Held each year on the second Saturday in May, the event helps replenish food banks and pantries in more than 10,000 communities. Last year the Stamp Out Hunger food drive collected 70.2 million pounds of food donations, pushing the 19-year total to more than 1.1 billion pounds of food.

“Connecticut Food Bank thanks the letter carriers for efforts to help us alleviate hunger in Connecticut,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s president and CEO. “This food drive is important because recent data tells us that 61 percent of the nearly 400,000 people in Connecticut who struggle with hunger do not qualify for federal assistance, such as food stamps. They rely on our network of food pantries and soup kitchens for help.”

Letter carriers who are participating are sending post cards to residents along their postal route to encourage them to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable food items, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, canned fish or meats, pasta, rice or cereal next to their mailbox prior to the regular mail delivery time on Saturday, May 12. The food donations are collected as letter carriers deliver the mail and are donated to a local agency or Connecticut Food Bank.

The need for food assistance continues to exist in every community in America, no matter how rich or poor. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual study measuring food security in the United States, the number of Americans living in food insecure homes reached nearly 49 million in 2011 (the most recent year that such data is available). Perhaps most alarming is the fact that more than 16 million children in America – and nearly 1 in 5 in Connecticut – are faced with the prospect of hunger.

Also supporting the drive as national partners are the U.S. Postal Service, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Campbell Soup Company, Valpak, United Way, AFLCIO, Feeding America, Uncle Bob’s Self-Storage and AARP.

For more information about the Stamp Out Hunger food drive in Connecticut, ask a letter carrier, contact a local post office, or visit www.helpstampouthunger.com, www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger, or www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger.

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According to the study, nearly 14 percent, or 493,020 of Connecticut’s residents are food insecure, and it would take nearly $232 million to meet the needs of Connecticut’s food insecure population, or $16 per week for each food insecure person.  Those figures are an increase over last year’s data which showed 12.3 percent food insecurity rate, with a $199 million budget shortfall in Connecticut.   

This is the second year Map the Meal Gap is being released, providing the latest county-level food cost data compiled by The Nielsen Company.  The study breaks down the food budget shortfall of residents and calculates the approximate number of meals missing from the tables of people at risk of hunger in Connecticut each year.

According to the study, Middlesex County has among the highest food costs in Connecticut ($3.10 per meal), with New Haven County having the highest (14%) food insecurity rate in the state.  In Connecticut Food Bank’s service area, 51 percent of the food insecure population does not qualify for food stamps or other federal food assistance program.  In Connecticut, the overall number is 61 percent, up 9 percent over last year’s data.   

“These numbers are no surprise to Connecticut Food Bank and our network of soup kitchens and pantries who continue to see an increase in demand for their services,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s President and CEO.  “Many residents continue to face the challenges of paying for housing, utilities, healthcare and food.  And if they do not qualify for federal assistance, they often must rely on sources such as Connecticut Food Bank’s member programs to feed themselves and their families.”

Map the Meal Gap provides the following data by state and county in an interactive map format:

• The percentage of the population who is food insecure.
•  The percentage of the food insecure population who qualify based on income for SNAP (Foods Stamps) and other federal nutrition programs.
• The percentage of the food insecure population who do NOT qualify for federal nutrition programs and often must rely on charitable food assistance programs and who also need better wages and employment opportunities to help them meet their basic needs.
• The average price per meal based research by The Nielsen Company.

The interactive map provides policy makers, state agencies, corporate partners and individual advocates to develop integrated strategies to fight hunger on a community by community level.  Map the Meal Gap shows the food budget shortfall represents more than 53 million meals in Connecticut Food Bank’s service area on an annual basis.    

The study also provides food insecurity rates for congressional districts and further analyzes each district’s food insecure population to determine their income eligibility for federal nutrition assistance.

The findings of “Map the Meal Gap” are based on statistics collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and food price data and analysis provided by The Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN), a global information and measurement company providing insights into what consumers watch and buy.   The study was supported by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Nielsen.

Prior to the study’s first release in March 2011, food insecurity data was only available at the state level in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report. The study further analyzes each county’s food insecure population to determine their income eligibility for federal nutrition assistance, and also provides meal cost estimates for every county in the nation. This data has the potential to redefine the way service providers and policy makers address areas of need.

A summary of the findings, an interactive map of the United States, and the full report are available on Feeding America’s website at www.feedingamerica.org

Presented by Webster Bank, the Walk helps Connecticut Food Bank in its mission to alleviate hunger in Connecticut. If you can’t make it this weekend, there are two more Walks in May on the following dates and locations:

 36^th Annual Greater New Haven Walk Against Hunger
Sunday, May 6, 2012
College Woods Pavilion at East Rock Park, New Haven

7^th Annual Greater Waterbury Walk Against Hunger
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Library Park, Waterbury

Walk participants are supported by family members, friends, colleagues and others prior to the event. Proceeds helps Connecticut Food Bank transport, warehouse and distribute donated food to local community agencies such as soup kitchens, shelters, food pantries, and adult and child day centers.  Every dollar raised helps Connecticut Food Bank provide three meals to someone in need.

Individuals and Walk Teams can pre-register online at www.ctfoodbank.org/walk on a new Walk Against Hunger website that features a participant center with “Walker Tools” to help reach fundraising goals. In addition to fundraising ideas, walkers are provided with sample e-mails, to help them reach out to their social networks to gain support. Returning walkers and teams must reregister on the new website.

In 2011, the Walks in New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury attracted 1,500 walkers and raised more than $240,000 for the anti-hunger effort in Connecticut.  The funds enabled Connecticut Food Bank to distribute more than $1 million of food at wholesale value to people in need.

Along with helping an important cause, Bruegger’s wants to give new and loyal guests the chance to try its iced coffee, a summer favorite, before summer officially begins. In addition to iced coffee, Bruegger’s offers Mocha and regular-flavored Iced Coffee Coolers, triple-brewed coffee with sweet cream, and a frozen blended coffee drink – the popular Brueggaccino – also available in mocha. 

“We wanted to start our summer early and give our loyal Connecticut customers the chance to enjoy our iced coffee for free,” said Bruegger’s Chief Marketing Officer Scott Colwell. “As longtime supporters of Connecticut Food Bank, we know that summer is a hard time for some families, so we developed our Free Iced Coffee Day fundraiser to help those in need in the upcoming months.”

“People don’t always think of the food bank in the spring and summer, but this is the time we have the greatest need,” said Connecticut Food Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Nancy L. Carrington.  “Families have to come up with more than 200 extra meals during summer vacation because kids don’t have access to free school meals – an extremely difficult situation to face for most low-income families. The Bruegger’s fundraiser will help us fill in the gap.”

For every $1 donated, Connecticut Food Bank can distribute $5 worth of food at wholesale value. No coupon is required to receive a free iced coffee on April 19. Participating New Haven and Fairfield-area bakeries are located in Wallingford, Hamden, New Haven, Shelton, Danbury, Trumbull, New Canaan and Orange. Further information is at www.brueggers.com.

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When Connecticut Food Bank asked the Monahans if they could donate fresh produce, they mentioned they had CSA shares that people either forgot to pick up or left behind. We suggested an agency partnership and quickly found two that could take the items off their hands. Spooner House of Shelton and Salvation Army of Ansonia picked up unwanted or forgotten produce from Stone Gardens on a weekly basis throughout the 2011 growing season. “It was really easy and we hardly knew the agencies stopped by,” said Fred. “Our customers felt good about the partnership and sometimes left product behind knowing it was going to those in need.”

By the end of the harvest season, Stone Gardens Farm donated more than 1,700 pounds of fresh produce, or over 1,400 meals to those in need. Many thanks to Fred and Stacia, as we look forward to expanding our relationship with them this growing season.

Good afternoon. And thank you all for coming.

Let me first thank Nancy Carrington, the President and CEO of the Connecticut Food Bank, and Lucy Nolan, the Executive Director of End Hunger Connecticut, for joining me today.

Both Nancy and Lucy have dedicated their careers to seeing that every man, woman, and child in our state has access to the food and nutrition they need to thrive. Nancy, Lucy, thank you so much for your hard work and commitment to this great cause.

Over Nancy’s tenure at the Connecticut Food Bank, it has gone from distributing 1.3 million pounds of food a year to 260 agencies in 1984, to, last year, distributing nearly 17 million pounds of food to approximately 600 recipients, such as soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and low-income adult and child day programs. That is 33 tons of food per day. Amazing.

A quarter of the food distributed by Connecticut Food Bank comes from the USDA’s Emergency Food Program (TEFAP), which is just one of our key federal programs for alleviating hunger.

I also want to thank Susan Vass for being here, and for sharing her story. Susan, thank you for your courage and determination.

The fact of the matter is, in this economy, with 13 million unemployed and one in six living below the official poverty line, millions of middle-class and working families are hurting, and hunger and food insecurity have been on the rise.

Across the country, nearly fifteen percent of American households were food insecure in 2010, meaning they often did not know where their next meal was coming from.

In other words, nearly 50 million Americans, including over 16 million children, are struggling with hunger right now.

Here in our district, nearly one in seven households were not sure if they could afford enough food to feed their families.

At a time such as this, our key federal food security policies become all the more vital.

Our country’s most important effort to fight hunger, and to help families meet the barest essentials in difficult times, is SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan, or Food Stamps.

It currently helps to feed over 46 million Americans a day, 21 million of them kids. Nearly 75 percent of food stamp recipients are families with children.

And yet, Republicans lately have taken to continually denouncing these and other important anti-hunger efforts.

Republican presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich continually ridicule Food Stamps as government run amok, even though they are working to feed millions in tough times.

And in the budget they passed last week – written by Congressman Paul Ryan and endorsed by Mitt Romney – the House Republican Majority would decimate Food Stamps and the rest of our federal anti-hunger efforts.

Just like last year, the Republicans have put forward a lopsided budget that threatens to break the middle class, end the Medicare guarantee, and accelerate a race to the bottom.

While preserving oil company subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, this budget proposal drastically reduces funding for priorities like K-12 education and college aid, health care for families, infrastructure investment, and medical research

And once again, the Republican budget would slash the social safety net into shreds.

Over ten years, the Majority’s budget cuts Food Stamps by over 17 percent, or $133.5 billion. That is more than the amount of food stamp funds going to 29 states and territories.

Under this budget, over eight million men, women, and children may be cut from the rolls and thus go hungry – all so the wealthiest Americans can enjoy an average tax cut of at least $150,000. 

They also plan to turn Food Stamps into an underfunded block grant. If that happens, even more damage is done.

These cuts reflect several fundamental misunderstandings about the food stamp program. For one, as the economy improves and families get back on their feet, the costs of the program will decrease anyway.

For one, food stamps not only keep millions of Americans fed. They help to grow the economy.

Republican economist Mark Zandi, a top advisor to the McCain campaign in 2008, argued in January of that year that expanding the food-stamp program was the fastest way to increase demand and employment.

According to Moody’s, food stamps generate $1.73 in economic activity for every dollar spent – because people spend the money right away, generating a multiplier effect in local communities.

But, the Ryan-Republican budget would prevent food stamps from working as intended. It will lead only to a path of more hardship for millions of American families during already difficult times. 

And it is not just Food Stamps that will be affected. Every anti-hunger program could see cuts of as much as 19%.

That means 2.5 million pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children will be slashed from the WIC feeding program.  

And the damage spreads farther than just hunger. With these cuts, 84,000 teachers and aides could lose their jobs over the next two years. 200,000 students lose access to Work Study funds. 2200 NIH research grants disappear. 

Seniors lose the fundamental guarantee to Medicare that has been a cornerstone of our American system for nearly fifty years. And four million Americans lose their jobs. 

Last week, Chairman Ryan told his fellow Republicans that his budget was not “just about math. This is a cause.” It shows.

Just like last year, the Majority has put radical ideology above basic common sense. They have put forward a Reverse Robin Hood budget that quite literally takes food out of the mouths of millions of hungry men, women, and children.

As Nancy and Lucy can tell you, our federal anti-hunger efforts make a huge, even life-or-death difference for millions of families in this tough economy, while spurring economic growth.

We cannot and should not gut them for unsound and ideological reasons.

We also partner with the food industry, with corporate and foundation donors, with small businesses, civic and faith based organizations, and with thousands of compassionate people who care about their neighbors.  And we partner with the government.  We can’t and don’t fight hunger alone.

Our network of soup kitchens and food pantries has seen an average thirty percent increase in demand for their services for the last two and a half years – with some local programs reporting an increase of 100% or more.   Many are seeing people who are seeking help for the first time. 

Financially challenged households are struggling as the cost of food, gas and utilities continue to rise.  They can’t do it anymore by themselves.    

Food insecurity exists in every community in Connecticut.  In fact, over 50% of our distribution goes to suburbs and small towns, places that people often don’t associate with the problem of hunger.

In Congresswoman DeLauro’s district, there are now more than ninety thousand people who are struggling to keep food on the table. And there are more than four hundred thousand people in Connecticut who are struggling to keep food on their table.

Connecticut Food Bank now distributes 33 tons of grocery products every business day – that is the equivalent of 55 thousand meals a day.  And yet, we still haven’t ended hunger.  If significant cuts are made to SNAP and other federal food assistance programs, we won’t be able to food bank our way out of the resulting crisis. 

So thank you again to Congresswoman DeLauro for confronting this challenge today, and every day.  The food bank – and all the people who come to our member programs for help – thank you for your commitment to fight hunger.

The egg donation will help our network of food-assistance programs meet increased demand. Bob Hodge of Moark said he’s proud to be partnering with Connecticut Food Bank, “to provide much needed protein to the most needy in our community, especially during the Easter holiday season.”

A Land O’Lakes wholly-owned egg subsidiary, Moark’s donation is part of a national effort, organized by the United Egg Producers and Feeding America, to donate 10 million eggs to food banks around the country. Since 2008, Connecticut Food Bank has received more than 800,000 eggs from Kofkoff Egg Farm- Moark to help with hunger-relief efforts in Connecticut.