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Texas food banks feel shutdown squeeze
Texas food banks feel shutdown squeeze
Ned Resnikoff
Ten truckload deliveries of food were already canceled. An additional 36 loads remain “in limbo” for the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas, which provides nearly 175,000 meals a day to the region’s needy.
The government shutdown means a major supplier of the organization’s food–the Department of Agriculture–won’t be making its deliveries and that could mean the food bank loses more than 300,000 meals intended for low-income Texans. Widespread USDA furloughs have made it difficult to even determine the status of those deliveries.
“They’re just not answering questions right now,” said Jan Pruitt, the president of the food bank. “They’re saying, ‘We can’t guarantee that you’ll get the truckloads.’”
Texas Senator Republican Ted Cruz–in office less than a year–is widely credited with leading the anti-Obamacare strategy which resulted in a government shutdown. Now the poor of his state is feeling the consequences as much as any other...At last count, Texas had a higher percentage of uninsured people than any other state, and ranked eighth in poverty. Nearly one-fifth of the state is “food insecure” according to the non-profit Feeding America, meaning they are unable to feed themselves adequately. A prolonged shutdown has the potential to make matters even worse...The Lone Star state is the third-most populous state in the country, and also has the third-highest concentration of workers employed by the federal government. When the shutdown first began, some 11,500 workers in the Austin area alone were sent out on furlough, though at least some of them are likely to be called back as the Defense Department recalls most of its furloughed workforce.
- more -
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/10/07/texas-food-banks-feel-shutdown-squeeze/
Ned Resnikoff
Ten truckload deliveries of food were already canceled. An additional 36 loads remain “in limbo” for the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas, which provides nearly 175,000 meals a day to the region’s needy.
The government shutdown means a major supplier of the organization’s food–the Department of Agriculture–won’t be making its deliveries and that could mean the food bank loses more than 300,000 meals intended for low-income Texans. Widespread USDA furloughs have made it difficult to even determine the status of those deliveries.
“They’re just not answering questions right now,” said Jan Pruitt, the president of the food bank. “They’re saying, ‘We can’t guarantee that you’ll get the truckloads.’”
Texas Senator Republican Ted Cruz–in office less than a year–is widely credited with leading the anti-Obamacare strategy which resulted in a government shutdown. Now the poor of his state is feeling the consequences as much as any other...At last count, Texas had a higher percentage of uninsured people than any other state, and ranked eighth in poverty. Nearly one-fifth of the state is “food insecure” according to the non-profit Feeding America, meaning they are unable to feed themselves adequately. A prolonged shutdown has the potential to make matters even worse...The Lone Star state is the third-most populous state in the country, and also has the third-highest concentration of workers employed by the federal government. When the shutdown first began, some 11,500 workers in the Austin area alone were sent out on furlough, though at least some of them are likely to be called back as the Defense Department recalls most of its furloughed workforce.
- more -
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/10/07/texas-food-banks-feel-shutdown-squeeze/
Shutdown takes its toll on congressional GOP
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023806587
Remarks by the President at FEMA Headquarters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023803151
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