“The Beginning of an End”

Yesterday, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a nationwide effort to stimulate the economy and help Americans by creating jobs and providing necessary services. While not claiming that it would fix the economic crisis immediately, President Obama did comment that the Act would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”

The compromise package of $789 billion will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, 215,000 in New York state alone. Particularly important to hungry Americans, this Act provides critical funding for the following nutrition assistance programs, including: $20 billion for SNAP (f.k.a. “food stamps”), $500 million for Women, Infants and Children nutrition (WIC), $100 million for Emergency Food and Shelter (funds homeless shelter and feeding programs), and $100 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) over two years.

Please call or write your Congressional representative to say “thank you” for their work in passing this Act which will help all of us recover from these difficult economic times.