Humanitarian coalition fights food aid cuts
A coalition of humanitarian groups today urged Congress not to cut food aid as it finalizes the fiscal year 2011 budget.
“Dating back to the Marshall Plan, when the United States helped prevent hunger among a generation of Europeans, America’s commitment to the world’s hungry people has been steadfast,” the group said.
“Many of the world’s largest anti-hunger operations are in places where the United States has vital national security and foreign policy interests, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and Haiti. Significant cuts to the global hunger budget would dramatically impact American efforts to advance economic development and stability in these and other places. Food insecurity threatens our national security.”
Cuts to global hunger programs as proposed by H.R. 1, the House-passed appropriations bill, “would have a devastating impact on the world’s most vulnerable people,” the statement said.
The group said that cuts in H.R.1 would reduce the budget for P.L. 480 Title II and the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program by 42 percent and eliminate feeding programs for approximately 18 million of the world’s poorest and hungriest people, including 2.5 million school children currently receiving school meals.
It also said the cut proposed in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program would reduce that budget by 75 percent and prevent between 11 million and 14 million small-scale farmers from pulling themselves out of hunger and poverty, and that 4 million children would not have access to improved nutrition, resulting in stunting and child mortality.
The group noted that the United States has been leading a global effort to “to transform the lives of millions of the world’s small-scale farmers, who comprise about one-half of those who suffer from chronic hunger,” and added, “Now is the not the time to turn back.”
The statement was signed by the Alliance to End Hunger, Bread for the World, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, the Congressional Hunger Center, Mercy Corps, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, Save the Children and World Food Program USA.
“Dating back to the Marshall Plan, when the United States helped prevent hunger among a generation of Europeans, America’s commitment to the world’s hungry people has been steadfast,” the group said.
“Many of the world’s largest anti-hunger operations are in places where the United States has vital national security and foreign policy interests, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and Haiti. Significant cuts to the global hunger budget would dramatically impact American efforts to advance economic development and stability in these and other places. Food insecurity threatens our national security.”
Cuts to global hunger programs as proposed by H.R. 1, the House-passed appropriations bill, “would have a devastating impact on the world’s most vulnerable people,” the statement said.
The group said that cuts in H.R.1 would reduce the budget for P.L. 480 Title II and the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program by 42 percent and eliminate feeding programs for approximately 18 million of the world’s poorest and hungriest people, including 2.5 million school children currently receiving school meals.
It also said the cut proposed in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program would reduce that budget by 75 percent and prevent between 11 million and 14 million small-scale farmers from pulling themselves out of hunger and poverty, and that 4 million children would not have access to improved nutrition, resulting in stunting and child mortality.
The group noted that the United States has been leading a global effort to “to transform the lives of millions of the world’s small-scale farmers, who comprise about one-half of those who suffer from chronic hunger,” and added, “Now is the not the time to turn back.”
The statement was signed by the Alliance to End Hunger, Bread for the World, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, the Congressional Hunger Center, Mercy Corps, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, Save the Children and World Food Program USA.
