Our view: Congress must whet its appetite for helping Alabama’s families

Published 3:34 pm Thursday, June 9, 2022

Despite the best efforts of local organizers and officials, the pantry will soon be bare for thousands of Cullman County children.

It didn’t have to happen.

With COVID-19 pandemic federal waivers set to sunset on June 30, both Cullman County and Cullman City Schools will be unable to continue the meal pick-ups that have proven to be not only popular, but vital for many Cullman County families. How vital? Recently, during a two-day span, the school systems served a combined nearly 2,500 children younger than 18, stopping only at this number because supplies for each system ran out — in an hour. And for a bigger picture, the Cullman County Board of Education estimates that in 2021 it was quite busy helping families feed their hungry children — as many as 60,000 meals were assembled and given out.

It’s not that we don’t get it. Yes, the state of the pandemic today is certainly not what it was 24 or even 12 months ago, and extending waivers based on only this wouldn’t make sense. But with today’s level of inflationary food prices striking every household in the county — for the record, that level today is 9.4 percent — and energy increases topping 30 percent over a year ago, is it really that difficult for Congress to understand that the need is not only still there, but magnified?

Maybe it is. After all, it’s not exactly apple to apples — precisely because the apples in Cullman County will give out at the end of the month. But helping families through a Summer Feeding Service Program that is highly promoted nationally has been an ongoing a staple of the USDA. Indeed, The USDA provided 141 million meals and snacks to children during a single summer in 2019, well before everybody’s food budget spiked by 10 percent and growing. Surely this effort is worthy of being on par with the other excellent endeavors our lawmakers sweat out through the summer season.

Barring a Hail Mary from Congress before the end of June, it’s time to turn to our Alabama legislators. The men and women who serve our state see the need because they witness it, they hear about it, from families in their own home districts.

A lobbying effort from our state representatives and senators would surely be heard louder in D.C. than what our school leaders can shout from Cullman County. But more, our state lawmakers should work now to shore up the need before it becomes critical. After all, Alabama has always taken care of its own — and the reimbursements, if they even come, can be figured out later.

Fortunately, the CCBOE will still be able to continue offering free breakfast and lunch for children younger than 18 at its locations, or otherwise the county would be in dire straits. But considering that the need for 2,500 meals for one county ran out in an hour — and let’s remember to multiple this by 67 to include the entire state — the situation is dire enough.

Alabama’s most needy families aren’t looking for a meal ticket, they’re asking for the hand up that the federal government has promoted and provided to every state in the nation — until now, when the need is most critical.