By Mark Andrew Boyer, KQED News Fix
Bay Area food banks struggled throughout the Great Recession and its aftermath to feed the region’s poor and hungry. Now they are facing a new challenge: a new federal farm bill, passed by the House on this week and now awaiting a Senate vote, that will cut food-stamp funding by billions of dollars over the next decade.
Paul Ash, executive director of the SF-Marin Food Bank, says the cuts will likely force people to seek meals at local food pantries and soup kitchens supplied by the food banks. “This is going to stretch every food bank in the state. It is all going to come down to our resources, and how many more people come to our food pantries,” he said.
Kathy Jackson, chief of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, echoed those concerns. “There’s no way in the world that the food bank can make up for the cuts we’re seeing. I wish we could.”
Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
