Speaker Pelosi Remarks at Roundtable on Hunger and Food Insecurity

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Jim McGovern and community leaders held a roundtable discussion and listening session on the work being done to combat hunger and food insecurity in San Francisco and across the country.Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Tanis, for your tremendous leadership and your beautiful presentation about our values and the challenges we face and the solutions that we have – that you have been so much a part of. It's my honor to join you here. My, how you have grown and continue to grow. I've had the occasion to be with your pop-up centers and other times when we're just helping with the bags and the rest here. But now, you are expanding even further, and we're happy to be part of that. We'll talk about that later.

But here's the thing. As Tanis was speaking, you would think: ‘How could that be happening in the United States of America, the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world?' And it's why I, frankly, am in politics. I have five children. And the fact that people would say one in five children in America goes to sleep hungry at night, was just – no. Who would I choose is going to be hungry tonight? It's just – we have to have a different statement of values about our country.

But as Tanis said, this is not an issue that has – it's been exacerbated by COVID, but it existed long before, before that. And because of the generosity of spirit of so many people in this room – I see my friend Florence Fang, and I see Anni Chung. Florence and I've been working on this for like 35 years. Anni even longer, more like 40 years. But St. Anthony's, St. – GLIDE Memorial. So many groups here – perhaps in the Q&A, we will hear from you. But it is – we're all grateful to you for being instruments of peace in terms of the lives of these children.

Because Tanis said, it's not just a health – it's a health issue, it's an education issue. It's – it affects all – everything in their lives. And more and more a mental health issue as well. And as you have indicated, hungry children can't really learn. How could it be – and the fact that it is more devastatingly impacting communities of color – is sinful, almost criminal, on our part.

So thank you. Thank you to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, for the leadership that you have provided. But thank you to all of the groups here.

I'm honored to be here with my colleague, Congressman Jim McGovern. But before I introduce him, I want to thank – well, St. Anthony's Dining Room where we spend our fourth – our Thanksgiving holiday with our whole family – and sadly, not as much as we want recently because of COVID, but as much as you will allow.

And Chris Helfrich – Eat, Learn and Play. I just want to call to your attention that two years ago – seems like a long time ago. But two years ago, 2020, when we were doing the continuing resolution – and our Chairman was very much a part of this – Chris joined us with the Currys, both Currys, to talk about getting money for the, For The Children, For The Children, and particularly for the education program. And I said, ‘It's impossible, because we have a continuing resolution that is supposed to be clean. They will not allow us to put anything in the continuing resolution.' The continuing resolution, which is something that is in the place of an Appropriations bill until you come to terms. So what – ‘But if there's any chance, we'll try to do that. But I don't want to give you any false hope, as important as this is.'

So in any case, the Republicans came back and said, ‘In this clean bill, we want tens of billions of dollars for the farmers.' So I said, ‘Well, how clean is that? That isn't clean. That isn't clean.' Well, the President had turned off trade with China, and they were losing market share. So the President was paying more out of this slush fund that he wanted to establish. Ordinarily, I would have resisted its lack of cleanliness. However, we had our own goals, and we were able to get $8 billion in that continuing resolution. Thanks to your advocacy and thanks to your leadership, we were able to do that. But it shouldn't have to depend on that. We should have something so much more reliable. And to that – and I thank – it's an honor to be with all of you here. But to that end, we are all here to listen to you so that when we do go forward, we are doing so with the best possible community-based information about need for flexibility or whatever.

Our champion on this, our patron saint, our spiritual leader, has been Jim McGovern. For as long as I can remember him –

[Applause]

In Congress, he's been having hunger strikes. And I would say to him, ‘Jim, you're a wonderful person. Nobody cares on the other side. They just are not caring.' Right? And he'd still starve in the hopes of calling attention to it, even if we couldn't get their support for it. But in any case, this Conference on Hunger that the President will be having – we don't have an exact date yet, the end of the month – is the idea of Jim McGovern. He has been promoting this for a very long time, as I know others of you have. But he has had the President's ear on this subject, relentlessly, persistently.

And our President is – I mean he – how can I say. I have a phrase about him that he considers – President Biden – have fought to honor our sacred obligation to our children. So thank you for your leadership in so many ways, every day for our children, but for establishing this Conference, which again, we hope to bring your ideas to, by way of our distinguished Chairman.

People say, ‘Oh, is he related to George McGovern, McGovern-Dole?' No, not really. Relative, but a relative in spirit in terms of having the same priority. Again, I left the house because children – one in five children in America are living in poverty. We had no better leader in terms of hunger, especially, than Jim McGovern. So it's my honor to welcome him here today.

[Applause]

He also is the Chair of the mighty, powerful Rules Committee of the House. Nothing can go to the Floor without his permission. So he has some leverage there.