Thirteen members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have signed on to a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the U.S. Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies urging support for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).
Their signatures were among 138 by congressmen and women from both sides of the aisle trying to save the program. President Donald Trump has proposed to eliminate funding for CSFP in his Fiscal Year 2020 budget request.
CSFP leverages government buying power to provide life-sustaining meal deliveries to older Pennsylvanians. In fact, 100 percent of the participants in our commonwealth are low-income seniors, with incomes of less than 130 percent of the Federal Poverty Line, which is just over $1,300 monthly for a senior citizen living alone. (Half of the people Hunger-Free Pennsylvania serves have a monthly income of less than $800.)
Hunger-Free Pennsylvania administers CSFP in Pennsylvania, making us the single largest provider of meals to older Pennsylvanians.
We work in partnership with more than 1,200 agencies to deliver 36,200 food packages every month to needy seniors across the state. At any given time, there are more 3,800 seniors on the waiting list. (More than 375,000 Pennsylvania seniors are actually eligible for CSFP benefits.) Nationwide, CSFP food packages reach more than 725,000 low-income people each month.
Cutting this program literally could jeopardize lives and actually cost us more over the long run.
Food insecurity among seniors contributes to malnutrition, which exacerbates disease, increases disability, decreases resistance to infection and extends hospital stays.
Malnutrition increases care-giving demands and inflates health-care expenditures associated with premature or extended hospital or nursing home stays.
We are so thankful for those 13 congressional members who signed on to the letter. You can read the full text of the letter HERE.
These congressional members are taking a stand to protect CSFP:
1st District: Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Buck)
2nd District: Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia)
3rd District: Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia)
4th District: Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery)
5th District: Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Delaware)
6th District: Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester)
7th District: Susan Wild (D-Lehigh/Northampton)
10th District: Scott Perry (R-Dauphin/York)
14th District: Guy Reschenthaler (R-Washington/Greene/Fayette)
15th District: Glenn Thompson (R-Centre)
16th District: Mike Kelly (R-Erie/Butler)
17th District: Conor Lamb (D-Allegheny/Beaver)
18th District: Michael F. Doyle (D-Allegheny)
These congressional members elected not to sign the letter seeking to protect CSFP:
9th District: Dan Meuser (R-Luzerne)
11th District: Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster)
13th District: John Joyce (R-Blair)
Notes: Pennsylvania’s 12th District currently is vacant. U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright of the 8th District in northeastern Pennsylvania serves on the subcommittee that will be receiving the letter.
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