MAZON Statements

In response to President Biden’s 2023 budget proposal, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger applauds the Biden administration’s inclusion of a Basic Needs Allowance, which MAZON helped draft and which was established by Congress in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. This is the first time a presidential administration has specified funding to address food insecurity among military families.

Abby J. Leibman, President and CEO of MAZON, reacted to the White House budget:

“For the first time ever, a U.S. president explicitly put his weight behind ensuring that no military family should go hungry by endorsing the Basic Needs Allowance, a provision that MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger helped to craft and champion in the National Defense Authorization Act. For over a decade, MAZON has led the fight for systemic solutions to military hunger, and the inclusion of a Basic Needs Allowance in President Biden’s budget framework offers a presidential imprimatur and the possibility of real money toward eliminating a major obstacle that prevents military families from accessing the same nutrition benefits available to civilians.

The Department of Defense and the Biden administration must now continue the progress by using executive authority to ensure that the allowance is fully funded and made accessible to every family that needs it. Ultimately, Congress must finish the work it began last year when it finally approved our Basic Needs Allowance in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

These past two years, we have witnessed firsthand how vital and effective the federal government can be at alleviating hunger. We applaud President Biden for taking those lessons to heart, and urge the administration to advance this long-backed proposal by MAZON for effectively ending food insecurity among our military families systemically and fairly without delay.”