Jewish Charity Testifies To Congress About Hunger in US Military Families
Image by Getty
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — The leader of a Jewish nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in the United States and Israel told Congress that food insecurity is a significant problem among military and veteran families.
In testimony submitted Tuesday before the House Committee on Agriculture’s Subcommittee on Nutrition, Abby J. Leibman of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, said, “Across the country, service members were (and still are) showing up at food pantries, sometimes in uniform, looking for help in feeding their families.”
Leibman, MAZON’s president and CEO said, “While many emergency food providers have responded by developing specific and innovative programs to assist food-insecure military families, most of these organizations are strapped by increasing demands for services in general and have limited capacity to address this population.”
According to testimony provided by MAZON, there is a food pantry on or near every single naval and marine base in the United States.
Part of what accounts for this food insecurity is federal policies that make lower-ranking service members, especially those with families living off base or in private housing, ineligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, MAZON said. The Basic Allowance for Housing is excluded for calculating some federal programs, like WIC and Head Start, but included for others. MAZON advocates for excluding the Basic Allowance for Housing for the purpose of eligibility for all nutrition assistance programs.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
