RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CHARITIES THAT FEED THE HUNGRY

Sheila R. Vitale is founder, teacher, and pastor of Living Epistles Ministries and Christ-Centered Kabbalah. As pastor, Sheila R. Vitale provides spiritual guidance to LEM and CCK followers. Through her tax-exempt LEM and CCK organizations, Ms. Vitale also supports charities that feed the hungry. 

LEM and CCK both allocate a percentage of their income to charities such as Feeding America, a non-profit organization whose mission, according to its website, is to feed America’s hungry through a national network of member food banks. Named by Forbes Magazine as the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity, Feeding America fights hunger through mobile and school food pantries and through SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and other community outreach programs. 

Feeding America recently issued a statement in response to the release of President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget. The statement, attributable to Feeding America CEO Diana Aviv, praised the budget proposal for strengthening programs that expand opportunity, improve health, and reduce poverty in American communities. 

The statement said that federal hunger-relief programs like SNAP are indispensable for people who have fallen on hard times. SNAP provides low-income Americans with temporary financial assistance in the form of electronic debit cards that can be used to purchase groceries at 238,000 authorized retailers nationwide. The Feeding America website says that almost half of SNAP recipients are children and that 82 percent of SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, elderly person, or disabled person.