City Harvest Programs » Advocacy
Action Alerts
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Current Alerts
April 24 - The first draft of the 2012 Farm Bill is here - and it doesn't do nearly as much as it should to fight hunger and support local and regional food systems, so we need your help. It's not too late to get a better food and farm bill through Congress - if we act quickly! Tomorrow the Senate agriculture committee will vote on a series of amendments to the draft bill, including amendments that protect food stamps from cuts, help more schools serve fresh, healthy, local food, and help families receiving food stamps become self-sufficient.
We have only a one-day window - these amendments were filed yesterday and will be voted on tomorrow - Senator Gillibrand and Chairwoman Stabenow need to hear from you today!
Will you call Senator Gillibrand and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow today?
Call Senator Gillibrand today: (202) 224-4451
1. Thank her for introducing the Gillibrand Amendment to
protect children from SNAP cuts.
2. Ask her to also support the Casey Farm to School Amendment
and the Brown Employment and Training amendment.
3. Ask her to vote no on any amendments that cut SNAP.
Call Chairwoman Stabenow today: (202) 224-4822
1. Ask her to support the Gillibrand, Casey and Brown amendment
2. Ask her to vote no on any amendments that cut SNAP
Call today - it's easy and it takes just a moment to deliver this important message.
Past Alerts
March 7: Congress members are currently urged to sign their name to a bipartisan letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. The letter urges USDA to continue to help struggling Americans and the nation’s food banks by using his administrative authorities to purchase additional food (TEFAP commodities) this year. Through TEFAP, commodity foods are made available to food banks which then feed the growing number of hungry people. Please urge your congressional representative to sign on today. The deadline for Members of Congress to sign onto this letter is Thursday, March 8th.
Click here to take action and urge your representative to sign on to the letter.
November 21: The Super Committee announced that they were unable to reach an agreement and would miss the November 23 deadline to produce a comprehensive deficit reduction plan. This means that automatic sequester will go into effect in January 2013, cutting the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Many low-income programs, including essentially all federal nutrition programs, except WIC, are exempt from automatic sequester. The burden of the sequester will fall heavily on military spending, and some members of Congress are now pushing to revise the terms of the sequester. Expect heated debate in 2012!
November 17: The House and Senate passed the “minibus” appropriations bill. Thanks to the efforts of the supporters of these programs, the bill contains higher funding levels than expected for anti-hunger programs. Specifically, TEFAP commodities are increased, and WIC is funded to cover the expected number of participants in 2012.
Anti-Hunger Programs: Help protect anti-hunger programs from cuts in the deficit reduction process. Click here to contact your Congress members.
Agriculture Appropriations: The Senate is expected to vote November 1 on a “minibus” appropriations package. The package includes appropriations for Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
City Harvest posted on Senator Gillibrand’s Facebook page, encouraging her to pass the bill.
Next Step: House and Senate must “conference” their two independent bills to develop a final FY 12 Appropriation. As a reminder, this provides the funding for TEFAP and WIC.
Agriculture Appropriations Update: On September 7, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its Appropriations Bill out of committee. The Senate Bill restores and in some cases increases funding for emergency food programs. However, the final outcome won’t be known for another few months. It is likely that Congress will pass a short-term Continuing Resolution in the coming weeks. This means that Congress will continue programs at their current funding levels because they can’t agree to a joint plan. It is further likely that all appropriations will get rolled into an Omnibus spending bill for 2012 later this year.
Here is a side-by-side of the House and Senate versions:
Debt Ceiling Update: City Harvest is relieved that the country does not need to default on its loans, but we are concerned about the impact the debt ceiling deal could have for hungry New Yorkers as Congress considers what programs to cut in coming months. Cutting government food and nutrition assistance programs would impact the agencies where we deliver food and the people they feed for years to come.
City Harvest prides itself on being a private response to hunger, meaning the food we rescue is overwhelmingly from non-government sources. However, New York City receives $14 million worth of Federal food each year through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). As many as 10 million meals will be eliminated if the bonus portion of TEFAP is not funded. Soup kitchens and food pantries will likely see the lowest amount of food they can remember, at a time when record numbers of New Yorkers need food.
Food from City Harvest becomes even more important at times like this. We are committed to doing our part to ensure healthy food reaches our neighbors in need here in New York City, no matter what the federal government decides to do.
Click here to send a message to Congress to protect programs that support hungry New Yorkers during the deficit reduction process.
Update:
Timeline for Implementing The Budget Control Act
• August 16: 12 members must be appointed to the special Joint Committee
• September 30: FY2012 appropriations must be completed or a temporary continuing resolution must be approved before the new fiscal year begins on October 1
• October 14: Deadline for standing committees to provide recommendations to the Joint Committee about cuts and reforms to programs under their jurisdiction.
• November 23: Deadline for the Joint Committee to vote on a bill
• December 2: Deadline for the Joint Committee to release legislative language of its bill
• December 9: Deadline for standing committees to provide favorable or unfavorable recommendation on Joint Committee bill
• December 23: Deadline for the House and Senate to vote on the Joint Committee bill
• December 31: Deadline for the House and Senate to vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment
• January 15, 2012: Date that across-the-board sequester of non-exempt programs will be triggered if Joint Committee bill is not approved
• January 2, 2013: If triggered, date that across-the-board sequester of nonexempt programs is implemented
