MAZON’s CEO Reacts to USDA Report on Food Security in the United States
Abby J. Leibman, President & CEO of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, issued this statement in response to new data released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service:
“Today’s report confirming that food insecurity afflicts 11.8 percent of American households is not an outcome to be celebrated. Despite a modest 0.5 percent decrease from 2016, more than 40 million people still continue to struggle to put enough food on the table each day.
“We’d expect, given the rhetoric in Washington, D.C. about our nation’s economic boom and low national unemployment rates, that these numbers would be decreasing more significantly each year. Instead, they remain stubbornly elevated.
“This unacceptably high rate of food insecurity is why SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Nutrition Program) remains such a vital program and must be protected and strengthened as Congress negotiates the Farm Bill.”