The Great Commissions
Members of the Social Justice Commission help foster a culture of life and dignity of each person.
Together, they:
- Promote the family and community to strengthen the common good.
- Build appreciation for both personal and social responsibilities.
- Nurture a commitment to caring for the poor and the vulnerable.
- Embrace our stewardship of creation.
Ministries and Programs:
- Ascension Food Pantry
- St. Nicholas Food Pantry
- Cooking for Sts. Peter & Paul
Food Bank Volunteers
Contact
Email the Social Justice Commission with any questions or if you are interested in getting involved:
Socialjusticecommission@asc.church
The U.S. Farm Bill
The farm bill is multi-year law that is primarily executed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It governs an array of agricultural and food programs and is reauthorized every 5 years. The current farm bill will expire on September 30, 2023.
The impact of the farm bill is significant. It not only affects the agriculture and food sectors, but can play a huge role in ending food insecurity and hunger in the U.S. and save the lives of millions abroad.
The following graph gives a breakdown of the funding for the current (2018) farm bill:
As you can see, “Nutrition” is a substantial portion of the farm bill, but what is included under “Nutrition?”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamps program, is the largest nutrition safety net program in the United States. It serves as the nation’s first line of defense against food insecurity and hunger by improving food access and affordability. Research has shown SNAP benefits reduce the likelihood of food insecurity by roughly 30%
SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency.
"Roughly 80% of The Neighbors in Need we work with in the Holy Name of Jesus Conference in North County rely on SNAP. It is sometimes their only source of food and critical to their well-being." -Bob Kalinich; Ascension St. Vincent de Paul Conference
The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program aims to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.
Child Nutrition Programs, which includes:
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) has supplemented the diets of vulnerable Americans by providing nutritious meals and snacks for 50 years.
National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential childcare institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is the backstop for food security in communities across the country, providing roughly 20% of food distributed by local hunger-relief organizations.
The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) helps to ensure adequate food assistance is provided to the growing population of low-income seniors. Faith communities and other charities are essential in providing food packages to hungry seniors in their local communities and are critical partners in the TEFAP program.
Included in the “other” portion of the graph above is International Food Assistance. International food assistance programs continue to provide much-needed resources in both emergency and development settings for people impacted by severe and chronic hunger. As famine looms in Yemen, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, Madagascar, and in parts of the Sahel, unprecedented hunger needs continue to multiply with millions of people relying on emergency food assistance to meet their basic food needs. According to the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises, nearly 193 million people experienced crisis level or worse food insecurity in 2021, an increase of 40 million over the previous record in 2020. Rising hunger needs are the consequence of compounding drivers – conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 – that pose grave threats to global food security. Furthermore, the recent conflict in Ukraine is reducing the purchasing power of organizations programming humanitarian assistance due to global supply chain shortages that have inflated the price of staple commodities, as well as transportation costs due to oil price spikes.
This year, Congress is working to renew farm bill programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and international food aid programs. Please write to your senators and representative asking them to support the reauthorization of the farm bill in order to build healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems. Please request the strengthening or maintaining, not reduction, of nutrition security in both domestic and international programs.
Instructions to send your letter are below.
Facts on Hunger in the United States
- Nearly 15 percent of U.S. households — more than 40 million Americans, including 12 million children — struggle to put food on the table.
- Here the measure of hunger is “food insecurity” — an ongoing uncertainty of where the next meal will come from.
- More than 1 in 5 U.S. children are at risk of hunger (1 in 3 among Black and Latino(a) children).
- A majority of Americans (51.4 percent) will live in poverty at some point before age 65.
Facts on 2022 SNAP benefits in Missouri SNAP:
- SNAP provides monthly food benefits to 1 out of every 9 Missourians. (That is 670,000+ Missourians!)
- 68% of participants are either children, older (60+) adults, or have a disability.
- SNAP provides benefits to 20% of Missouri’s children.
- Benefits are used by only 42% of eligible older Missourians. Overall, 15% of eligible Missourians do not participate.
- The average daily food benefit is $6.27 per participant.
For more information on the Farm Bill:
Congressional Research Service; “Farm Bill Primer: What is the Farm Bill?”
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12047
USCCB – Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development
USCCB – June 8, 2022 Letter to Congress Regarding FY2023 Agriculture Appropriations Legislation (Farm Bill)
Bread for the World fact sheet on global food assistance
https://www.bread.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Farm-Bill-International-Fact-Sheet-Revised-v2.1.pdf
To submit a letter to your senators and representative, please go to the following website. (Please indicate “Ascension Catholic Church” as the organization you are associated with for this “Offering of Letters.”)
You may use the letter immediately below, the letter that is automatically filled in (the second letter below) or write one of your own. Your personal experience is impactful!
*FYI, the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) mentioned in the second letter is a program that presents the opportunity to provide incentives to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by low-income consumers. By bringing together stakeholders from various parts of the food and healthcare systems, GusNIP grants help to foster understanding of how they might improve the health and nutrition status of participating households.
Sample letters:
Dear Senator , / Dear Representative ,
I am a parishioner at Ascension Catholic Church in Chesterfield and am writing in support of the FY 2023 Farm Bill Reauthorization. I urge you to support policies in the Farm Bill which strengthen and expand domestic anti-hunger programs as well as those which provide food security aid to those around the world who are hungry.
While the Catholic Church is committed to the mission of feeding the hungry and ensuring every person has enough food to sustain a life with dignity, the USDA programs play a key role in strengthening and complementing this work. We see this within our parish when the Ascension Food Pantry obtains food from the St. Louis Food Bank, which receives funding through the USDA programs, thus allowing us to be more effective in our efforts.
To help families deal with the increasing costs of food and necessities, please increase funding for the vital programs listed below; at a minimum, I urge you to maintain funding at FY 2022 levels for these programs:
WIC (Women, Infants, & Children), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program), CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program), and the international food assistance programs.
Please support the Farm Bill as it impacts our nation’s ability to provide healthy food at affordable prices to those who are struggling. The need is great; according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, 108,174 persons in St. Louis County received SNAP support in 2022.
Ultimately, we will all need to reply to the question, "Lord when did we see you hungry...and feed you?" (Matthew 25:37-38)
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Your Address)
Dear Senator , / Dear Representative ,
The farm bill is our nation’s most important national food system legislation. It is critical to the work of ending hunger at home and abroad. Indeed, the farm bill impacts each one of us.
As Congress works to renew our food and farm programs through the farm bill, I urge you to support legislation that builds healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems.
Specifically, I ask you to:
- Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables by increasing support for produce-specific Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). This provides resources on top of monthly SNAP benefits for the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables, primarily at farmers’ markets, for a limited number of households.
- Eliminate barriers to SNAP for marginalized populations, including ending the ban on former drug offenders, eliminating work requirements for college students, and permitting indigenous communities to administer SNAP and other federal nutrition programs on reservations.
- Keep food out of landfills by increasing support for post-harvest food recovery efforts and addressing the threat to food security posed by extreme weather.
- Support funding for international food aid programs such as Food for Peace.
As a person of faith, I am moved to help and advocate for people experiencing hunger and poverty – no matter where they live. This is why I urge you to support a farm bill that builds healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems.
Sincerely,
[Your name] [Your address]