The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Delta News Conference Calls for Restoring Food Aid & Continuing USDA Hunger Report

Posted on October 02, 2025 at 02:57 PM

Delta Caucus News Conference Calls for Restoration of Food Aid Cuts and USDA Hunger Report

The Delta Caucus held a news conference including Joel Berg of Hunger Free America; Annette Dove of the TOPPS nonprofit in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; former Clinton administration appointee and Mississippi native Wilson Golden, and Caucus Director Lee Powell.

The news conference was including in the news highlights by Arkansas Public Radio at KUAR.org

Annette Dove of TOPPS in Pine Bluff has been described by the national media as “America’s Mother Theresa” for her dynamic programs on hunger and nutrition and a broad range of other services for people in Jefferson, County AR.

She said Arkansas makes it too difficult to access SNAP. One third of Arkansas children who get school lunch do not get school breakfast, which is probably the most important meal of the day for kids to get nutrition to have nutrition for their morning activities.

TOPPS feeds many children aged 18 and under: they fed 700 children a day this summer, and are feeding 400 children after school now.

Dove said that “we are seeing a lot of senior citizens, a lot of working poor. Some people are living in their cars or motel rooms. We are seeing hunger numbers growing in Jefferson County.”

The application process can be complicated for many people, and the rules and regulations are often difficult to understand. The benefits are often too small–after providing lengthy technical assistance to one person,she found that she only qualified for a few dollars.

The presentations of Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, a national hunger organization based in New York, have been described as a combination of watching CNN, Comedy Central, while listening to stories from the Old Testament.

Berg also emphasized that it is too difficult for people to gain access to SNAP. Arkansas has one of the lowest rates of participation in SNAP, with 41% of people in the state eligible for SNAP not receiving them.

On a more positive note, Arkansas recently adopted universal school meals and Gov. Sarah Sanders and the legislature deserve credit for that action. But again, one third of the kids who get school lunch don’t get the even more important school breakfast.

Berg pointed out that the Trump administration cut $186 billion out of food assistance, and $930 million of those cuts came in Arkansas, which has the second worst food insecurity levels in the country.

Berg said that it was hypocritical the way Arkansas and other states micromanage what people can buy with their SNAP benefits. While higher income people often buy soft drinks and other foods with high sugar content and low nutritional value, they hypocritically criticize lower income people for buying the same kinds of food with their SNAP benefits.

Berg said that Hunger Free America constantly encourages people to eat a healthy diet, but there shouldn’t be a double standard applied to people of different income levels.

The Hunger Free America CEO said that 7% of Arkansas’ population get SNAP, while about 40% of Arkansas people are obese.

The Make America Healthy Again report praises WIC as an exemplary program, but then recent legislation backed by the administration and its allies in Congress cut the fruit and vegetable allotments in WIC.

Berg said “No superpower in the history of the world has remained a superpower if it failed to feed its own people. No economy has remained strong if tens of millions of its people–1 in 5 or 1 in 6 kids–can’t afford enough food.”

He said that if the current government shutdown lasts into November, the lack of SNAP benefits will likely be cataclysmic. The Delta Caucus again encourages the 8 state Delta’s Congressional delegations to end the shutdown ASAP.

Wilson Golden, is a Clinton administration Presidential appointee. He described his work as one of the team of four managers of the Clinton administration’s Delta Regional Initiative, amiably referred to as the “Gang of Four” (Wilson Golden, Lee Powell, Harold Gist, and Al Eisenberg). Sadly, Harold Gist and Al Eisenberg are no longer living, but their work lives in on many of the community and economic development initiatives they worked to create, including the Delta Regional Authority signed into law in December of 2000.

Wilson Golden said the food aid cuts will have an especially dire impact on his native state of Mississippi, which has the worst food insecurity rate in the country at 15.3%.

Golden and all the speakers at the conference emphasized that the food aid cuts and termination of USDA hunger reports will inflict severe harm on vulnerable populations in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana (currently with the three highest food insecurity) and the other Delta states. They are being severely damaged by the government shutdown.

Caucus Director Lee Powell joined the other Delta Caucus partners to call for the restoration of food stamps (SNAP) benefits that were sharply cut this summer, as well as continuation of the USDA’s traditional annual hunger reports that inform the public about the state of food security in America.

Almost 240,000 Arkansans are enrolled in SNAP (food stamps), which is a vital bulwark against hunger.

Powell said USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report has informed the country for many years about the state of food security, unfortunately often listing Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama (see table on food insecurity below) at or near the bottom regarding hunger in America. We may not always like the information in it, but we need to know the facts.

The USDA report is compiled by dedicated, nonpartisan food security professionals and the national administration’s claim that it was “overly politicized” and “rife with inaccuracies” is erroneous.

Food stamps not only fight hunger but also promote economic progress: every dollar of food stamp benefits that are spent generate about $1.50 in economic activity.

–Feedback from Delta Caucus partners:

Delta Caucus director Lee Powell, former USDA official in the 1990s, said, “The budget cuts the administration and its Congressional allies pushed through Congress in July will mean 3 million people will not qualify for SNAP or “food stamp” benefits. The ending of the respected report will make it much harder for people to know the facts about food insecurity.”

Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America and former USDA official, who has devoted great attention to hunger in the Delta for many years, said, “A North Korean-style attempted cover-up of reality won’t hide the reality of soaring hunger nationwide – and in the Delta – due to a number of problems that are entirely or partially the fault of President Trump: slashed food aid, job losses, and still-high inflation.”

Mike Marshall, long-time Delta regional leader and former Alternate Federal Co-Chair of the Delta Regional Authority from Sikeston, Missouri, said ” “These cuts are hurting the Southeast Missouri Food Bank efforts to feed the hungry in a lot of places in southern Missouri.”

Wilson Golden, Mississippi native and Clinton administration appointee who served on the team that worked to create the Delta Regional Authority in 2000, whose childhood years were spent on a north Mississippi cotton farm. Wilson Golden knows firsthand the profound negative impact of the current federal funding cutbacks, saying:—

“After decades spent developing and funding a sturdy infrastructure of national, state and local agricultural programs and agencies, along comes the current administration’s wrecking ball,” said Golden. Now is simply an “all hands on deck” moment.

Nonprofit professionals such as Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress opposed the administration’s actions. Kogan said, “Trump is cancelling an annual government survey that measures hunger in America, rather than allow it to show hunger increasing under his tenure.”

Feedback to Congressional delegation:

The Caucus calls on Sen. John Boozman, Rep. Rick Crawford, Rep. French Hill and other Members of the Arkansas and other Delta states’ Congressional delegations to restore the cuts and reverse the decision to end the highly respected, informative hunger report.

We have greatly appreciated Sen. Boozman’s longstanding support for food security initiatives over the years, and Rep. Hill and Rep. Crawford have also been supportive of USDA programs.

“Gov. Sarah Sanders has had a reputation for concern and action on food insecurity issues, and we ask for her to step up and ask the administration to stop these attacks that undermine the fight against hunger in Arkansas,” Powell said.

The administration claims that the economy is basically in great shape, when in reality current reports on jobs and other economic indicators are trending in a negative direction.

President Trump is also trying to take credit for progress that happened under the Biden administration: The Census Bureau report earlier in September indicated a decline in the national poverty rate from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% the next year—but that improvement took place before Trump took office.

The cuts to food stamps are causing hunger to increase in the Delta and across the country.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON FOOD INSECURITY

Food Insecurity Rates in 2025 as documented by the nonprofit, nonpartisan World Population Review had Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana with the three worst food insecurity rates, and six of the bottom ten states were in the Greater Delta, with Alabama 7th, Kentucky 9th and Missouri 10th.

The 10 states with the worst food insecurity levels (Delta states in bold):

Mississippi– 15.3%

Arkansas–15%

Louisiana–14.5%

West Virginia–14%

Oklahoma–13.8%

Texas–13.7%

Alabama–13.1%

South Carolina–12.6%

Kentucky–12.3%

Missouri–12%

The annual hunger report was a frequent if painful reminder that the Greater Delta suffers from the worst food insecurity levels in the country, but we need to know about the problems if we are going to address them.

The administration’s silencing of this vital report will make it easier for pro-Trump politicians in the Delta to erroneously claim that our region does not have serious problems with poverty and food insecurity.