 I want to thank you all so much for your

11 effort and time today for allowing us to come

12 and speak today. Thank you.

13 MR. TIM LOWRIMORE: Mr. Secretary, good

14 morning. Welcome to Georgia. We appreciate you

15 being here. My name is Tim Lowrimore. I\'m the

16 Staff Forester with the Georgia Forestry

17 Association in Forsyth, Georgia.

18 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: I know where that

19 is.

20 MR. TIM LOWRIMORE: Okay. Good. I didn\'t

21 want you to come to Georgia without hearing from

22 forestry and to let you know that forestry is

23 important to our state. And the provisions in

24 the Farm Bill that relate to forestry with the

25 non-industrial private land owners, as you just

53

1 heard, are important to those guys.

2 The Georgia Forestry Association is the

3 advocate organization for more than 2400 private

4 land owners, businesses, and corporations that

5 depend on health in Georgia forests.

6 I think it was Mark Twain that once said,

7 \"A rumor travels around the world before the

8 truth can put its shoes on.\" And I think it\'s

9 important to hear some facts and consider these

10 facts together about how important forestry is

11 to Georgia.

12 Two-thirds of our state is covered by

13 forests; 24 million acres. A significant

14 portion of that is owned by private land owners,

15 just like us in this room, hopefully;

16 72 percent, as a matter of fact. Only 8 percent

17 of Georgia is publicly owned. More than 170,000

18 jobs are generated by Georgia\'s forests. Many

19 of these jobs are manufacturing jobs in rural

20 Georgia. I think it\'s important to point out

21 that for every one of those manufacturing jobs,

22 it can be said that three

23 service-industry-related jobs are supported.

24 Forestry consistently ranks as one of the

25 largest sectors in Georgia\'s economy,

54

1 contributing approximately \$22 billion annually.

2 Family forests are recognized as one of

3 Georgia\'s largest suppliers of timber supporting

4 the thousands of jobs in the multi-billion

5 dollar manufacturing presence in our state that

6 was just mentioned. However, urban sprawl, land

7 fragmentation, forest health issues, and

8 increasing environmental concerns continue to

9 alter, if not threaten, much of Georgia\'s

10 family-owned forests.

11 The Georgia Forestry Association is here

12 today to express our support on behalf of

13 Georgia\'s forest owners for the Conservation

14 Title within the Farm Bill. We believe the

15 Conservation Title encourages more productive

16 forestry by private land owners, which, in turn,

17 results in greater ecological services for the

18 public at large such as clean water, clean air,

19 wildlife habitats, recreational benefits, carbon

20 sequestration, and many, many more.

21 All of these ecological benefits are

22 provided to the general public from these family

23 forests. We believe it is essential to continue

24 funding the Conservation Title within the Farm

25 Bill. Today I will conclude my remarks with

55

1 expressing our support for three specific areas

2 that are of particular importance to Georgia\'s

3 private forest owners.

4 First, the Georgia Forestry Association

5 supports the Georgia Forest Stewardship Program.

6 We recognize the value of management plans that

7 consider multiple uses of the land. We support

8 the strengthening of the Forest Stewardship

9 Program through authorization of cost-share

10 incentives for the implementation of practices

11 often defined in the management plans that are

12 provided through the stewardship program.

13 Secondly, The Forestry Association

14 supports the funding of programs with respect to

15 the control of invasive species on private

16 lands. Many times, Georgia land owners are

17 faced with controlling invasive species and

18 exotic species that are often a result of prior

19 generation\'s land management practices. These

20 species are persistent pests and are often very

21 expensive to eradicate and, in fact, can have an

22 adverse impact on the health and productivity of

23 our farms. Financial assistance provided to aid

24 with high eradication costs would be beneficial

25 and may allow land owners to restore

56

1 unproductive lands, which, in turn, creates more

2 benefits to the public at large.

3 Finally, the Georgia Forestry Association

4 supports funding of programs that support

5 private forest land owners practicing forestry

6 within watersheds. It\'s said by The American

7 Forest Association and The Society of American

8 Forestry that two-thirds of the nation\'s

9 drinking water comes from privately owned

10 forests. Georgia\'s forests mirrors the nation\'s

11 forest. And here in Georgia, we like to say

12 that our drinking water is actually a forest

13 product.

14 It makes sense for the Farm Bill to place

15 a priority on strengthening the programs that

16 monitor the water quality and that provide

17 assistance to land owners who are practicing

18 forestry in our state\'s watersheds. We stand

19 ready to help you guys in any way we can in

20 deciding on how conservation appropriations go,

21 and I do appreciate you being here.

22 Thank you for the opportunity.

23 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: I would say to you

24 that when Mr. Carver and I were in Oregon last

25 week or two weeks ago, we heard from several of

57

1 the people representing the forest industry, and

2 they wanted us to leave Oregon realizing and

3 understanding that the Oregon forest was the

4 best in the entire world.

5 MR. CARTER: That\'s right.

6 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: And I have since

7 gotten several e-mails from them inviting me to

8 come out and see for myself. And so I wanted to

9 share that with you.

10 MR. TIM LOWRIMORE: I\'m extending the same

11 offer. We can discuss that. Thank you.

12 MS. DENISE GRIEWISCH: Good morning.

13 Thank you, Under Secretary Bost and USDA staff,

14 for allowing the State to work with many of the

15 programs under the Farm Bill and being able to

16 present comments today. My name is Denise

17 Griewisch. I\'m the Executive Director of Second

18 Harvest Food Bank in Tallahassee, Florida. We

19 serve a 14-county region of the Big Bend

20 containing six of the poorest counties in

21 Florida, according to population priority

22 statistics.

23 My first day on my job was September 10th,

24 2004. Within two weeks, I was inundated with

25 calls of complaints from our member agencies who

58

1 are increasingly unhappy with the changes in the

2 TEFAP contract.

3 We experienced, in 2002 and 2003, a

4 decrease in the pounds and the reimbursement

5 transportation costs for our area. We

6 previously had expanded our TEFAP Program

7 because of the increase in food that we had

8 received in 2000. We were also encouraged to

9 expand our service area to include those areas

10 of counties that were underserved, which we did.

11 In 2002, we had a decline in our TEFAP

12 food poundage of almost 60 percent. It was a

13 great hardship for our agencies to adjust.

14 We\'ve actually lost over a hundred agencies, in

15 part, because of this decline. We\'re now down

16 to 204 agencies, about half of which receive

17 TEFAP food.

18 One of the explanations, apparently, that

19 we received for the decline in our food was that

20 the State had mistakenly over-allocated our

21 14-county region. We never received anything in

22 writing to determine what their method of

23 accounting for that was. We do know there was a

24 redistribution statewide, and other regions of

25 Florida that had previously not had as much

59

1 TEFAP food are now receiving more.

2 The problem is many-fold. We serve a

3 large region. It\'s almost a 2,000-square-mile

4 region from end to end of our Big Bend region.

5 Our transportation costs, not even considering

6 the huge increase in fuel costs in the past six

7 months, is extraordinary. Each year since 2002,

8 we have funded \-- where Florida used to fund \--

9 all the transportation costs for their

10 commodities programs.

11 We now fund, in excess of \$30,000 a year,

12 the cost of transporting this government food

13 program. We\'re not in a position financially to

14 do that, and it is causing a tremendous strain

15 on our very small food bank budget. We\'re under

16 a million dollar budget.

17 And we\'ve been listening to our agencies.

18 The way that the State has restructured \-- and I

19 know that many states have a completely

20 different way that they manage their TEFAP

21 contract. But some of our agencies indicate

22 that in prior years, there was a mix of products

23 that they could then implement a 7-to-14-item

24 package for their recipients.

25 Our contract has changed so that we get

60

1 bulk truck loads of one item at a time, and we

2 don\'t have the storage or the ability to serve

3 as a mixing center where the State used to

4 perform this function, as well as absorb a lot

5 of the transportation costs. We now have to do

6 that. The constraints for us are that we can\'t

7 hold on to food more than 60 days in our

8 warehouse, according to our contract.

9 Therefore, our agencies receive bulk items

10 of frozen product that they have no storage

11 facilities for. They\'re not getting the variety

12 in a timely fashion. Over the course of a year,

13 the quality of food is very good, and it\'s one

14 of the best food exchanges that we have in our

15 food bank. It accounts for approximately 30 to

16 40 percent of the entire food stream in our food

17 bank.

18 But I think the issues that our agencies

19 have is that the shift for them is difficult in

20 the contract. There is no longer a way for them

21 to count on knowing that, each month, they will

22 get any kind of a variety of USDA food. It may

23 be all peaches or all chicken one month or all

24 green beans. And we\'re having to try to

25 encourage them to supplement their food stream

61

1 with the other types of food that we have at the

2 food bank.

3 I know that one of the questions you had

4 for citizens regarding this was having to do

5 with technology. We recently experienced a

6 difficult audit situation where our auditor was

7 unable to get a complete accounting from the

8 USDA and the Florida Department of Agriculture

9 of all the food they had distributed to us over

10 the past fiscal year.

11 We, however, had all of our accounting,

12 our paperwork, our bills of lading, and

13 invoicing, but there was a discrepancy of over

14 \$200,000 and nearly 300,000 pounds of food that

15 they had no record of that they contributed to

16 our food bank. It was costly for us to pay our

17 auditor an extra day to go and help their staff

18 figure out a way to report this food allocation

19 to us in a factual documentation. We literally

20 had our MIS person help train their staff how to

21 cut and paste information from sources online so

22 that they could present this to our auditor.

23 I would suggest that if the USDA is

24 considering having national uniform rules that

25 they look at each state and explore these sites

62

1 with pitfalls in the new contracts that each

2 state implements to see if there\'s a state model

3 that they could implement to help some of the

4 states that are having a difficult time with

5 this new contract configuration to provide

6 support to the people in need on the ground at

7 the agency level that are unable to manage the

8 constraints of this new contract and look again

9 at transportation money for those of us in rural

10 areas who really cannot afford, as non-profits,

11 to absorb a cost that used to be a public

12 program.

13 Thank you very much.

14 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Interestingly

15 enough, many of your comments are different. I

16 have not heard some of the comments that you

17 have made, and usually they\'re very, very

18 similar across the entire country.

19 Mr. Arnette will follow up with you in

20 terms of specifics.

21 MS. DENISE GRIEWISCH: I think we\'re in a

22 different region in Florida.

23 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: So Mr. Arnette will

24 follow up with you in terms of what you\'ve

25 shared with us, because they do tend to be \--

63

1 they\'re falling outside of the realm of some of

2 the comments that we have heard.

3 MS. DENISE GRIEWISCH: Thank you.

4 MS. MARY CARR: Good morning. My name is

5 Mary Carr. I\'m a research associate for the

6 Southern Alliance For Clean Energy.

7 We are a non-profit, non-partisan

8 membership organization promoting responsible

9 energy choices that ensure clean, safe, and

10 healthy communities throughout the Southeast.

11 We have offices in Georgia, Tennessee, North

12 Carolina, and represent our members from eight

13 Southeastern states.

14 As an organization whose main focus is on

15 developing workable energy solutions to our

16 nation\'s current energy problems, we believe the

17 agricultural community can provide an important

18 source of energy that allow rural communities to

19 support farmers, provide an important source of

20 energy, decrease our dependence on foreign oil,

21 and lower our energy costs while solving many of

22 the nation\'s energy and environmental problems.

23 I am here today to express our

24 organization\'s support for the provisions in the

25 2007 Farm Bill Energy Title, primarily

64

1 Section 9006, that focus on energy efficiency;

2 clean, renewable energy supplies; and bioenergy

3 products.

4 Rather than cutting funding for renewable

5 energy products in the Farm Bill as has been

6 recently proposed by Congress, we would like to

7 see continued and increased effort in the 2007

8 Farm Bill for clean energy products such as

9 wind, biofuel such as ethanol and biodiesel,

10 bioenergy, and solar energy efficiency with the

11 goal of 25 percent of our energy by 2025 coming

12 from farms. We also want to see more research

13 in sources of ethanol so that a greater variety

14 of crops will be able to help us reach energy

15 independence.

16 Here in Georgia, two projects have

17 received increased grant money under the

18 Section 9006 program. In 2004, Wright Witty

19 Davis Farm received money to build an anaerobic

20 crop duster, and in 2005, Beezley Forest

21 Products received funding to install a

22 wood-burning boiler.

23 We look forward to seeing more projects

24 like these being supported by the USDA in the

25 coming year and in the years following

65

1 development of the 2007 Farm Bill.

2 Thank you.

3 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

4 MS. DOROTHY INMAN-JOHNSON: Good morning.

5 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Good morning.

6 MS. DOROTHY INMAN-JOHNSON: I\'m Dorothy

7 Inman-Johnson. I\'m Executive Director of

8 Capital Area Community Action Agency in

9 Tallahassee, Florida. Denise just finished

10 speaking to you from the food bank perspective

11 on the difficulty we are having in the Big Bend

12 area of Florida. I\'m here to speak as a

13 sub-distributor on those same difficulties.

14 Capital Area Community Action Agency has

15 been involved in the distribution of USDA

16 commodities for over 20 years in a four-county

17 area, including the capital of Florida. We

18 recently added a fifth county when the local

19 government of Jefferson County decided to divest

20 itself from the program in order to ensure that

21 the low-income families we were serving did not

22 fall through the cracks.

23 Since the restructuring of Florida\'s TEFAP

24 Program with Second Harvest taking over

25 coordination in the Big Bend region of Florida,

66

1 my agency has experienced many problems as a

2 sub-distributor receiving food in an adequate

3 and timely manner for our monthly distributions

4 to needy families. My comments are centered on

5 four basic concerns.

6 No. 1: We have not been able to count on

7 a specific number of cases of food to serve the

8 over 1,300 households to which we distribute

9 commodities on a monthly basis. For example,

10 the year before the State restructured and

11 Second Harvest took over, in September 2003, we

12 received 131 cases of basic commodities in

13 Franklin County, one of the coastal counties we

14 serve, compared to September 2005 under Second

15 Harvest, only 20 cases of basic foods were

16 received for Franklin County.

17 The supply for September 2005 was a

18 111-case deduction when compared to the food

19 received in 2003. Since the poverty and

20 unemployment rate in that county have not

21 improved, but, instead, have grown worse in

22 Franklin County along the Gulf coast due to

23 hurricanes, we have no way of explaining this

24 discrepancy.

25 No. 2: The lack of variety in food

67

1 received is our second concern. For example, in

2 one small, rural county, we received one case

3 each, just 24 cans per case, of pears, potatoes,

4 tomatoes, green beans, macaroni, and one case of

5 12 jars of peanut butter where we were expected

6 to distribute to 134 households.

7 In that same food delivery, we received

8 31 cases of cranberry juice, which basically

9 left us with canned vegetables, canned fruit,

10 macaroni, and no meat to serve only 24 of the

11 134 households, but all the cranberry juice they

12 could drink. I recommend, therefore, that the

13 USDA consider providing greater quantity of food

14 staples like flour, sugar, meal, rice, grits,

15 dried beans, and the such if there is no ability

16 for the money to provide the adequacy and

17 variety needed.

18 No. 3: The federal law guide in the USDA

19 Food and Nutrition Program states that there

20 should be no charge for the food for basic

21 commodities distribution. However, we have been

22 forced indirectly to purchase food from the food

23 bank to meet our monthly, basic commodities

24 obligations. And even though we have a \$4,000

25 credit at the food bank for the problems Denise

68

1 mentioned, we can\'t even purchase a wide variety

2 of food.

3 This is supposed to be a federal food

4 program and nutrition program supplement. It is

5 not. When Second Harvest sends in our supply of

6 63 cases of powdered orange energy drink or

7 48 cases of vanilla shakes and 31 cases of

8 cranberry juice, compared to only one or two

9 cases of vegetables or fruit and no meat, this

10 cannot be considered nutritious or a correct

11 supplemental supply of food for the poor.

12 I feel it\'s an embarrassment for a state

13 as wealthy as Florida that we cannot even

14 provide six or seven items of food in a monthly

15 food supplement for the poorest of our citizens,

16 but we can send billions of dollars in relief to

17 other countries. I was brought up to think that

18 we take care of home first. We are not doing

19 that here.

20 I took the time away from my job and my

21 family to travel to Atlanta because I am so

22 frustrated in trying to meet the very basic

23 needs of the people that my agency serves as the

24 anti-poverty agency in this Big Bend region. I

25 ask you to adopt some basic policies that at

69

1 least guarantee a basic level of food services

2 for this supplement for poor people.

3 Thank you.

4 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

5 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: Hi. I\'m Debra Susie.

6 I\'m the Executive Director of Florida Impact.

7 I\'m also here representing eight Southeastern

8 states for the Southeastern Anti-Hunger

9 Consortium, of which there are 15 organizations

10 like our own statewide organization working in

11 anti-hunger. The Florida Impact is a 26-year

12 old organization that started as a faith-based

13 group and broadened beyond that, as well. We\'re

14 headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, and our

15 reach is statewide.

16 I really want to focus on the Food Stamp

17 Program, but I also want to brag on the food.

18 We had a success in the State of Florida: We

19 passed a statewide law that required summer food

20 programs to be within five or ten miles, but

21 it\'s more complicated than that. We received a

22 community food nutrition grant and began to

23 implement that immediately.

24 Florida Impact has a contract with the

25 Florida Department of Children and Families to

70

1 run a statewide health line. And Florida, after

2 two years of hurricanes and apparently more to

3 come, we\'ve learned some interesting lessons,

4 three specifically, a couple of which might

5 provide some information to this forum.

6 First of all, we became quite enamored

7 with our Southeastern regional USDA staff. The

8 response of the Food Stamp Program, this is a

9 tremendous public relations possibility for your

10 division because, especially in contrast to

11 FEMA, the food stamps were on the ground almost

12 immediately as long as the State cooperated with

13 that, and we were ale to send people in the

14 right direction for that.

15 USDA regional staff has been wonderful in

16 other ways, too, so we want to propose an

17 immediate policy to put a ban on retirements for

18 the next ten years.

19 Barring that, we also have learned that \--

20 something interesting occurred to me yesterday:

21 One of the downfalls that\'s occurring with

22 Wilma, currently, I would say, is that probably

23 on our State end, the reduction in

24 administration because of our modernization has

25 brought a crash-course train wreck with the

71

1 hurricanes that are happening and the need to

2 have people on the ground to do those disaster

3 food stamps in those many communities.

4 Unfortunately for Miami, they\'re going to be the

5 last to get the food stamps on the ground, a

6 week from yesterday, and things were getting

7 very desperate down there, and as we know, we

8 hear that hourly on our phones.

9 What occurred to me is how wonderful the

10 Electronic Benefit Transfer Program is and some

11 of the other policies we\'ve instituted with the

12 food stamps to modernize it at this level.

13 Because, in fact, if you\'re already on the Food

14 Stamp Program, you\'re going to get more

15 immediate assistance than if you were not on it.

16 And as you know, Florida has maybe 50 percent,

17 give or take, people who are not on it who are

18 likely to be eligible.

19 So outreach becomes very important in a

20 brand-new way in that it is expected that more

21 hurricanes are to come if we could be effective

22 at continuing the outreach and offering the

23 State matches and so on to get this going.

24 We can maybe make sure that when these

25 hurricanes do hit, we have the capacity to reach

72

1 more people in the electronically true

2 replacement of food programs, which drop in a

3 day, or speeding up the month\'s worth of food

4 stamps for November that are staggered, dropping

5 them all at the beginning of November so that

6 everybody has what they need when they need it

7 once the lights come on, of course. And that

8 has been the second lesson that we\'ve learned.

9 Thirdly, I just wanted to say that I \--

10 I\'m not going to repeat. Being No. 15, of

11 course, leaves you with nothing. But all of the

12 food stamp improvements, everything from

13 abandoning the thrifty food to the low-cost

14 food, raising the seniors from 10 to 25 to \$50,

15 that\'s our hardest sell to seniors. When they

16 hear it\'s just \$10, it\'s hard to convince them

17 to go through with it. And the other things

18 that we\'ve mentioned, of course, we\'re right

19 behind that and would like to see that occur, as

20 well.

21 One last thing is that \-- and I don\'t

22 know. I feel like, based on where we are, our

23 number sometimes keeps coming up with the FEMA

24 people. So we get all these calls, and we get

25 the information, but since we are in for a long

73

1 bout of hurricanes, I wonder if there\'s a way,

2 perhaps, especially the regional office and

3 national, perhaps, to work with states like

4 Florida, in particular, to establish some sort

5 of separate website 800 number that always goes

6 into effect the minute a hurricane comes so that

7 the very latest and unified information can go

8 there.

9 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Actually, it\'s

10 already in place. One, you can go to our

11 website, because decisions \-- policies and

12 decisions that I make are usually up within

13 30 minutes.

14 MR. CARTER: Right.

15 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: The second piece is

16 that if you go to the USDA website, then there\'s

17 specific information relative to the decisions

18 that we have made. So there are actually two.

19 Essentially, that\'s already been done.

20 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: On your website \-- and I

21 am speaking to you out of ignorance now \-- do

22 you have the sites, the dates they\'ll open the

23 places?

24 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: No.

25 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: That\'s what we need.

74

1 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: No \--

2 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: And that may not be your

3 responsibility, but \--

4 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: It\'s not our

5 responsibility; no.

6 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: Okay. Well, maybe it

7 might be possible from your end to push our

8 state. We would do it, too.

9 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Well, but the issue

10 is that the State would have to give us that

11 information. We have no problems putting it on,

12 but the State would have to give it to us. And

13 usually, the State \-- it takes some time for

14 them to get up and running, you know, because \--

15 the thing that I would like to share with you in

16 terms of when the first hurricane hit, Katrina,

17 one, we had food positioned three days before

18 the hurricane even hit. And the second point

19 is, I had already made policy decisions that

20 were up the next day.

21 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: That\'s why \--

22 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: So we were able to

23 respond very quickly, but the states were not

24 able to. But to answer your question, if they

25 will provide us with that information, there\'s

75

1 not a problem with us putting it up.

2 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: We would like you to do

3 that. And you don\'t offer an 800 number?

4 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Yes, we do. We do

5 have an 800 number, also.

6 MS. DEBRA SUSIE: Okay. And then I\'m just

7 going to put \-- for my dry, statistical piece,

8 I\'ll put our hunger report in your box, and this

9 has all the programs in each county in Florida

10 and how they\'re being utilized and how much

11 money we are receiving from Washington as well

12 as the listing of all the people in the

13 Southeastern region.

14 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Thank you.

15 MS. EARLINE MIDDLETON: Mr. Under

16 Secretary Bost, Mr. Regional Administrator

17 Arnette, my name is Earline Middleton. I

18 service as the Director of Agency Services and

19 Programs for the Food Bank of Central and

20 Eastern North Carolina, and we\'re located in

21 Raleigh, North Carolina. And I\'m also a member

22 of the Southeast Anti-Hunger Consortium.

23 The food bank has branch locations in

24 Durham, Aberdeen, Greenville, Raleigh, and

25 Wilmington, North Carolina. Our network of

76

1 nearly 900 partner agencies serve 34 counties in

2 central and eastern North Carolina. There are

3 an estimated 400,000 people at risk of hunger in

4 our area.

5 The food bank is one of eight Second

6 Harvest members, and together we serve our 100

7 counties. Thank you for the opportunity to

8 speak on behalf of that network and those people

9 that we serve. Thank you for administering a

10 program which so many Americans and North

11 Carolinians rely on.

12 We understand the role that nutrition

13 plays in building and maintaining an

14 intelligent, strong, and capable nation. In

15 this country, when there is a food need, each

16 citizen can benefit from our faith net or

17 federal nutrition program.

18 I wish to offer comments on two programs

19 of the Farm Bill: the Food Stamp Program and

20 Emergency Food Assistance Program. More than

21 750,000 North Carolinians utilize the Food Stamp

22 Program, and nearly 100,000 of these

23 participants are wage earners. More than

24 350,000 are children, and more than 65,000 are

25 seniors, and nearly a hundred thousand of them

77

1 are seniors over 65 \-- nearly 50,000 of those

2 seniors are over 65.

3 The Food Stamp Program supports North

4 Carolina\'s economy by putting almost \$73 million

5 back into the State\'s economy. Now North

6 Carolina has the highest rate of \-- the ninth

7 highest rate of food insecurity in the nation

8 with 13.8 percent of North Carolinians

9 experiencing food insecurity in 2002, 2004, and

10 it\'s up 4 percent.

11 North Carolina has suffered extreme job

12 losses in manufacturing, technology, as well as

13 agriculture. The aforementioned numbers are

14 just numbers, but they represent individuals and

15 families that every day must make decisions

16 whether to pay for shelter, medicine, fuel, or

17 purchase food.

18 The Food Stamp Program makes it possible

19 for low wage earners to stretch their dollars.

20 The Food Stamp Program is effectively targeting

21 to reach people who have the most difficulty

22 affording an adequate diet. Over 95 percent of

23 benefits go to households with incomes below the

24 poverty level and nearly all of the remaining

25 beneficiary, elderly, or disabled.

78

1 You know the story, so I won\'t go on, but

2 I will urge that the 2007 Farm Bill be

3 strengthened to include increased minimum

4 benefits for seniors to at least \$50, states

5 being encouraged to explore implementing Food

6 Stamp Programs in innovative ways that will

7 streamline processes used to determine

8 eligibility and remove areas while maintaining

9 integrity.

10 Provide food stamps to all eligible

11 immigrants, allow medical expenses to be

12 included as a deduction for calculation of food

13 stamp benefits, increase food stamp

14 administration funds to accommodate improved

15 services and more effective and efficient

16 processes, increase funds to administration of

17 storage of TEFAP commodities, and expand the

18 commodities supplemental food program to all 50

19 states.

20 I\'m hopeful that the safety net of

21 nutrition programs funded for the Farm Bill will

22 be strengthened and expanded so that access is

23 available to all who are currently underserved,

24 as well.

25 Thank you for your time and consideration.

79

1 MS. JOYCE O\'HEAL: Good morning. I would

2 like to thank you for this opportunity to speak

3 on behalf of the Food Stamp Program from the

4 perspective of the State of Alabama. I would

5 like to thank my cohorts in Georgia, Florida,

6 and North Carolina for already giving my

7 comments. I am going to speak anyway because I

8 took the time to come over to do so, and I do

9 want you to hear it from the Alabama

10 perspective. We are very concerned about

11 several things. We have very brief comments on

12 four issues.

13 We know that the Food Stamp Program has

14 succeeded in addressing and supplementing the

15 food needs of those low-income citizens who are

16 willing and able to access the program and the

17 benefits. Including nutrition education is a

18 viable program to us that has aided tremendously

19 in educating recipients and potential recipients

20 on how to make healthy food choices. Recipients

21 also learn how to wisely spend their food

22 dollar.

23 Providing benefits electronically has

24 helped erase the sigma associated with food

25 coupons, thereby encouraging others to apply for

80

1 and receive benefits. The 2002 Farm Bill

2 brought about significant positive changes that

3 improved and simplified the Food Stamp Program.

4 States also have more choices in selecting

5 options that conform across program lines.

6 However, there are areas that need further

7 strengthening. Changes are needed to better

8 address the food needs and food-buying power of

9 some of our most vulnerable citizens.

10 Our first issue is a minimum benefit for

11 the elderly and disabled households. We have

12 the same dream as some of the other states

13 represented here today. We recommend a minimum

14 benefit level of \$50 per month. According to

15 the inflation calculator, the inflation rate

16 increased from 26.88 percent from January 1995

17 to January 2005.

18 There are statistics on the current FNS

19 website, and I will not cite these right now for

20 the sake of time. But they are there giving us

21 the percentage of elderly and disabled adults

22 with access to the Food Stamp Program. There is

23 additional information contained on this website

24 that validates for us that the participation

25 rate is lowest among of the elderly and

81

1 disabled. Less than one-third of eligible

2 elderly adults receive benefits. We ask, \"Why?\"

3 State and county offices in Alabama

4 receive numerous calls and complaints about the

5 low benefit levels of our most vulnerable

6 adults. We make this population choose which of

7 life\'s necessities they can afford. Will they

8 eat, or will they pay a utility bill? Will they

9 eat, or will they feed their pets? Will they

10 eat, or will they pay the rent or the mortgage?

11 Will they struggle to walk to the grocery

12 store, or can they afford to take a taxi or

13 drive their own vehicle? Will they wrap up in

14 blankets during the winter, or will they pay the

15 heat and fuel bill? Can we not afford to feed

16 the least of these?

17 Issue 2: disaster benefits. We recommend

18 that all administrative expenses related to

19 disasters should be reimbursed at 100 percent

20 either through USDA or FEMA. This statement is

21 not original to me. It\'s from our Deputy

22 Finance Director, Andy Hornsby.

23 When faced with emergency situations,

24 states are ill-equipped to foot the bill for

25 even half of the administrative costs of running

82

1 a disaster program. Given the already limited

2 financial resources that must be spread over a

3 number of disaster responses, states are

4 hard-pressed to sufficiently respond.

5 Our next issue is technology support.

6 States need a capped administrative match at

7 75 percent. I\'m told that over ten years ago,

8 the match was reduced from 75 to 50 percent.

9 States labor under antiquated and cumbersome \--

10 or maybe I should say that Alabama labors under

11 antiquated and cumbersome computer systems.

12 Determination of eligibility and delivery

13 of benefits suffer as a result. More initiative

14 is needed at the federal level to aid states and

15 to encourage states to develop more

16 sophisticated technological approaches for

17 delivery of benefits.

18 Our final issue, able-bodied adults

19 without dependants. Does it make sense to

20 target A-BODs for job opportunities and training

21 when those individuals with children have every

22 incentive? For example, the children. To need

23 and want jobs or skilled training for the

24 opportunity to support those children, should we

25 not give all of our clients the same opportunity

83

1 for securing jobs, training, or education while

2 continuing to exempt the vulnerable, such as the

3 disabled, those with young children, etcetera?

4 Workers spend an enormous amount of time

5 waiting through complex A-BOD policies when the

6 focus should be on those individuals, A-BODs or

7 not, who want the opportunity to become

8 self-supporting. Many of the targeted

9 population are not able and/or willing to comply

10 with the complex requirements.

11 In addition, in a poor state like Alabama,

12 reimbursement for transportation is limited to

13 \$25. Some states are able to do more such as

14 assist with books, clothing, tools, etcetera.

15 These states have the funds to support these

16 activities. We ask for a thorough look at this

17 policy to determine its cost effectiveness and

18 the relevancy of the services delivery.

19 It appears that we currently spend an

20 enormous amount of money on a population that

21 yields poor results. We believe that an

22 overhaul to the food stamp work requirement

23 could yield cost savings to help fund some of

24 these aforementioned changes.

25 Thank you for your time and the

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1 opportunity to present these ideas about which

2 we feel so strongly.

3 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: I do want to

4 comment to one of the recommendations that you

5 made. In terms of Katrina, in terms of the

6 Disaster Food Stamp Program, I had already made

7 the decision to reimburse your administrative

8 costs by 100 percent.

9 MS. JOYCE O\'HEAL: I\'m not aware of that.

10 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Well, that\'s

11 because y\'all don\'t pay attention.

12 MS. JOYCE O\'HEAL: We pay attention, but

13 we had not received \--

14 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Well, I have

15 already made that decision, so that\'s already

16 done for Katrina \-- for Katrina.

17 MR. CARTER: Correct.

18 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: For Katrina, that

19 decision has been already been made by me in

20 terms of the Disaster Food Stamp Program. I

21 will cover 100 percent of your administrative

22 costs. Clarence, is that not right?

23 MR. CARTER: That\'s correct.

24 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Okay. Next person.

25 MS. JOYCE O\'HEAL: We appreciate it.

85

1 Thank you.

2 MS. LARK HAYES: Good morning. My name is

3 Lark Hayes. I\'m a senior attorney at the

4 Southern Environmental Law Center. We\'re a

5 regional conservation organization that works in

6 six Southeastern states from Virginia through

7 the two Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and

8 Tennessee.

9 And one of our priority issues is the

10 conservation of privately owned forest land, so

11 you\'re going to hear from me some of the same

12 things that you heard from my friends at the

13 Georgia Forestry Association, the State Wildlife

14 Agency here, The Nature Conservancy, and

15 hopefully some others before we get done.

16 Our concerns and our themes and our

17 remarks, I think, are quite similar and probably

18 saved me a little bit of time, and that is the

19 importance of the Farm Bill for the conservation

20 of private forest lands and promoting its sound

21 stewardship. And what we all come back to,

22 those of us who care about this issue, are the

23 public benefits that are secured by the private

24 forest land management in our region.

25 We\'ve got some new fancy names, like the

86

1 ecological services, that these private lands

2 provide to the public, but the more common names

3 are simply The Wildlife Habitat, The Water

4 Quality and Watershed Management, Recreation

5 Open Space. Carbon sequestration, that\'s

6 something that helps with the climate change.

7 Of course, we all know it\'s such a prime

8 economic driver in our rural communities.

9 So I\'m here to give a couple of

10 suggestions on how we might increase these

11 public benefits and how we might maintain them

12 across the South and across the nation. And the

13 key here, of course, is supporting the private

14 land owner, the so-called family forest land

15 owner.

16 Here in the South, they own two-thirds of

17 the private forest lands. So if we can\'t

18 support them through the USDA programs, there\'s

19 really no other strategy that can help achieve

20 our objectives. And there are a number of the

21 USDA programs that are important both in the

22 Conservation Title and the so-called Forestry

23 Title.

24 We need technical assistance. We need

25 stewardship planning. We need cost share, and

87

1 we certainly need those reserve-type programs

2 that make payments for certain conservation

3 management and the easement programs. All of

4 these are critically important. Let me give

5 three specific recommendations to you as you

6 prepare the agency for the reauthorization of

7 the Farm Bill.

8 First, and most fundamental, is the need

9 to significantly increase the attention paid to

10 forest land and family forest land owners in the

11 reauthorization. Quite simply, we would like to

12 see it comparable to the attention and the

13 funding paid to other agricultural land owners,

14 farm and ranch owners, and that\'s simply not the

15 case right now.

16 There are about 10 million forest land

17 owners nationwide; 5 million of those folks live

18 here in the Southeast. And there are about

19 2 million farmers. So you can see the forest

20 land owners greatly outnumber the others in

21 rural America, but there\'s only one tiny

22 program, The Forest Land Enhancement Program, in

23 the Farm Bill that exclusively focuses on forest

24 land.

25 It\'s funded or authorized, rather \-- it

88

1 hasn\'t been fully funded \-- at about \$20 million

2 a year, whereas the Conservation Title was

3 authorized at about \$3 billion a year. And most

4 of those programs in the Conservation Title give

5 only a fraction of their services and benefits

6 to the forest land owners. So first

7 recommendation: Let\'s get greater attention and

8 funding for forest land.

9 Secondly, after we have that increased

10 funding and attention, let\'s place a greater

11 priority on some of the key forested landscapes

12 around the Southeast and around the country.

13 Right now, the FLEP Program that I mentioned is

14 largely administered on a first-come,

15 first-serve basis for land owners and is one of

16 the few programs in USDA that is not competitive

17 relative to land owners. It\'s done a great job

18 in some of the other programs with The

19 Environmental Benefit Index and other ways of

20 getting those scarce dollars where they need to

21 be.

22 The scatter-shod type approach of FLEP

23 results in sort of an inch-deep, mile-wide type

24 program. And by contrast, in the next Farm

25 Bill, we would like to encourage you to focus

89

1 again on some of the priority forested areas

2 here in the South and around the country. An

3 example from the South would be the long-leaf

4 pine ecosystem that once covered most of the

5 coastal plain of Georgia and most of the other

6 southern states. That\'s down to only about

7 4 percent of its original range.

8 But there\'s great work being done by the

9 Georgia Forestry Commission and lots of

10 non-profits, the Long-Leaf Alliance, to help

11 land owners who want to restore this forested

12 ecosystem. But we need more focus at the

13 landscape level, and that will achieve more

14 ecological results and will enable us to go back

15 to Congress and really better show what we\'ve

16 been able to achieve with the funding.

17 My final point \-- and this is, I think,

18 frequently important in this tight budget time

19 we have where we really do need to do more with

20 the dollars that we have, be more efficient and

21 effective. There\'s a real need as we prepare

22 for the Farm Bill for better program

23 coordination with respect to forest land within

24 USDA, because right now, the responsibilities

25 are so scattered within NRCS, FSA, The Forest

90

1 Service, and then the State foresters, it\'s less

2 than ideal for land owners, and it\'s certainly

3 confusing to Congress who thinks that a lot of

4 the programs are redundant and overlapping.

5 We would like to work with you on any and

6 all of these ideas, and we very much appreciate

7 the time to make these remarks.

8 UNDER SECRETARY BOST: Did everyone who

9 wanted to speak have an opportunity to do so?

10 This is the last person that we have signed up.

11 Is there someone else that wanted to speak that

12 has not spoken yet? Good.

13 All right. Then first of all, thank all

14 of you for taking the time to be here with us

15 and for sharing your comments with us today.

16 This is the beginning of the process. As I said

17 when I opened up this forum, all the comments

18 will be rolled up and put on our website, and at

19 the end of the year, the first of next year,

20 you\'ll be able to see what everyone else has

21 said around the country.

22 The next step will be for us to have an

23 opportunity for me to sit down and share my

24 thoughts with the staff about what we want to do

25 as we move forward in terms of putting together

91

1 a package for the administration. And I have

2 some thoughts, too.

3 I would also state for you, in response to

4 some of the comments that you made, that this is

5 the beginning of the process. And as a

6 reminder, one of the comments that several of

7 you made was increasing the minimum benefit

8 level. Well, with the \'02 Farm Bill, I, the

9 administration, we recommended that. We

10 recommended that it go to a minimum of \$25.

11 Congress did not approve that. I didn\'t see

12 many of you up talking to Congress about

13 supporting the administration\'s package.

14 My parents also say that it\'s not only

15 what you say, it\'s what you do. And as a

16 reminder, you talk about it in terms of there

17 being enough resources to meet the needs of the

18 people in this country. Well, I think that

19 we\'ve demonstrated our commitment to ensure that

20 that occurs.

21 And the one example that I will give you

22 is this: When I became Under Secretary, the

23 budget for our programs was approximately

24 \$37 million. The budget for all of my nutrition

25 programs right now is at \$52 million and will

92

1 probably go to \$58 million by the end of the

2 year whenever Congress finishes. So I think

3 that that speaks to our commitment of how

4 important these programs are.

5 It is, I believe, the only agency in all

6 the federal government that has seen an increase

7 in our budget every year. I think that that

8 demonstrates our commitment to how important

9 these programs are.

10 And the last issue is the flexibility that

11 we have attempted to provide all of you in terms

12 of managing these programs. We have been out

13 there in terms of working with you, in terms of

14 providing flexibility, and providing you with

15 several opportunities to address the issue of,

16 \"Well, we\'ve always done it this way.\" Well,

17 I\'m always open to, \"Well, can we can do it

18 differently?\" And we provided you with a great

19 deal of flexibility.

20 And when you all do something wrong and

21 get in trouble, I\'m the one that has to go to

22 the hill to take the spanking. And I ask where

23 you were, and you all are too busy to come up

24 there, and you all say, \"Well, Mr. Bost, let us

25 do it.\" I\'ll remind you of that, too.

93

1 The issue is that this is the beginning of

2 that process, and we\'re talking about the old

3 7 Farm Bill. I would encourage all of you to

4 continue to work with Congress in sharing with

5 them the ideas you also shared with us. That\'s

6 very important, because we will take the

7 administration\'s package to Congress, and they,

8 in turn, debate the thing and have their own

9 ideas about what has to happen as we get into

10 the \'07 Farm Bill.

11 Again, thank you for being here. We

12 appreciate you taking your time to come out and

13 visit with us. And you still have opportunities

14 to share your comments. You can send them to

15 Mr. Arnette, send them to Mr. Carter\'s office.

16 If you send them to me, I\'m going to, in turn,

17 send them to them. So don\'t waste your time

18 sending \-- you can send it to me, but I\'m going

19 to send them on.

20 And interestingly enough, I do see every

21 single comment that is sent to us. Inevitably,

22 Jessica or Clarence or someone comes and tells

23 me about them, but we do get to see all the

24 comments. So I want you to know that you aren\'t

25 wasting your time.

94

1 So we would like to also thank our friends

2 at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for allowing

3 us to use their facilities. This is wonderful,

4 and we greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

5 Have a wonderful, wonderful day, and be

6 safe. And as we go into Thanksgiving and

7 Christmas, my best wishes to all of you and all

8 of your families. Thank you.

9 (Proceedings concluded at 10:51 a.m.)

95

1 C E R T I F I C A T E

2

3 STATE OF GEORGIA:

4 COUNTY OF FULTON:

5

6 I hereby certify that the foregoing

7 proceedings were taken down, as stated in the

8 caption, and reduced to typewriting under my

9 direction, and that the foregoing Pages 1

10 through 94 represent a true, complete, and

11 correct transcript of said proceedings.

12 This, the 14th of November, 2005.

13

14

15

16 Christopher M. Artman, CCR B-2325

My commission expires on the

17 31st day of March, 2006.

18