Washington, D.C. – Early Tuesday morning, With Honor Action and members of the bipartisan For Country Caucus gathered on the National Mall to organize a flag demonstration, and raise awareness for nearly 325,000 active duty military service members who currently struggle with food insecurity. During the event, participants placed 325 American flags in the grass across from the Washington Monument, each one representing 1,000 troops.
“There are a lot of contributing factors for the military recruiting crisis, but one of them is we’re not paying junior enlisted well enough so that they can live without food stamps, especially those with young families,” said Rye Barcott, Co-Founder and CEO of With Honor Action. “To have a strong military, we need to treat our people the right way.”
“It is unfortunate, a tragedy – and something we can correct – that our servicemen and women are food insecure, which means that they don’t know where their next meal will come from and many of them don’t have enough money to be able to purchase food,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan. “That’s a huge problem in our all all-volunteer service. We need to make sure we are treating our men and women who serve us with dignity and respect.”
“It’s very critical that we make sure our warriors, those who are defending our great nation, who have put their lives on the line, have adequate nutrition for themselves and their families. They can’t be mission capable and mission focused if they’re hungry,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. “We need to make sure that we’re paying our military enough that they can afford to put food on their table.”
Attendees included For Country Caucus Members Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Rep. Jack Bergman, Rep. Don Davis, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Rep. Seth Moulton, Rep. Nick LaLota, and Rep. Jimmy Panetta. We thank each of these members for their participation, as well as their support of and work on addressing issues such as this in Congress.
Pictures from the event available for broadcast and distribution HERE.
Background
According to a study published by RAND in 2023, nearly 26% of active duty servicemembers are considered food insecure, and nearly 15% rely on food stamps or food banks. In 2021, With Honor Action worked to pass the Military Hunger Prevention Act, which established the Basic Needs Allowance to support low-income servicemembers and their families who are not eligible for SNAP benefits. We continue to work on legislation that expands the eligibility and effectiveness of the program.
In June of 2023, recognizing an opportunity to address the many quality of life issues our servicemembers and their families face, the House Armed Services Committee announced the creation of the Military Quality of Life Panel. Led by For Country Caucus founding Co-Chair Representative Don Bacon and founding Vice Chair Representative Chrissy Houlahan, the panel also includes For Country Caucus members Representative Morgan Luttrell and Representative Don Davis. The panel focused on several core areas of military quality of life, including food insecurity, and served as the base legislation for the House FY25 National Defense Authorization Act. With Honor Action previously endorsed the entire list of recommendations.
Earlier this year, House lawmakers proposed pay raises of up to 19.5% for troops ranked E-4 and below to go into effect next year. With Honor Action strongly urges the passage of this pay raise through this year’s NDAA to help fix the issue of food insecurity.
The statistics don’t lie: far too many of our service members are struggling to put food on the table, and that’s simply unacceptable. With Honor Action strongly urges Congress to support our nation’s heroes and pass legislation to end military hunger.
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With Honor Action fights polarization in Congress by supporting principled veterans across party lines who pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and courage. With Honor Action works alongside the bipartisan For Country Caucus in Congress to pass critical legislation for our nation. Learn more about our work at WithHonor.org
With Honor Action is a 501(c)(4), which serves as the organization’s policy and social-welfare arm.
With Honor has an affiliated federally registered “super PAC” called With Honor Fund II.