Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Anti-hunger Empowerment Act of 2013”.
Anti-hunger Empowerment Act of 2013
A BILL
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to provide greater access to the supplemental nutrition assistance program by reducing duplicative and burdensome administrative requirements, authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to award grants to certain community-based nonprofit feeding and anti-hunger groups for the purpose of establishing and implementing a Beyond the Soup Kitchen Pilot Program for certain socially and economically disadvantaged populations, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
The Congress finds the following:
In 2009 the number of Americans facing hunger or food insecurity was 50,200,000, and 17,200,000 children lived in these households.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of January 2010 more than 40,000,000 people participate in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). In 2009 on a monthly average, 33,700,000 people participated in this program, 11 percent of the United States population. SNAP, WIC, and the NSLP are the largest nutrition assistance programs and provided nutrition assistance to 57 percent of the food insecure households.
Administrative burdens involved in securing supplemental nutrition assistance benefits are particularly burdensome for working families.
In 2009 more than 16,200,000 people in the United States, of whom 5,700,000 were children, were forced to rely on soup kitchens, food pantries, and other charitable feeding programs.
The charitable food distribution system in the United States would benefit from increased coordination and technical assistance.
Helping those who use feeding programs to move “beyond the soup kitchen,” by promoting the values of community, opportunity, and responsibility, is a national priority.