WASHINGTON – A federal program aimed at relieving "food deserts" could get a fresh injection of support after U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D., Pa.) pushed for new funding in a sweeping agriculture and nutrition bill that cleared the House earlier this week.
Her plan to support the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a federal effort modeled on a Pennsylvania program, will provide $125 million in grants and loans to help bring supermarkets and other grocers to areas with few options for healthy foods.
"The Healthy Food Financing Initiative will make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of Pennsylvanians and the 24 million Americans who don't have access to healthy foods," Schwartz said in a news release, adding that it will also boost economic development. (Schwartz, of course, is also running for governor in a crowded Democratic primary).
The initiative is a small piece of a
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setting policy on agriculture subsidies, food stamps and other nutrition programs. It will add new money to back an idea the White House has pushed since 2010, when Michelle Obama unveiled
» READ MORE: the federal version of the program in Philadelphia
.
The federal program is based on the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative.
Schwartz has sponsored several measures to boost federal funding for the initiative. She and U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio) got the plan added to the Farm Bill.
Republicans tried to strip the program out over the summer*, objecting to the cost of added subsidies.
"I appreciate we have a crisis in parts of our country--whether it be access to healthy foods, whether it be obesity--but a $125 million program that creates special grants, special purchases, special loans, this isn't the way you get there to fix that," said U.S. Rep. David Schweikert (R., Ariz.).
His amendment, though, was defeated. Among the 37 Republicans who crossed party lines to support the initiative and keep it in the bill, six were from the Philadelphia area: Pennsylvania's Charlie Dent, Mike Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach and Pat Meehan and South Jersey's Jon Runyan and Chris Smith.
UPDATE: The vote on the overall Farm Bill was a sticky one for Democrats: the measure included food stamp cuts that many opposed as cruel, especially given the aid to farmers that the measure offers. But the cuts were far smaller than Republicans originally proposed and were part of a compromise between the Senate and House intended to move a long-stalled piece of legislation. Senate Democratic leaders have signed off on the measure.
Schwartz joined 83 House Democrats in supporting the bill, while 103 of her party colleagues, including Philadelphia Reps. Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah, voted against it, largely based on the cuts to food aid. Food stamps will be cut by $8 billion over 10 years, largely by eliminating loopholes.
The Senate is expected to soon pass an identical agriculture bill with the same program included.
*This post has been amended to reflect the correct timing of the vote on stripping out the financing program. An earlier version incorrectly reported the date of that vote.
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