Food Stamp Operations Being Sold for Corporate Profit

Public Interest Groups Fight Back to Protect Children's Nutrition

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- A coalition of anti-poverty, anti-hunger, women's, children's, and labor groups created the Campaign to Protect Children's Nutrition and launched the new web site, www.needovergreed.org to inform people about the importance of keeping the Food Stamp program accountable and accessible to all Americans.

Corporate profiteers and their backers in Congress want to privatize Food Stamp eligibility determination. Food Stamp privatization results in multibillion dollar contracts for big corporations like IBM, MAXIMUS, Accenture and others.But for millions of needy children, elderly and disabled Americans, it means their next meal could depend on the whims profit-seeking CEOs, not professional, experienced
caseworkers whose only motivation is to help those in need.

Texas was the first state to try privatizing its program and it was a failure that cost the state hundreds of millions and pushed needy people away from the services for which they were they legally qualified. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is forcing his state down the same disastrous road.

In July 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Farm Bill that reaffirms the existing prohibition on outsourcing the Food Stamp program to private companies. The Senate is now considering its Farm Bill.

At www.needovergreed.org, visitors can sign a petition in opposition to privatizing the Food Stamp program as part of the 2007 Farm Bill. The site will also provide news and information to expose the corporate efforts to profit on the backs of poor families.