Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Editorial: Virginia's food aid
An unprecedented state grant to food banks is justified by the hard economic times.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
The poor economy forced Virginia lawmakers to slash the state budget by billions of dollars this year. Yet the General Assembly added a new, $1 million expenditure for fiscal 2010: an Emergency Food Purchase Program.
For that, lawmakers and the governor deserve thanks.
While the recession has drained revenue from state and local government coffers, affecting even essential services, the impact of lost jobs and wages has had a direct and more devastating effect on family budgets.
Many people who never had to ask for help before are doing so now to meet a need as basic as food. Food banks are having trouble keeping up.
So, in addition to the deep and painful cuts Gov. Tim Kaine proposed in his revised budget, he proposed to give $1 million to the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, a network of charitable food distribution centers with 2,800 partner agencies throughout the state. Wisely, the General Assembly went along.
The unprecedented state grant befits the times, marked as they are by a degree of economic hardship and uncertainty unprecedented in most people's lives.
Southwest Virginia Second Harvest reports it has seen an average 15 percent increase this fiscal year in demand for food across its wide service area: 26 counties and 10 cities stretching from the Alleghany Highlands to Danville to far Southwest.
Other regions have seen equally dramatic increases in need.
The state grant will buy about 671,000 pounds of food, to be distributed evenly among the seven food banks in Virginia. They, in turn, will help homeless shelters and church ministries stretch their food dollars to feed people in need.
Private donors should not sit back and let the state supplant their giving. The grant won't be available till the start of the new fiscal year in July. Even then, it will only supplement usual donations that have been outpaced by demand.
The state quite properly is stepping up in the face of growing need. It shouldn't be alone.
