Second Harvest Column: The Farm Bill

The farm bill is still under construction. Anti-hunger lobbyists are pushing for completion by March 15, 2008. That’s the deadline for updating congressional budget estimates of federal spending. If we don’t have conference agreement on the farm bill by then, costs could go up.

According to experts at our national office, it is vitally important for members of Congress to understand that the nutrition program funding levels provided by both the House and Senate-passed farm bills cannot be reduced. There are 35.5 million people in this nation facing hunger each day. They can’t wait any longer for improvements in food stamp benefits and eligibility and the restoration of critically needed food commodities to The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

Please call your members of the U.S. Congress now and tell them you support a strong nutrition title. Log on to www.secondharvest.org to send an e-mail message. Click on "Advocate" and help create a hunger-free America.

Here in east central Indiana, you can get involved at the local level as well. If your church or organization can help feed children this summer, you need to know about the Summer Food Service Program. Uncle Sam will help pay the cost of the food. You provide the place and the volunteers. Erin Rockhill at Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana can help you get it started. Give her a call at (765) 287-8698, ext 102. Learn more at www.doe.in.gov/food/summer/welcome.html.

Madison County kicks off We Can Care this week. This month-long food and fund drive is garnering lots of excitement. Schools, businesses and organizations throughout the county are planning collections during all or part of the month of March.

Amy Macomber with the Madison County Highway Department has a big day planned on March 22 for We Can Care. The department has commitments from six locations for mega-food collections. It will have it big trucks at the 29th Street Pay Less, Cross Street Pay Less, Pendleton Marsh store, Cox’s in Alexandria and Wal-Mart on Scatterfield Road from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All locations are accepting volunteers to help with the collections. Our office manager, Tiffany Jones, can sign you up. She is at (765) 287-8698, ext. 100.

All the food and funds from We Can Care will stay in Madison County for hunger relief. The drive is coordinated by the City of Anderson, Madison County United Way and Second Harvest. Give us a call if you need collection boxes for food or milk jugs (thank you, Prairie Farms) for coin collections.

In Muncie this week, an ambitious fundraiser is taking place. Professor Ted Neal at Ball State notified us that faculty and students at BSU have spent three months creating 400 ceramic bowls. Chef Jason Reynold of the Atrium will be serving chili, toppings and drinks. Each bowl and meal will sell for $7 today, proceeds designated for hunger relief and homelessness.

You don’t have to see our place to know that our business is alleviating hunger in east central Indiana. But once you walk into our beautiful warehouse with pallet racks stacked high with many hundreds of cases of food on its way to pantries and meal programs in this region, you have a better understanding of the scope of our work. Come visit. Take a tour. See a presentation of hunger here at home.

We have scheduled 4 p.m. every Tuesday for guests to spend an hour with us. Call first to reserve your place. Once you see how we operate, I am sure that you, too, will be motivated to find ways that you can help end hunger and feed hope.

Lois Rockhill is Executive Director of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Inc.