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David Steves, The Register-Guard
SALEM, Oregon (July 28, 2005) -- A pair of anti-hunger bills have made their way through the Legislature and now await the governor's signature. But Oregon's leading group in combatting hunger said much of its agenda remained stalled in the current legislative session.
The two measures, Senate Bills 467 and 289, won final approval Tuesday when the House signed off on them. Rep. Debi Farr, a Eugene Republican who made hunger a top priority for her rookie session, said she was relieved to get the measures through.
The first bill appropriates $150,000 to reimburse school districts, government agencies and community groups for lunches served this summer and next. The reimbursement rate, $2.48 per lunch, represents a nickel increase per meal, which was intended to allow the program to expand to new sites.
The bill didn't arrive at Gov. Kulongoski's desk until schools' summer break was halfway over, a delay that Farr attributed to the Legislature's difficulty in hammering out a budget agreement. Top lawmakers completed work on the deal Monday, clearing the way for SB 467's final passage.
"In the end it was a matter of figuring out how we were going to fund it," said Farr, who cosponsored the bill with Sen. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton.
She said she wasn't worried about covering this summer's meals, since the agencies could be reimbursed retroactively. But Farr said she was concerned that rising fuel prices would eat up the modest funding increase, since the federal government was not hiking what it pays to cover higher delivery costs.
The other measure, SB 289, keeps in place the Farmer's Market Nutrition Program, in which coupons from the Women, Infant and Children program can be used at farmers' markets. The bill expands the program to include farm stands and provides the $49,000 necessary for the state to cover 5 percent of the federal program's cost in Oregon.
Cassandra Garrison, public policy manager for the Oregon Food Bank, said the two bills were surprisingly hard fought, given their modest price tags.
"In the scheme of things, as wonderful as those two bills are, they were the smaller of the bills that we had on our legislative agenda," she said.
Other bills pushed by the Oregon Food Bank and other groups have stalled in a Legislature where the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate have been at loggerheads over a myriad of issues. Stymied proposals being pushed by anti-hunger agencies include:
- Making the earned income tax credit refundable.
- Continuing the general assistance program, which provides poor, unemployable people with about $300 a month until they are eligible for Social Security.
- Limiting interest rates that pay-day lenders can charge.
- Allowing low-income parents to count college attendance toward the work requirement they must meet to receive welfare benefits.
Garrison said these bills were critical because they get at the root causes of hunger, even if they don't directly support the emergency food system.
"If you can't buy food, you end up coming into the food box system," she said.
Contacts:
David Steves, Reporter, The Register-Guard
rgsalem@aol.com
Pat Farr, Executive Director, FOOD for Lane County
(541) 343-2822
patfarr@foodforlanecounty.org
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