Community Food Projects could be Zeroed Out... Action Needed! Support Blumenauer Amendment for REAL Funding for CFP
Begun in 1996, the Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFP), has been incredibly successful at empowering low-income communities to identify problems related to food security and take action to permanently solve them with a small investment from the federal government. The administrators of the CFP program highlight it as one of USDA's most effective local initiatives supporting farmers and consumers. Community Food Projects is ZEROED OUT! In the past, the program has received $5 million annually in mandatory or REAL funding, that doesn't need to be fought for each year. However, WE NEED YOUR HELP, because the House Agriculture Committee has not included any REAL money for CFP in the Farm Bill which will be voted on TOMORROW. While the House Agriculture Committee increased funds for CFP to $30 million, the money is not mandatory, meaning that it's possible this vital program gets nothing at all when it comes time to dole out the money each year. There is no money in the appropriations bill for FY '08, so if the Farm bill doesn't include mandatory money, there could be no money for CFP in 2008. Please help us save this popular and vital program. Call your Representative RIGHT NOW! With the House of Representatives voting on the Farm Bill TOMORROW, it's important that all Representatives recognize the imprtance of CFP and the need to to fund it. Please call your Representative and ask his/her office to support the Blumenauer amendment for MANDATORY funding for CFP. This detail is important because this may be one of several amendments offered by Blumenauer. If you don't know who your Representative is or need to find their number, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. These quick phone calls will take less than 10 minutes of your time, but could make a huge impact on whether this program continues. Thank you for your support, Thomas, Steph, and Aliza -- Community Food Security Coalition 110 Maryland Ave NE, Suite #307 Washington, DC 20002 Phone: 202-543-8602 www.foodsecurity.org <http://www.foodsecurity.org> <http://www.foodsecurity.org> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20070725/dbd39307/attachment.html _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
