{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/with-the-holiday-season-approaching-brown-visits-mid-ohio-foodbank-in-grove-city", "With the Holiday Season Approaching, Brown Visits Mid-Ohio Foodbank in Grove City", "2016-11-21", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "OH", "Sherrod Brown", "B000944", "www.brown.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Brown Helped Sort and Pack Donations\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tMonday, November 21, 2016\n            \n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\r\nGROVE CITY, OH \u2013 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited the Mid-Ohio Foodbank today to highlight the need for support for local foodbanks and his continued support for federal funding of programs that increase Ohioans\u2019 access to nutritious meals.\u00a0Brown helped volunteers sort and pack food donations received by the Foodbank.\r\n\u201cAs we approach Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we remember that for too many Ohioans, the holidays are another day when they will struggle to feed their families,\u201d said Brown. \u201cAs paychecks fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living, Ohio\u2019s great food banks, like this one, step in to fill the void. No Ohio family should go hungry\u2014during the holidays, or any time of the year.\u201d\r\nBrown has been a strong supporter of federal funding for nutrition programs. After his call for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase its contributions to ensure food pantries can continue to serve their communities, USDA increased the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by $50 million. TEFAP is used to supply low-income senior citizens and families with nutritious commodity foods, including canned fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, beans, pasta, peanut butter, rice, and soups. In Aug. 2015, Brown and 22 of his Senate colleagues urged USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to distribute existing funding through TEFAP to purchase additional foods for distribution to food banks in Ohio and across America. \u00a0\r\nBrown also supports the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), also known as the \u201cSenior Box Program,\u201d in which the Mid-Ohio Foodbank participates. The CSFP, a program administered by USDA, aims to provide participants with nutritious foods to supplement their diets. Participants must be 60 years old or older and living at or below 130% of the federal poverty level.\r\nBrown has been a strong advocate for continued federal funding of the CSFP program and other programs that increase Ohioans\u2019 access to nutritious meals. In March 2016, Brown wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking the committee to fund the CSFP program at the level President Obama requested in the FY 2017 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.\r\nBrown also authored the Hunger-Free Schools Act that expands school lunch programs to ensure Ohio kids can get nutritious meals during summer vacation. The Hunger-Free Schools Act, which helps reduce paperwork and enroll already-eligible students in childhood nutrition programs through direct certification was the centerpiece of the anti-hunger component of a new law enacted in 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.\r\nLast year, Brown also helped permanently reinstate a tax deduction for food donations as part of a bill that extended and made permanent several important tax credits. The bill reinstated a deduction that encourages individuals and organizations to donate food by providing a tax deduction for donations. It also increased the deduction to 15 percent of one\u2019s taxable income for food donations.\r\n\u00a0\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPress Contact\n\t\t\t\t\tJenny Donohue/Rachel Petri\r\n202-224-3978", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/with-the-holiday-season-approaching-brown-visits-mid-ohio-foodbank-in-grove-city"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4063410926610231, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}