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Maryland Food Bank Responds to the President’s Proposed FY2019 Budget

February 13th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

Below please find the Maryland Food Bank’s statement attributed to Carmen Del Guercio, President & CEO, in response to yesterday’s release of President Trump’s proposed FY2019 budget:

“There’s no question that the fiscal year 2019 budget submitted by President Trump would be incredibly harmful to the more than 682,000 Marylanders facing hunger each and every day.

“In addition to cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by nearly one third – more than $213 billion over 10 years – this proposal is an inhumane approach to providing access to those in need. These proposed solutions do not even check the box as a good business decision, taking an efficient 21st century solution of EBT cards and replacing it with a highly inefficient, bureaucratic, capital-and-people-intensive delivery model.  

“At the Maryland Food Bank, we know firsthand the logistical challenges of getting food to communities in need, rural or urban, to food-insecure individuals in every corner of a relatively manageable-sized state. Trying to coordinate this effort nationwide is unimaginable.

“The proposed budget also eliminates a critical program for low income seniors, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). This lifeline of help provided more than 756,000 meals last year to thousands of Maryland seniors. The Maryland Food Bank and other Feeding America members are the largest partners with USDA on this program, and our network cannot make up for the millions of meals lost through the elimination of the CSFP.

“While the Maryland Food Bank works tirelessly to provide food assistance to families at risk of hunger, the problem is simply too big to fix without federal government programs like SNAP and CSFP, which are proven to lift people out of hunger. It’s unfortunate that these valuable programs are being unfairly scrutinized and marginalized through proposed legislation like this.” 

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