This bill mirrors Medicaid's six-month Medicaid transitional benefit for food stamps, simplifying state recordkeeping, increasing state flexibility, and helping TANF families transition to work. Sixth, this bill improves access to food stamp information, helping to ensure that families like the Paynes are aware of the help that remains available to them. It helps rural families apply for food stamps using online and telephone systems, eliminating the need to travel to food stamp offices. It also supports stronger public-private partnerships that generate and distribute information about the nation's nutrition assistance programs. Sharp increases in requests for help from food pantries and soup kitchens have occurred over the past year despite steep declines in food stamp participation.
Many food banks find themselves unable to meet the increased requests for help.
Nationally, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and America's Second Harvest have independently documented a 15 to 20 percent increase in needs over 1998. 79 percent of Massachusetts food pantries funded through Project Bread reported serving more working poor in 1998, and 72 percent reported helping more families with children. To ensure that emergency food needs are met without unnecessarily tapping Food Stamp resources, this bill increases funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program by 10 percent. We've often heard that hunger has a cure. This is a call to action, not a truism, for the many people who have cooperated in developing this legislation.