100 demonstrate at food program rally
Participants urge Bush administration not to eliminate benefit for poor
By MARIE ROHDE
Posted: Mar. 12, 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Greenfield - Marie Davis, 84, was one of about 100 seniors who showed up at a rally Sunday to protest the Bush administration's proposal that calls for the elimination in 2007 of the federal Commodity Supplemental Food Program that provides grains, cereal, cheese, canned goods and other food to the poor.

"I'd work if I could, but I can't anymore," said Davis, who said she retired 14 years ago and lives near N. 46th St. and W. Hampton Ave. "Every month I pay my bills, and then whatever's left goes for food."

The rally was organized by the Hunger Task Force at Greenfield City Hall, one of the Milwaukee area's distribution points for the boxes referred to as "stock boxes."

Sherrie Tussler, the task force's director, said 5,000 people in Milwaukee receive the stock boxes, valued at about $40. Another 400 are distributed in Waukesha County.

Those receiving the boxes cannot earn more than $1,037 a month, and there is a waiting list of those who are eligible for the program and want to participate.

It's not likely that anyone will be added to the list anytime soon, she said.

"I've been told that we have to eliminate 700 people by June," said Tussler. "I don't know how we're going to do it."

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program is one of 141 federal initiatives that would be eliminated under Bush's budget proposal.

The program, run by the Agriculture Department and dating back to 1968, cost about $111 million this fiscal year,

The Bush administration says the program duplicates other services for the poor, like food stamps and the Women, Infants and Children program.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee), the only elected official to attend the rally, vowed to fight to keep the funding.

"This represents how we have hit rock bottom," said Moore. "Here we are, the richest country in the world, and we can't feed our poor."

Moore attacked the Bush administration for spending billions fighting the war in Iraq and giving tax cuts to the richest Americans while cutting programs like the stock boxes.

"Budgets are not just about numbers," said Moore. "They're about priorities."

Moore said the issue should not be subject to partisan politics.

"You don't have to have a 'D' after your name to understand that people have to eat," she said.

U.S. Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, both Democrats, sent representatives to the rally and vowed to support the program. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) had a prior commitment and could not attend, according to spokeswoman Kate Matus.

Matus said Ryan had no comment on the proposal because it's early in the budget process and he has not had a chance to evaluate the proposal.

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