Charity Leaders Ask Congress to Help on Hunger Relief

Charity and foundation leaders Thursday urged Congress to take action to help the nonprofit organizations that are on the front lines of the mounting demand for food aid as the economic recession cuts a wide swath.

“The number of new users coupled with the growing need of existing clients has made it increasingly difficult for food banks to adequately serve the needs of those who need it most,” Scott Wolf, a founding member of the Feeding America Entertainment Council, told two House Ways and Means subcommittees that held a hearing on the issue.

The witnesses — who also included representatives of Catholic Charities USA; Northwest Harvest, in Seattle; United Way Worldwide; and the J. Bulow Campbell Foundation, in Atlanta — said the demand was rising at a time when donations were static or falling. They offered a variety of proposals for easing the strain in their written testimony, including:

• Strengthen tax breaks for charitable donations. For example, Congress could pass the Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Act (H.R. 3327 and S. 1313), which would permanently extend and expand a charitable deduction for businesses that donate food inventory. Brian A. Gallagher, United Way president, urged lawmakers to resist proposals to cap tax breaks for charitable gifts as a way to pay for a health-care overhaul and to consider allowing people who do not itemize their taxes to get charitable deductions.

• Increase spending on federal safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Emergency Food and Shelter Program. Also, continue extending unemployment benefits and reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act, which provides food to schoolchildren.

• Provide money to help nonprofit groups meet the growing demand. “One sector that has been stunningly absent from the national economic-recovery discussion is the nonprofit sector,” said Candy Hill, senior vice president for social policy and government affairs at Catholic Charities.

The hearing was held by the Ways and Means subcommittees on oversight and on income security and family support.