I've been searching for this since yesterday and finally found it on the
The Center for American Progress website.
Confronted with a recent spike in the number of hungry Americans, U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) food and nutrition undersecretary Eric Bost this week acknowledged, "There's a bump, but how much of that is due to people taking the easy way out? I don't know." Shown a study by his own agency demonstrating a rise in the hungry, he said the numbers were probably inflated, and indicated the questions were too vague: "If you ask any teenager if they're happy about the food they have in their house, what will they say?" he asked. According to government statistics, more than 34 million Americans, including 13.6 million children under the age of 12, were affected by hunger in 2002. President Bush quoted these statistics – questioned by Bost – when introducing his own faith-based initiative. Bost's denials will not help solve a problem that has gotten steadily worse by nearly every measure each year since President Bush was elected.
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BOST SUGGESTS FOOD PANTRIES CROWDED WITH RICH: Bost's comments came in response to an alarming hunger problem in Ohio, where the Columbus Dispatch reports, "A struggling economy has created a new kind of poverty…in which the number of people seeking help at food pantries has increased each of the last three years." In the first three months of 2004, the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks "reported a 44 percent increase in people seeking assistance… compared with the last three months of 2003." Bost was unimpressed. He denied an increase in food stamp recipients and longer lines at pantries were indicative of more needy people, telling the Columbus Dispatch that "food pantries don't require documentation of income…so there's no proof everyone asking for sustenance at a soup kitchen is truly in need."
What is almost as alarming as his response is the complete lack of coverage on this. I did several Google news searches yesterday and today with an assortment of variations on keywords including "Administration","homeless", "Agriculture", "Secretary", "hunger", "remarks" but only found it once I went directly to
The Center for American Progress.
Once I knew the name "Bost" I tried "Eric Bost hunger". I got two links. TWO! One of which was the Center for American Progress and the other was this half-assed effort from a Cincinatti TV station:
WCPO.com
A struggling economy has led to an increase in people seeking help at food pantries in Ohio for each of the last three years.
The Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks reports a 44-percent increase in people seeking assistance during the first three months of this year.
George Zeller of the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland blames the state's shrinking manufacturing base.
Nationwide, the number of people seeking emergency food from Catholic Charities USA and its partners has jumped about 20-percent annually in recent years.
But not everyone agrees there's a growing hunger problem.
U.S. Agriculture Department undersecretary Eric Bost says food-stamp enrollment is up largely due to government outreach to eligible people.
Hey, don't fall all over yourselves covering the problem of hunger in America and the Bush administrations insulting response to it. Instead, lets spend some more time telling us how Reagan restored optimism to America, won the cold war and was the greatest fucking thing since Jesus.
