I have to make a small personal confession, which is that I go through life dealing with grim statistics and then people say you sound so cheerful. And I think it's partly congenital, but it's also partly that I'm a Cubs fan anybody who knows anything about softball I excuse me. What baseball I beg your pardon knows that Cubs fans learn at an early age to live with grim statistics and never never never give up. Right. So people in the Hunger World also have to deal with crime statistics. I have looked over the other groups that have been meeting with this task force. And I've looked at the kinds of evidence and the kinds of testimony that have come in so I know that you've already touched on a lot of areas and I'm going to concentrate on food issues that affect poor people because I know you've covered other areas elsewhere and with other people and I want to begin by talking a little bit about the context in which you're going to be making your decisions and making your report the context has three pieces as I see it. The first is that the recession isn't over for poor people. There's a kind of public assumption right now that everything's okay. The recession ended in October of 1983. We don't have to worry anymore. Things are looking up for poor people. That isn't true. We've had the single most dramatic increase in poverty and low income in this country that we ever tracked or never recorded since 1978. There's been a sharp incline as recorded by the Census Bureau of the US Department of Commerce. We now have by the government's own statistics and own reports about 47 million Americans at risk of hunger because we start with the definition of people who have too little income for an adequate diet. So with 47 1/2, excuse me about 47 million people that's roughly fifteen to twenty percent of the population at risk of hunger either below the poverty line or just barely above it. That's pretty dramatic. And most of those people in the low income group are not affected by Modest changes in the unemployment rate either they're unemployed their elderly or they're little kids or their severely disabled or something that keeps them out of the labor market or they are employed but they're earning wages. So low that they can't keep their families out of low income status. Those people are not affected when you see a little dip in the unemployment rate because they are employed. They don't show up in those statistics and for them. The recession isn't over. The Economist and the people who watch these statistics closely tell us that even if we have sustained growth at 3% or more it will take us about a decade just to get back to where we were in 1979 with respect to numbers and incidence of poverty in this country. That's pretty shocking. I'll just repeat that going to take us 10 years to get back to where we were in 1979 even with sustained growth. We are definitely in a situation where the recession isn't over for poor people. That's point one second. We have developed one way and another in cities and towns Across America and emergency food system to respond to what people correctly recognized a couple of years ago was a crisis and they began to respond their neighbors and their people in their Community were in trouble. They were showing up at churches. They were showing up at mayor's office as they were showing up one way and another I needed help I needed food and we responded we're still a generous Nation. I don't think we've all sold out for greed yet people responded. They set up food pantries. They set up food banks. They set up soup kitchens a terrific system for emergencies. It's great. If you need a 3-day bag of groceries or some place, you can go terrific. If you need a meal from a soup kitchen once in a while. It's a great place. There are now those soup kitchens in place. It's not good for people who are unemployed for a year-and-a-half. It's not good for people who have to find a way to put together three meals a day 7 days a week. You can't do that out of a 3-day bag of groceries that is given to you once and then they tell you I'm sorry, but because we don't have enough food to go around you can't come back for 2 months or 3 months or 1 month. That emergency system is terrific for emergencies. It's no good for chronic problems. It's being asked to deal with chronic problems because the system for The Chronic stuff the public food system has been cut back food stamps have been cut School meals been cut senior nutrition programs have waiting lists. The WIC program hasn't been allowed to grow enough. So we've got an emergency food system in place that's being asked to do a job for which it's not equipped. That's part of the context. And the third piece in the context is that I think 1985 is going to be a watershed year for agriculture and food policy General in this country. And that's because the farm bill comes up again in 1985 and this year it's going to be different from other years for a couple of very significant reasons. First of all, the entire issue of farm subsidies is going to be under review. It is in some people's view up for grabs similarly the issue of how we deal with International Food relief is an open question. Now that hasn't normally been a Hot Topic in the middle of the farm bill this year will because of Ethiopia mauritanian the Nations and African our relationship to them. Birdly Congress failed to act on five Child Nutrition program that we're supposed to been reauthorized this year in 1984. One of those programs is WIC. They all get thrown into the equation next year together with the food stamp program, which is a normal part of the reauthorization. So just for starters we have Major serious issues of food and farm and hunger importance all being dealt with at the same time and there's a wild card and that wild card is that we have one of the most in terms of time spent in Congress. One of the most inexperienced congress's that will ever be taking up the farm bill. We have roughly half the house and half the Senate of the United States Congress elected since 1978. That means that many of them have never been through a farm bill reauthorization. The last one was 1981 many of them have only been through one and a lot of them will come to their decisions in 1985 knowing only about food and farm in hunger issues what they see on the evening news for 90 seconds or what they read about in the newspaper when they hear about the horror stories, they're going to come with a lot of prejudices and a lot of misinformation that scammed everybody in our population and that is not a good basis for making food and farm policy decisions that are going to affect us for the rest of the decade and possibly for a couple of decades 1985 to be a watershed year the notion that some cities are now trying to Grapple with how they fit into this becomes and very important and that's what I want to move on to now. In that context it seems to me there is an enormous range of opportunity and possibility here. The first thing in the most important thing is that you've got a group of people in this city apparently willing to say that food is basic. It's as basic as tax policy or housing policy or any other kind of policy or business policies food policy is important and if it means starting out with a mindset or developing a mindset that no matter what you're dealing with as a city government as a municipality, you've got to take into account the impact on food and hunger that could be Landmark that could be terribly exciting. That's the possibility. It seems to me that if the goal is an affordable food supply for everybody the range of what you can do with enormous. I want to take off. A list of things it ranges from very small things to very big things. First of all, I want to congratulate the mayor. I read a new story not long ago that said that he was instrumental in helping to keep the sales tax off food in terms of the states consideration of new sales tax. And I think that's very important. We want an affordable food supply particular for low income people in moderate income people that sales tax on food becomes a very big issue is important to keep the sales tax off food. Let's start with some of the small stuff. Now if you were hungry, you just arrived from the Iron Range and you lost your job a while back and you exhausted your unemployment benefits in your known as strange place trying to find a job and support your family and you were hungry and needed help. How would you find it in the phone book? You looked under a few couldn't find food stamps. If it looked under age in the Saint Paul phone book. You wouldn't find any listings for Hunger your in Minneapolis could find The Hunger Action Coalition, but there's nothing comprable in the Saint Paul phone book. If you thought you were eligible for welfare. You couldn't find another W. You needed Medicaid. You couldn't look under him. It's not listed in the phone book. Find help if you're new to a place in your in trouble, that's an easy place to start doesn't cost much no skin off anybody's nose can't we make information available to people in crisis, at least they can find out if they're eligible. That's a place to start second. Is the city maximizing the available Federal food assistance for example in the summer time? Do you have a summer lunch program that reaches all the poor kids who are getting a free or reduced-price meal during the school year. Most cities are in I'm willing to bet Saint Paul isn't even without looking at your numbers. I'm willing to bet it isn't but it depends on City action the municipality or the school board system or the school system in some way has to assume responsibility for that in most places. The number of children reached in the summer time is about 10% or a 15 or 20% of the number reached during the school year kids. Don't stop being hungry in the summertime their stomachs don't go on vacation just because school is out. They don't stop wanting to eat. That's something I said, he can do something about what about school breakfast do all the schools with a high concentration of poor kids have a school breakfast program. Those are federal dollars. Would it cost the city? It means that you have to take some steps to make sure you're maximizing the use of available federal dollars, but that's there for the taking that could be done. How about thinking in terms of policies that will help keep grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods any place you ask where this has been an issue and it's an issue in every city that I can think of people will tell you that it is easier to keep grocery stores in poor neighborhoods than it is to bring them back once they've left. Almost impossible to get a food chain to move back into a low-income area when other stores that have been in that area have failed and moved out. So the question is is there an aggressive policy in this city to keep grocery stores retail stores that can afford that offer sales and bulk shopping and all the rest of it. Is there a policy to keep them in low-income neighborhoods and when they aren't in low-income neighborhoods are hard to reach neighborhoods. Is there some policy to link up those low income people with sources of affordable food basic question has something to do with whether or not we've got a real food policy. What about jobs efforts? I know we don't have the old Ceda program and we don't have some of the old Federal problems. But any city of any size has a tap into some funds for some job training. What about the possibility for example of trying to tie job training efforts into the food issue? Could we for example knowing that the food service sector is a rapidly growing sector fast food other kinds of food industry hospitality industry jobs, that's moving fast. Could we be training unemployed people for jobs in the food sector? Let them practice on or learn on food that has been donated and then make that food that they prepare available to soup kitchens and institutional feeding programmes. time together three things training people for jobs Creative use of donated foods and providing food to people who otherwise don't have a food supply. Is that possible? There are targeted job credits. They can be used with the tax system. There are some places where Private Industry Council in other cities are starting to look into there's might be way to think about something or what about the fact that many grocery stores will tell you that one of their biggest problems in low-income areas is Sakura. It's a real problem for them serious. It's not to be dismissed lightly. Perhaps her job training opportunities for people in security-related jobs where they could get there on the job training in grocery stores. We would help keep those grocery stores in low-income areas. They would have security at a price they could afford we provide training for some people who otherwise wouldn't have training and job opportunities for which there are some openings possibility or how about incidentally there are other cities they're exploring some of these things Portland Oregon is working on it Milwaukee is considering it there a couple of other places where people are starting to talk this way. Farmers markets everybody knows that if we're going to keep people producing food near food centers are going to have to have a guaranteed market for their crops one way or another whatever they produce they need to be able to sell. Otherwise, they got a business that's true for big farmers. It's especially true for little farmers. Is there a way to help make the institutional feeding system that's feeding poor people provide that guaranteed market for some of your local small food producers who need a guaranteed market and could the city help play some sort of brokerage role help bring those people together help do some of the paperwork help make it more effective and efficient. Is that a role the city could play? How about corporate Vehicles Hartford for example has a big insurance industry the insurance companies that turns out have lots of vehicles little vans cars all kinds of things. PetSmart in Hartford got the idea that they might ask the insurance companies as a contribution to the hunger effort to make those Vehicles available when they weren't otherwise being used for on corporate business. They work schedule they found out that there were certain times of the day when those Vehicles were just sitting in the garage not only are some of those insurance companies donating their vehicles and the gas but they're also donating the drivers in some cases and now they're using them for Meals on Wheels are using them to transport things that the various hunger programs need their linking up Food Supplies with food providers. They're doing a variety of things using donated vehicles. Could your corporate Community examine whether or not it's got vehicles are not being used at some point of the day that could be used on behalf of the hunger effort and could the city help pull that together? How about data information? Nobody has any money to collect data, right very expensive proposition very hard to get anybody to say that that's where we're going to spend money these days. So we have to do is look at information that's already been collected but not being used in terms of hunger and food policy few quick examples. First of all if emergency Food use is rising if soup kitchens and food pantries and food banks say that they're constantly serving more and more people more and more people are coming through the door. Information where does that feed into an early warning system for that information routinely be fed into someplace could that trigger some action? So that every time there's a 20% increase something happens or does it just sit out there in their reports in the occasional reports of occasional reporters to come from newspapers or radio stations or something else documenting it and saying my mind is in this terrible. Look at the numbers of gone up again, maybe in the course of constructing a municipal food policy. There would be a place to use that kind of information is a kind of early warning system. It feeds in triggers action. You have to decide what's most effective in your city, but it could be triggering action. What about the information is collected by the health nurses every year in most public schools. They come in they weigh the children. They measure the children the children have to line up in those little white things that don't have any pockets and you don't know where you're going to put your hand, right? And then what happens to information in most places it stays in each individual child's chart. Useless doesn't do anything for anybody. It doesn't even go on a growth chart when those nurses are weighing and measuring and recording they could be plotting it on a growth chart. We could have from an already existing data source being collected right now and I'm going source of information about whether or not the children in the Saint Paul school system of the Minneapolis school system are falling above or below the national standards for growth and development. You got the information just need to put it on a growth chart and then you have to summarize it not a big deal and you could compare with two years ago and 5 years ago and every year you could compare in the future good piece of information about Head Start screenings very often the people who come into screen the children for Headstart similarly record all the information stick in the child's chart. Does anybody summarizes do we know if the crop of kids coming into head start this year looks better or worse than last year's crop in terms of nutrition and health state is growth and development things that should trigger. I just cause we see some children at the low end of the growth chart of the high end of the growth chart doesn't mean you got a nutrition problem. But if you see a lot of it if you see a disproportionate amount of it, it does tell you where to take a second. Look it does tell if you've got a trigger system and early warning system it tell somebody and the health department in the mayor's office somebody that this is the score we should take a harder look like better information. Then you don't have to collect fancy stuff all across the school system, but you know where to zero in effectively and efficiently What about summarizing information on senior citizens? Is there any place that low-income seniors get screen routinely some places are starting to do screenings in association with the senior nutrition programs. If you don't do that here could you do it now? Could you start looking at that also as a way to zero in on a high-risk highly vulnerable population on whom for whom there is kind of a captive audience. We know where they come we know how often they come. We know that we can talk to them there and collect some information not expensive not fancy, but enough to tell us when to take a second look. How about emergency departments in hospitals? There is something that the public health world called Sentinel indicators. So good expression cuz it means it sends off warning signals you seen one of these and it rings a bell in your head, right? That's the Sentinel indicator. Hospitals across the country emergency departments are saying that they are seeing people who are turning up because of problems related to malnutrition. The not recording is systematically but they're starting to see some Sentinel indicator cases babies with water intoxication. For example, babies who been given over diluted milk or infant formula by poor mother to a point where the children go into convulsions. They're turning up in emergency departments. Are you seeing it here if you are is anybody recording it? Is anybody then going back to the families of those children to see if the older siblings are also going without food that might be an indication that that's a family you want to take a second. Look at what about the fact that some hospital emergency rooms are saying that they're singing elderly people with what the nurses describe is decubitus ulcers. It means walking bedsores. You shouldn't have walking bed sores bed sores are for people who are in bed all the time right now King in the emergency department. The reason they are is because of severe dehydration and malnutrition and the skin starts to break down just as it would if you had bed sores. Bedridden that sometimes happens with seniors. Is it happening in your hospitals here? If it is, is anybody following off? Is anybody making sure that those seniors are plugged into a regular source of food is there may be some reason why they are needing is there something that you could do is there some way to get them help warning signals? and next thought in the Minneapolis area Minneapolis Saint Paul Area. You have a food drive every year I know about it. I've been hearing about it for the last couple of years is now called Minnesota FoodShare instead of just Minneapolis Butchart Statewide. So very impressive drive very very impressive. What about trying to use that opportunity to also raise money for Hunger hotline? So that after the food supply that's been collected in that drive is used. By the churches in the pantries in the food banks in the food shelves. You have something in place one number that could be listed under age in the phone book. One number where somebody in trouble somebody in need of help could call and be referred to a pantry a soup kitchen a food stamp office of welfare department. Whatever where people on the other end are trained to do a little bit of just basic screening over the phone and help put people in touch you live in this part of town. That's where you want to go live in that part of town. I know about some nice people who might be able to help you. You don't have to worry, I'm down. Let me help. I'll just look up your neighborhood. It's okay. Very helpful hunger hotline, it would stay in place after the food supply the collecting the food drive is already used up. It's also a way to help make the point for the public out there that we need more than just the three-day bag of groceries. We're also going to need that public system in place to help for the longer haul. Just two or three other things and these are what I call commercials. Some people might call them biases. I try to be more objective about it. These are commercials. I think that City's very often get press to get into the business of emergency food. I think they should resist it. I think the job of the municipal in the public agencies is to do the best job. They possibly can with a public programs. That's their job. I think the notion that people who are paid out of tax dollars to staff long lines of people were lining up for 4 hours 5 hours in the cold to get a 5lb block of cheese is a waste. I personally I will also say am offended by the notion that in this country where we have the best combination of soil and climate and productive agriculture the notion that we would make people who saw us through the Depression and World War II stand for 4 hours for a lousy 5 pound block of cheese that is high in sodium and high in fat and probably bad for them offends me, I think in America we can do better and I certainly don't think that we ought to be using City agencies to Somehow sell the public on the notion that we're feeding people. We give him a 5-pound block of cheese once in three months or once in six months or once a month. Enough said about that. I think that is not the place that the city can make the greatest contribution. And finally, this is kind of a throwaway suggestion. I'm starting to make this and number of places. You're a bit of a test case. I've been watching the studies Mount the studies that show how much we have in this country in the way of consequences of malnutrition hospital-based studies Public Health Department studies Governors commissions mayor's reports and bit by bit. They're piling up they used to pile up in my office when I was at Frack then I'll piling up in my house almost every week. I get something from a group of nurses in Long Island a group of nutritionist in Montgomery County in Maryland. I get something from the governor's Commission in Maryland that was headed by physicians from Johns Hopkins University. We know there's hungry and we know the consequences are terrible for children for elderly people for unemployed people human beings not eating is bad for you. We know that dangerous to your health. We also know something else. We now have a growing group of studies that have been done by bipartisan groups or non partisan groups that are documenting the degree to which government policies are responsible for the increase in poverty. We have reports from the joint committees in Congress from the Congressional budget office is from the general Accounting Office from the urban Institute. We have a growing back of studies. They disagree about how much the government policies are responsible for increasing poverty, but they all agree that it's responsible for 20 or 25 or 30 or 35% Government is now in the business of increasing poverty. There may be a national debate about what the government's responsibility is in alleviating poverty, but I don't think anybody believes that the government ought to be in the business of rising Poverty of causing poverty. That's what's happening and poverty is one of the biggest reasons why we have hunger the two go hand-in-hand. So if the people in elected office or causing the poverty in the Hunger, maybe they should be asked to be responsible for the consequences. My suggestion is that maybe what we ought to do is close all the soup kitchens and food pantries in emergency food centers for a week closing down the can't deal with the problem. It's much bigger. It's being made bigger Everyday by the politicians, unfortunately by democrats as well as Republicans, we don't have any heroes in this story right now. They are causing the problem just some degree in some measure and they certainly aren't making it any better. Maybe what we ought to do is close all the emergency food centers and every time somebody in need of food shows up. We bring them down to their office. Mr. Bosch, which is local office to mister German Burgers local office to your congressman's local offices. They're making the policies are making the people poor. Let's let them deal with the hunger. They can find a soup kitchen that's open at night. They can try to find a place that's open for breakfast. They can try to find whether or not there's any soup kitchen open on a Sunday. They can be the ones who deal with the family cuz I got the 3-day bag of groceries a month ago and isn't in title for another two months for another free day bag of groceries. And if we don't like that if we feel that that's disrespectful to poor people and I can understand that feeling maybe there's an alternative a variant maybe for a week or two weeks or 3 weeks. We would organize our volunteers to make phone calls to their offices. Every time somebody comes in and eat a food a call goes out to Durham Burgers office and bar Schwartz's office and your representatives offices sang. I have a woman here. She has two children. She was employed until two months ago. But because of the four months rule in a FTC she can no longer continue to hold her job and get some supplementary welfare consequently. She cannot feed her children. What do you want me to do with this family? I have a senior citizen here. He was turned away from the local senior nutrition program because they had to hit a limit. They don't have anymore money. They said he's on a waiting list. He has no way to eat. What do you want me to do with this man? Where should I send them? We would do a couple of things that way we would remind them of just how often somebody showing up in the city and need a food hungry in need of help. We tie up their phone lines politicians don't like that. They have to do business by phone. They need those phone line. And we might be bringing the problem back home to the people who are partly responsible for it. In the process if we were going to do any of these things would have to have quite a lively conversation among ourselves and our colleagues and her friends. It's interesting to speculate what the debate might be like in the local churches in the local Jewish congregation local Protestant churches in Catholic and whatever if somebody said, I want to propose that our church. Stop feeding the hungry. Interesting question. What's our role as members of the society has members of churches as members of families. What's our role where we think many of us that we have an obligation to feed the hungry. We think that many of us believe that it's more than just our personal obligation that are institutions of the society in which we live or to reflect that responsibility as well many of us feel that in this country. Certainly is Rich's we are the hunger. Not to exist and food ought to be some sort of a write something basic. Can we play that out? How do we make that happen? How do we make it real? one last commercial Incidentally, I think they're also things that can be pressed for its state levels and federal levels. That's for another conversation, which I'm more than willing to have any time. Although I'm shy and retiring but I would make an exception. I think there's one last thing to keep in mind and this is something that occurred to me when not long ago a person that I think of is a nice thoughtful lady said something about why are we doing things differently now, I mean you talk about the sixties and what we did in the 60s. Why aren't we responding the same way? I started asking myself that question and I decided I had to do a serious bit of business and compare what was going on in the late sixties with what was going on now in terms of hunger in terms of food in this country and I found myself making an interesting checklist because if you looked at the late 60s, everything on paper was against are doing anything we had very little good evidence in hand. We had the observations of six pediatricians who digs and a couple thousand for children in some rural counties in the South. We didn't have any fancy studies. No Harvard studies. No doctors observations beyond that. No Health Department studies. No, nothing. No CDC statistics. No government statistics to look back on in a serious way. We didn't have organizations and place the organization. I used to head practice this bread for the world didn't exist. Most of the organizations that we rely on. Now for information didn't even exist in those days. There was little or nothing in the way of private charitable food efforts. Soup kitchens were only only in the skid row area is a big cities run by the Catholic Worker or Salvation Army and beyond that people didn't think hunger was a problem in this country. We didn't have a private charitable food effort in place all over the country. We didn't have people in the Press who knew the issues. We've been following it for a couple of years. They were brand new to it. So we didn't have the media already working on it. We needed at the time pressure on people in public life to expand what was in place and a put some things in place for the first time a lot just didn't exist. No senior nutrition programs. No breakfast programs weren't even funded yet. No child care food program. No summer lunch program food stamps were only in about a thousand counties, maybe 800 food commodities weren't working for most of the people in the other counties. Everything was going against us and yeah. The political response it had to be pressed for it had to be worked for but Congress responded they did they expanded the problems. They put them in place where they didn't exist. There was the real basis of political support built across this country for making Hunger go away by 1977 1978. It happened was true. We had evidence that that response worked. So Dynamite success story fantastic in the annals of social policy in this country have solutely incredible. And here we are now with recent a recent has history of success so we know how to do it. We now have public programs in place. We now also have what we didn't have before we have private efforts in place for the emergencies. We also have organizations that can provide information. We've got people and newspapers and radio and TV stations have been covering the issue now for three and a half for four years were smart about it and can do a good job be credible about we've got everything going for us now. Sometimes more than we did in 1967 or 68, right? and yet and yeah in the face of mounting evidence of problems consequences damage trouble Congress and the president been cutting back. I had to be pressed to respond to do something more now. They have to be pressed not to do so much less. That's the difference and across the country. We've got people saying, you know, this isn't the right year. You really can't do it. I mean, you've got to be practical you got to be practical politically. This is not the right. You're depressed for Hunger stuff, right? wrong dead wrong. Now. We've got a lot more going for us. The evidence is more compelling the need is greater. And right now there are people who are hungry. The best reason we have got to do everything we can to capitalize on everything we have in place and make hunger once again something for the history books. And we can do it and you're going to start with Municipal food policy that's going to look after poor people in the city of st. Paul right and we'll go on from there. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. We've invited to people to respond to Nancy's talk and then we will throw it open for discussion and other comments. The first reactor today is Psy Carpenter who's known well in this area known well throughout the country with the current Administration the farm policy. I'm sure you'll be even better knowing first reactor SI Carpenter the president of the national Farmers Union first stress the value of this kind of a coming together not only in ensuring some thoughts and getting some ideas from people like Nancy of Applied a lot of thought but because people like George Latimer and others need the the distribution if you will, so the public becomes more aware of not only the serious was a problem, but that it is growing. That it is an increasing problem that impacts on every one of us and from that we must develop or at least developed support behind better leadership to correct the situation that is a shame to this nation and that is easily correctable and to do that. We have to have public visibility feeling of of involving the public Nancy said among other things that and then let me stop and say I'm a little reluctant to, too much cuz I don't want to detract in any way from what she said. She said so much. I hope I hope you were listening carefully. And I don't want to distract from it. She said among other things that the food is a basic necessity. I'd go one step further. I think that it's an entitlement in this nation. It is an entitlement to anybody that's willing to work and those that can't work. In this democracy in what we profess to be where we have a surplus of food. It is an entitlement and until we attach that level of importance that dignity to it as a nation then until we do we continue to feel that those that are in need of food or some way associated with the stigma attached to welfare and and a lot of other things and so in giving it this kind of visibility and broader distribution, we help the public themselves to recognize that it is a problem that is not just for a few who are less than than the industrious or whatever. The public also needs to understand loud and clear and if we can cause your conscience to Smart we need to do so that the problem can be resolved. We don't need to have hungry people in this country. We waste we waste 20% of our food in the normal distribution system. That's in addition to what we complain about as as excess Surplus or whatever. You want to call it with our farming or our production system. We waste after it gets into the food system. We waste 20% and so the public needs to know that it is a problem that that can be resolved. If there is a a willingness a commitment if you will to do it, that's what it really takes and and I couldn't agree more that the 1985 farm bill and let me just say it isn't just to find must be a farm and food bill. It must be approached as a farm & food, but I don't care which one you put first food and farm farm & food what it must be approached has a farm and food bill. And we've we've shown stupidity throughout the last several decades and not really bringing the two together. We got much of our school lunch Child Nutrition program out of trying to get rid of surplus not out of genuine compassion for students for elderly and others. It's about time that we applied some logic based on some compassion. But but put it in practical application. We do need a fireman food bill or food and farm bill, and we do need involving not only those of us that are assigned agriculture. But those are assigned or have assumed the responsibility dealing with problems in the cities near Latimer has been extremely helpful in and causing us to be in contact with mayors of major cities asking if they participate in developing that bill the language does the guts of it what it needs and what it has to do not something that seems far removed because they are not in production agriculture or they don't know how to deal with International markets or Surplus. I think we can prank calls recognition that we aren't really in a double National shame where we are destroying and agricultural system that provides just kind of abundance probably greater than any time in history and access to it and at the same time denying that product to our elderly That Built This Nation to those who are unemployed for whatever reason to children and others that's a national Scandal and and the public needs to understand and that they are a part of pet scandal. They are contributing to it so that the farm problem of the flute family. This is something that somebody else deals with the mayor or the senator or whatever. I think we need to cause an awareness that it just good economic common sense as well. And she gave several illustrations of what happens if if people are undernourished or whatever when you get to the hospital that further look at the dollar figure look what it costs to treat as opposed to feeding and that doesn't even touch what you do if children don't learn where their capabilities throughout their life is impaired and we all suffer from that lost. The public has to understand that we're talkin about down-to-earth practical economic if you want to forget compassion in a Christian attitude and that that it is good common sense. I couldn't agree more that St. Paul and communities like this have demonstrated. We have the capability to almost by accident to deal with it. The church has come forth individuals accident isn't the right word but almost by happenstance, but we must have a national policy. We must have a national policy which includes a national commitment because as well as those that contribute to this kind of resolution in St. Paul. Sporadic that's on and off they come and go and whatever their role this must be a national commitment and then we need to have the responsibility that goes with it. That's why you have a responsibility at a national level because you can assign It On A continuing basis and have access to the resources as well as the authority so I think this kind of effort Is is a greater value than some of us understand but it needs to bring in others. We need to know don't hide your light Under The Bushel. I'd like to see seniors rebelling about inadequate food just like they were concerned about inadequate Social Security and why can't we have entitlements and social security access to food? Don't tell me that are older people aren't entitled to all they want to eat and I don't mean taking a senior person the 5lb block of cheese and then assuming that you're doing something great for them. When they probably can't provide or cook their meals out of for the anyway, and that messed maybe just the last kind of food. They need so weak say of our conscience Western Bowl. We're giving food and butter and Chino. We did we are trying to get rid of dairy Surplus. That's why we're handing out cheese. It was an embarrassment to an inadequate handling of fire program on a realistic basis. And so we say Well, what we'll do we'll give it to those those hungry over there. And aren't we great. We're just eating dairy products. We're taking care of the farm and we're taking care of the food and hunger. In in in in a last-ditch effort instead of having some policy and Direction such as I think you and others are are establishing here. So I think causing awareness and hopefully developing and involvement by a number of other sectors of our society and and a closet of a feeling of involvement and commitment. This is a very very important step and I hope that we can contribute if you can continue to contribute to it. I just saw the last responder. Today is Ruth Andre. We fall from the State Department of Economic Security Ruth has been the person who has worked on some of the state food programs. And I must say working with her from a local level. She has been one to go to the people that have been providing food and gone to the city and said, how can we make this work in your location? So with that I'd like to introduce ruthanne we fall is that since I've come to the job with the Department of Economic Security and specifically was asked by Governor perpich to chair an issue team on emergency food Fuel and shelter needs of minnesotans of one of the things that I have observed is that there's a fair amount of passing the buck in terms of governmental layers. I think that there is a lot of the attitude of it isn't a state responsibility. It's the federal government's responsibility. It was in the State's responsibilities at the county should be doing this and then the county say, well it is not our responsibility to stay to do it or the city should do it until you get in kind of a a cyclical talk of whose responsibility is it to do what and so as I took on that responsibility of sharing that team there did seem to be a point at which we had to say that it may not be totally neat and clean and definable at this point that X percent of the food issue is really a state responsibility and experts that we should in fact give back to the pheasants are worth it is not neat and clean. And so I think one of the things I'd like to say is that the issue team report, by the way, I've got several copies with me today. If you'd like to see it. It does deal with housing and fuel as well as food, but I will say that the report is issued it with a great sense of humility. It is not the perfect answer. It is a beginning and I think that what the report says is that Minnesota has a responsibility in the food area. We do not say that it is none of the State's responsibilities. As a matter of fact several of the things that Nancy touched upon were in fact primary responsibilities. As far as the issue team was concerned one of the first things that she discussed was not one of the first but one of the thing she discussed with a need for data and that is one of the things that we highlighted in the report is that we recognize the state has not done a good job of compiling data on the hunger issue. One of the things we found his it's housed in so many different departments in state government. And for the first time I was sitting with human services or welfare and learning that an afdc Grant in the last 10 years has decreased in its buying power by 60% I was beginning to find out about Section 8 housing from the Housing Finance Agency. So for the first time in state government, we were sitting with people from other departments finding the data that each of us had collectively that pertain to that issue the one of the first recommendations we gave to the governor was it there has to be a data coordination effort in state government and that recommendation essentially is moving ahead. We are pursuing a coordinated data a project for the state of Minnesota and will be issuing quarterly reports on Emergency. Food and shelter issues through the next year a second thing that she talked about was the need for an action group. What we said is that the effort that we started as an issue team bringing together people from Human Services and health and housing until worth needs to continue that we can't go back in the state bureaucracy and each one sitting our own departments trying to analyze the problem from our individual perspective without again sitting down and on a monthly basis discussing what is happening in the state of Minnesota and what should be the state's response and that recommendation has already been accepted by the administration at the group is in the process of being formed and a meeting has been called to call together this week all the basic needs Action Group and Cindy Tidwell and others came together with us and told us don't talk. Urgency needs any more. We always call it emergency. It isn't emergency. It's basic. So we now have in state government a basic needs action group that is going to be a triggering mechanism for the governor. This is an emergency. It requires a response. Another thing that we have done is we've also said that and again this will is somewhat move away from what Nancy was suggesting and that what she said was saying that in public policy, we should move away from actually funding food and that kind of thing and get into a mode of working on the policy and changing policy. But what we have also found is that frequently the state has to step in with funding. We have done it now for the last two years and we are saying to the governor we see some continuing need for the state to have an involvement to sit back with food shelves empty. To sit back with funding disappearing for Emergency Shelters is not acceptable and I do know that people are saying that while we don't want to work on emergencies anymore solve the long-term problem and we want to work on that the temporary housing demonstration project that houses people for 6 months free of charge and provide appropriate referral job training information. And so I took those are wonderful efforts, but it isn't able to solve the total need right now. That's what we're saying is the state has got to continue for at least some time to ease us through the situation with funding. I'm proud of the funding. We provided for instance to help the Control Data corp Corporation. I get some seed money to start the twelve baskets project. So that food from idea catering services and restaurants inside can be made available to to soup kitchens. I'm proud of the fact that was some seed money. Finally. We will have a food bank in Southwestern Minnesota. Those are the kinds of things that the state can do. We have a $1000000 emergency Reserve fund. I see that that fund probably will be needed in the next year. So I see the state as being a partner with the city where a partner in terms of the data or a partner in terms of having an action group that can also look at the data with a city or a partner from the standpoint of there is a small emergency fund. There is an action group that can trigger stay. I applaud you Jim and and the mayor and others in the city of Saint Paul for taking the leadership like you do so frequently on a very very important issue to you and to the state of Minnesota and thank you Nancy.