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PAGE 8A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. OCTOBER 10, 2013
Harmony Academy celebrates Georgia’s Pre-K Week
Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver reads to students at Harmony Academy on Thursday,
Oct. 3. Weaver also stressed to students the importance of reading, going to school every; day and saying no to drugs and al
cohol.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogressonline.com
Appalachian Judicial Circuit
Superior Court Judge Brenda
Weaver is one of hundreds of
state and community leaders that
went back to class as part of
Georgia Pre-K Week, an effort to
highlight the importance of early
education.
Weaver and other Pickens
leaders visited Harmony Acad
emy the week of Monday, Sept.
30 through Friday, Oct 4. Partic
ipants included Pickens’ House
Rep. Rick Jasperse, Pickens
County Commission Chair Rob
Jones, retired Pickens teacher
Marcia McDaniel, musician
James Miller and retired Pickens
school librarian Hettie Young.
“They loved it,” said Har
mony Academy teacher April
Roberts. “Most of the visitors
read to the kids, but James Miller
played his guitar and they just
loved that. But when Judge
Weaver was talking about mak
ing good choices, we talked
about that later and the kids said
they wanted to make good
choices. Then Rick Jasperse
came and he left a Georgia flag
and talked about what he does.”
Roberts gave a special thanks
to Pickens Family Connections
for their role in bringing Georgia
Pre-K Week to Harmony Acad
emy, a Georgia Lottery funded
pre-k program.
Georgia Pre-K Week is spon
sored by Voices for Georgia’s
Children, Black Child Develop
ment Institute Atlanta, Ferst
Foundation for Childhood Liter
acy, Georgia Association for
Young Children, Georgia Child
Care Association, Georgia Early
Education Alliance for Ready
Students, Georgia Family Con
nection Partnership, Georgia
Partnership for Excellence in Ed
ucation, Georgia Public Library
Service, JumpStart, Multiple
Junior League Chapters, Quality
Care for Children, United Way of
Metropolitan Atlanta and
YMCA.
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By Pam O’Dell
Capitol Reporter
Halloween may be a lot
scarier for the 20 percent of
Georgians who experience food
insecurity.
A Nov. 1 reduction in bene
fits, and the uncertainty as to
whether the federally funded
program, now called the Supple
mental Nutrition Assistance Pro
gram (SNAP) will be funded at
all beyond October, is frighten
ing prospect to low income peo
ple and those that serve them.
According to the USDA,
1,770 children living in Pickens
County are in the care of parents
who often don’t know where the
family’s next meal is coming
from. Those parents rely on var
ious government food programs
all of which have been formally
discontinued as of today (Oct. 1)
due to Congress’ failure to pass a
Farm Bill by the September 30
deadline.
Food Stamp reduction
Beginning Nov. 1, all SNAP
recipients will experience a de
crease in benefits of approxi
mately $11 per month, per
person. As mandated by federal
law, the 2009 Recovery Act’s
temporary boost to Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) benefits is scheduled to
end on that date.
Discontinued funding of SNAP
and other agricultural pro
grams
Congress has not passed a
Farm Bill since 2008. The Farm
Bill traditionally addresses farm
subsidies, food supplement pro
grams and farming-related envi
ronmental conservation
programs.
Last June, the Senate passed a
moderate bill which cut $4 bil
lion from supplemental food pro
grams. The House refused to
consider the bill, preferring a far
deeper cut.
Last week, the House passed
an unprecedented version of the
bill which cut $40 billion from
food supplement programs and,
for the first time in history, sepa
rated the farm subsidy portion
from the food supplement por
tion.
Popular speculation remains
that House leadership took this
drastic measure in order to win
the votes of Republican moder
ates opposed to the food supple
ment cuts in the Farm Bill.
The Nutrition Reform and
Work Opportunity Act
(HR3102)
The food supplement portion
of the Farm Bill passed the
House with a vote of 216-208.
HR3102 eliminates state waivers
used during periods of high un
employment when no job train
ing is available. Georgia has such
a waiver.
As a result, Melissa Johnson
of the Georgia Budget and Policy
Center (GBPC) approximates
that 168,000 Georgians will not
be allowed to receive SNAP ben
efits for more than three months
every three years no matter how
diligently they search for a job.
Johnson believes the claim made
by proponents of the bill that it
entails a new push for work re
quirements is erroneous because
SNAP already has work require
ments.
According to GBPC, 75 per
cent of Georgia SNAP house
holds have at least one person
who worked in the preceding 12
months.
Johnson notes, “The sad truth
is these workers didn’t make
enough money to provide for
their basic needs. That may be
due to low wages, loss of a job or
a combination of the two.”
House leaders point to the sig
nificant enrollment increase in
the SNAP program. Many refer
to the program as ‘bloated.’
The SNAP program had 54
million enrollees in 2007. By
2009, enrollment had increased
to 60 million. It currently has
over 47 million enrolled. Propo
nents of the program point to the
Great Recession, not loose eligi
bility requirements, as reason for
the increase.
SNAP enrollment climbed
during the recession but the Con
gressional Budget Office (CBO)
predicts that program enrollment
will shrink back to 2007 levels
by 2015.
Other HR 3102 provisions
Other provisions in the bill in
clude:
• New exclusions for citizens
with specific felony convictions
(such as murder and sexual
abuse). Georgia already excludes
drug felons from the program.
• A provision which allows
only seniors to benefit from the
Commodities Assistance Pro
gram
• A requirement that 50 per
cent of farmers’market program
funds be spent on seniors
Senate leaders referred to the
bill as being ‘dead on arrival’- a
common phrase used to describe
bills originating in the House
facing a Democrat-controlled
(and increasingly impatient) Sen
ate.
The Federal Agricultural Re
form and Risk Management
Act of 2013 (HR 2642)
What is commonly referred to
as the ‘Big Ag Bill’ (the agricul
tural subsidies portion of the
original Farm Bill) passed the
House 217-210 without the
blessing of fiscal conservatives.
A Taxpayers for Common
Sense website credits the bill
with “spending drastically more
than either the comparable por
tions of the President’s FY14
budget request or Rep. Paul
Ryan’s FY14 budget (which
called for $38 billion and $31
billion in savings, respectively).”
Scott Faber, senior vice pres
ident of Environmental Working
Group, (EWG) a national envi
ronmental advocacy organization
specializing in farm issues, in a
piece entitled: “Worst. Farm Bill.
Ever.” opines: Farm income has
never been higher. The federal
deficit has never been deeper. So
why are House Republicans cel
ebrating passage of a “farm-
only” farm bill that includes the
most generous farm subsidies in
history?
Calling the bill the “most fis
cally irresponsible farm bill
ever,” Faber notes that “much of
the (meager) savings predicted
by the Congressional Budget Of
fice come from gutting conserva
tion programs, not reining in
subsidies.”
Faber credits a “last-minute
change to the farm bill” (which
62 Republicans had previously
rejected) with causing such sub
sidies to “last forever.”
Faber credits the bill with “in
creasing government-backed in
surance subsidies by nearly $10
billion.”
Absent ARRA funding, the
SNAP program (along with sev
eral other food supplement pro
grams such as the school lunch
program, WIC, and the Food
Commodities Program would
have disappeared literally ‘over
night.’
The ‘stimulus’ money pro
vided a stop gap measure which
keeps the food cupboards of the
nation’s poor full for 30 more
days.
Twelve percent of the resi
dents in Pickens County are de
pendent on SNAP and other
supplement programs.
O’Dell provides news on state
government through, The O’Dell
Report in newspapers in North
Georgia and her blog, odellre-
port.com. She can be contacted
at pamodellreport® gmail.com
Food Stamp benefits to be reduced on Nov. 1
Congress’ failure to pass a Farm Bill leaves
recipients with no benefits after Oct. 31