Alabama still fighting hunger battle

Cleaning out the refrigerator may be a common weekly routine for many, tossing out wilted lettuce, spoiled milk and old leftovers. But for more than 1 billion people worldwide, they would be thankful to have those items to eat much less throw away.

In the United States, more than 35 million people receive less than the 2,100 calories an average person needs each day to be healthy. These Americans are what experts call "food insecure", unsure about where they might get their next meal. They are neighbors, friends and family, but many hide their need, causing many people to be unaware of their struggles.

And of that more than 35 million, about 12 million are children.

In Alabama, nearly 200,000 children are food insecure.

And of the more than 4.5 million households in the state, 11.9 percent suffer from food insecurity.

Along with funding for school lunch and breakfast programs, the state receives $82,129,896 in annual funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and $34,613,004 a year in federal funding for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

Nearly 135,000 women, infants and children receive WIC services each month (a food package averaging $50). CACFP serves more than 45,000 people per day.

Three other federal programs for nutrition funding also exist and are among the various programs that one in five Americans use sometime during the year.

Those three are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formally known as the Food Stamp Program; The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and The Commodity Supplement Food Program (CSFP).

These programs are funded through the federal Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act, more commonly known as the Farm Bill. The funding coming from the Farm Bill is good for five years each time the bill is passed by Congress. The most recent version was passed in 2008....