Advocate

29% of households served in Kentucky had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.

34% of households served in Kentucky had to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel.

Demand for emergency food assistance in Kentucky has increased 84% since 2006.

Last year we distributed 50.9 million pounds of food and grocery products.

We reach 1 in 7 Kentuckians each year.

Our mission is to provide food and quality services to increase the capacity of Kentucky’s Feeding America food banks to end hunger.

Our vision is a hunger-free Kentucky.

One in four of Kentucky’s children lack consistent access to an adequate diet.

Over 700,000 Kentuckians do not always know where their next meal will come from.

Your voice is powerful! Take action and voice your concern on issues that affect Kentucky’s most vulnerable populations. Your phone calls, letters, emails and visits to district offices and town halls can make a difference. Contact us to learn more.

Tax Credit Bill Signed Into Law

Governor Beshear signed the tax credit bill for agricultural donations to food banks bill in March 2013. This important legislation will increase the amount of food available to feed hungry Kentuckians by providing an incentive for farmers to donate unmarketable agricultural products rather than disking them under in the field.

Thank you for your help contacting legislators! Thanks also to our friends at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Community Farm Alliance, and the Kentucky Horticulture Council for working to see this legislation enacted.

From left: Kurt Reiber, Freestore Foodbank; Don Fulford, Feeding America Kentucky’s Heartland; Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes; Tamara Sandberg, Ky Association of Food Banks; Governor Steve Beshear; Cassia Herron, Community Farm Alliance; Representative Tom McKee; Tina Garland, Ky Farms to Schools; Fred Nesler, Ky Dept of Agriculture; Bill Wickliffe, Ky Dept of Agriculture; and Heather Hyden, Community Farm Alliance.

Photo credit:Governor’s Office.

A copy of the press release is available here.

Click here to listen to coverage of the bill on Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Across Kentucky program.

Congressional Update

Appropriations Process. The FY2014 Appropriations process has begun, and many subcommittees are holding hearings on FY2014 budget requests from specific federal agencies and cabinets.

Farm Bill. Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are expected to mark up their versions of the farm bill in May.

Tax Check-Off Bill Signed by Governor Beshear

On April 23, 2012 Governor Beshear signed House Bill 419 into law! It will allow taxpayers to make voluntary contributions to the Farms to Food Banks trust fund by “checking off” a contribution on their state personal income tax form, starting in tax year 2013. Click here to read the text of HB 419.

Thank you very much for the calls made to legislators in support of HB 419!

April 2012: No Farms to Food Banks Funding in State Budget

We were hoping this would be the year that Kentucky joined the ranks of 38 other states that provide state funding for food banks. The good news: language regarding $300,000/fiscal year was included in the state budget bill that passed in March. The bad news: the General Assembly did not appropriate additional funds to finance it, so it was one of the provisions of the state budget vetoed by Governor Beshear.

Though we are disappointed with the final outcome, we are grateful to Senator Hornback (R – Shelbyville), Senator Pendleton (D – Hopkinsville), Representative R. Adams (D – Dry Ridge), Representative McKee (D – Cynthiana), Representative Nesler (D – Mayfield), Representative Stone (D – Scottsville), and Representative Turner (R – Somerset) for their leadership and hard work on our behalf this session. They prove that hunger is not a partisan issue.