Hunger-Free Pennsylvania is working with other concerned organizations throughout our state to ask Governor Wolf to provide adequate funding for the State Food Purchase Program as he prepares his FY 2016-2017 budget for presentation to the General Assembly in February 2016.
If you agree with the message below then take action by sending this message to Governor Wolf.
We encourage you to also share this message with your colleagues and friends. Thank you for speaking out against hunger today!
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Dear Governor Wolf,
Please recommend separate appropriations of $21 million for the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) and $5 million for the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS) to the Department of Agriculture in your 2016-2017 executive budget.
The SFPP appropriation allows the Commonwealth to provide essential resources to all 67 counties for the purchase of foods and nutritional supplements, food provider transportation and infrastructure, and access to federal food commodities. Since 1983, SFPP has been a foundation for Pennsylvania’s food banks and food pantries in building the public-private effort to meet a basic need of our most vulnerable citizens.
An increased investment in PASS will allow the Commonwealth to leverage Pennsylvania’s agricultural surpluses and charitable food distribution infrastructure to benefit farmers, packers and the 1.8 million Pennsylvanians struggling with hunger. Pennsylvania’s agriculture sector, farm communities, and Pennsylvanians in need of food assistance will all benefit from PASS. Millions of pounds of Pennsylvania-grown agricultural products that would otherwise go to waste each year can instead help to provide nutritious meals.
I appreciate the funding you included in the 2015-16 budget to support PASS and hope you will continue to build on that commitment, as the need in our state is still great. Moreover, we appreciate the action you took to ensure critical funding for food banks was released, even as discussions surrounding the 2015-16 budget continue. Many of our charitable food organizations strained to supply those in need. Even today, with added support, the challenges are still great.
To continue to make vital nutritional assistance available to our neighbors threatened by hunger, our food banks and other charitable food assistance providers - churches, community organizations, and other non-profit groups throughout Pennsylvania - need strong Commonwealth hunger programs. An appropriation of $21 million for SFPP and $5 million for PASS, together with the efforts and energy of our private charitable food assistance providers, can make a real difference in the lives of thousands of our fellow Pennsylvanians.