Sept. 23, 2022 – Earlier today, Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief network published the “Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together: Community-Driven Solutions to Address America’s Hunger Crisis.”, The report includes insights and anti-hunger policy recommendations from nearly 36,000 people from across all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, including individuals in central and western Oklahoma. Earlier in the year, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma hosted listening sessions to collect input from Oklahomans who have lived with food insecurity or are facing hunger now.

The report, released on Hunger Action Day, is a culmination of a three-month listening initiative launched earlier this summer with the goal to help ensure the Sept. 28 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and the subsequent policy conversations are informed by people facing hunger. The initiative included listening sessions, a survey, questionnaires and text message conversations.

“We are so grateful to the Oklahomans who generously took the time to tell us their stories of living with hunger and inform us on how we can better serve them,” said Stacy Dysktra, chief executive officer of the Regional Food Bank. “To be successful we will need to cultivate and engage in fruitful partnerships with the government and our community.”

An overwhelming majority of respondents to the Feeding America’s survey (92%) agreed that to actually reduce hunger, the government, the private sector, nonprofits, local institutions and communities must come together to create solutions.

The report’s recommendations for federal policymakers – informed by people facing hunger – focus on four key areas: prioritizing dignity, increasing access, expanding opportunity and improving health. The report recommends that Congress increase benefit levels and expand eligibility criteria for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help more people afford sufficient amounts of nutritious food. Eighty-eight percent of survey respondents said it was important to support people’s dignity and choices in what they feed their families and 78% want SNAP to make it easier to access healthy foods.

At the local level, the Regional Food Bank is asking for funding to sustain local, state and federal resources that help increase awareness and access to hunger relief programs such as SNAP and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). The Regional Food Bank also supports boosting funding for the Double Up Bucks program and changes to the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act to remove red tape to make it easier for providers and schools to feed children. Learn more about the Regional Food Bank’s policy priorities.

To learn more about the Elevating Voices to End Hunger Together initiative, visit FeedingAmerica.org/ElevatingVoices.