Take action on current state, federal legislation
Advocacy Action Center helps you act now ... because it takes more than food to fight hunger.
Voices of hunger and health care
This video highlights the intersection of hunger and health care through stories of emergency food box recipients in Oregon. These stories represent a few of the thousands of Oregonians who are forced to make impossible choices between feeding their families and seeking medical care. This video was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Northwest Health Foundation.
As you consider expanding health care coverage for Oregonians we ask that you take the time to hear from some families who struggle with these issues every day.
For these families, health care can not wait. Read more about HB 2116 and learn why now is the time for health care reform.
- Read OFB's 2008 Voices report, the result of focus groups that OFB conducted with emergency-food-box recipients to learn more about their experiences living with hunger.
Share your story
Have you recently accessed emergency food? Have you recently lost your job? Are medical bills hitting you hard? Do you have trouble paying for housing?
Your story can help inform OFB's efforts to address the root causes of hunger. Legislators, the public and the media need to hear your voice.
Please call 971-230-1637 to have your voice heard and make a change.
We did it!
Measure 64 is defeated.
Congratulations, and thank you for your hard work and your votes. The final ballots are still being counted, but The Oregonian has called the vote in our favor. With 96 percent of ballots counted, here are the numbers:
No: 807,233 votes (51 percent)
Yes: 790,556 votes (49 percent)
This measure would have had a devastating impact on the Oregon Food Bank Network and the clients we serve. Thank you for protecting OFB's fundraising and advocacy efforts.
Thank you, nutrition advocates, for all that you've done to ensure a strong nutrition title in The Food, Energy, and Conservation Act of 2008 (the farm bill) and its passage in Congress
The Food, Energy, and Conservation Act of 2008, passed in July, makes critical improvements in domestic food assistance programs to help low-income Americans put food on the table in the face of rising food and fuel prices. The nutrition title of the conference agreement includes more than $10 billion over ten years in increases in these programs — including $7.8 billion for the Food Stamp Program, $1.25 billion for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). The nutrition title of the farm bill will:
• End years of erosion in the purchasing power of food stamps by raising and indexing for inflation the program’s standard deduction and minimum benefit. These changes will help tens of thousands of low-income Oregonians each year, including families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. With these changes, Food Stamp Program rules will fully account for annual inflation for the first time since the program’s creation more than 40 years ago, and food stamp households will stop losing food purchasing power each year.
• Rename and update the Food Stamp Program. The program name will be changed to the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or SNAP. The bill also includes numerous provisions to strengthen program operations, integrity, and oversight.
• Help the Oregon Food Bank Network and other emergency feeding organizations meet increasing demand and rising food prices by increasing annual funding for commodity purchases for TEFAP from $140 million to $250 million and subsequently adjusting this amount for food inflation. This is a critical provision for emergency food banks facing food shortages. Oregon will receive an increase of an estimated $1.3 million. The bill also increases funding for TEFAP operating costs which are critical in light of rising fuel and utility costs.
These are crucial improvements for the hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who struggle against hunger and food insecurity. We greatly appreciate your efforts.
Useful contacts
Oregon SafeNet
Information and Referral for food stamps, Oregon Health Plan,
school lunches
1-800-SafeNet
1-800-723-3638
Governor's Advocacy Line
Call to report problems receiving Department of Human Services
(DHS) assistance
1-800-442-5238
Oregon Helps
Information and referral Web site for social service programs.
www.OregonHelps.org
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