Despite the booming economy and bountiful agriculture production, Congress must provide new legislative incentives to keep food bank shelves from becoming depleted, according to Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio).

After surveying 117 soup kitchens, pantries, and food banks in 40 states, Hall, an evangelical Protestant, says requests for help have increased an average of 22 percent in the past year. Some 87 percent of the food banks recorded increases in requests for assistance.

Hall, 57, long an advocate for the hungry (CT, Sept. 1, 1997, p. 44), says the food lines have increased in part because of a $20 billion reduction in the federal food stamp program.

"Food banks are here to stay," Hall says. "They are not some temporary fixture of American life, as bread lines were during the Depression." A recent Conference of Mayors survey identified low-wage jobs as the top cause of hunger.

Hall will reintroduce the Food Banks Relief Act, which would increase government funding to buy commodities for pantries, as well as the Good Samaritan Tax Act, which would give food banks the same tax treatment for donations as other charitable groups. Food thrown out by restaurants and grocery stores, or left in fields to rot, could feed 49 million people each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hall says "gleaning and food recovery" tax breaks are needed to make the collection, transportation, and storage of food viable for pantries.

Second Harvest Network, the nation's largest food pantry system, serving 26 million people each year, says around 50 percent of such agencies are affiliated with churches.