To the Editor:

An elderly widow on a fixed-income already cannot afford a healthy diet and her medications, and now she wonders how she will afford to heat her home this winter. She relies on the food assistance The Community Table of Sylva provides. A family of four and dad is out of work due to a severe back injury after falling off a roof at his construction job. Mom cannot find sufficient work to make ends meet. They depend on The Community Table to help feed their two young children. These are just some of the folks we serve at The Community Table, and the emergency food assistance we provide is threatened.

The Table relies on federal programs such as TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) to provide food to our neighbors experiencing hunger and food insecurity. Last month we again set a new record, distributing 233 food boxes. We also served an additional 1,375 nutritious home-cooked meals through our dinner service program. We continue to see new faces each week, many due to job losses or reduced hours and a lack of living wage work. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the overwhelming need for our vital programs, and the fact that programs like TEFAP are on the federal budget chopping block scares and angers me.

Please consider sending a message to Congress that budget cuts on the backs of the hungry at a time when emergency food assistance is critical is simply unconscionable.

Amy Grimes

Executive Director

The Community Table