A food pantry at an Episcopal Church in Clay Center, Kansas, is trying to make Congress understand that faith communities are not going to be able to meet all the need that will be created by deep cuts in the federal food stamp programs. The Clay Center Dispatch has the story:
If food stamps and other government assistance to people in need are cut, local volunteer efforts to provide commodities to those families will be “overwhelmed,” according to the Rev. Lavonne Seifert, newly appointed pastor of Clay Center’s St. Paul Episcopal Church which has organized and conducted food distribution programs over the past five years.
Recipients of food from the Mobile Food Pantry program in Clay Center are sending a stack of 87 paper plates to U. S. Senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts, each inscribed with a message from recipients about why food programs pending with the Farm Bill and federal budget should be fully funded not cut.
The “pantry patrons” wrote their messages after the December distribution explaining why food programs in the pending farm bill and federal budget should be fully funded, not cut, Seifert told those gathered at the regular Wednesday Chamber forum.
“This helps out when were are in need because we live in a car,” one plate reads.