The Congressional Democrats’ plan to boost food stamp spending as part of an economic stimulus bill is a giant step in the right direction. But two steps would be so much more valuable:

As soon as I heard that the economic stimulus bill proposed by Congress includes $20 billion in added spending for food stamps, I knew I had to call Joel Berg for his reaction.

To say that Berg has made hunger his obsession is an insult to obsessiveness. A former food stamp official under Clinton, he now runs the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, and penned “All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?,” which documents how the U.S. has systematically underfunded its food programs. “Even I’m finally willing to concede $20 billion is pretty good,” Berg told me… [read more]