Hunger and local food in Indiana

Below is an excerpt from the Indiana Senate Democrats' blog. Note the $300,000 appropriation for local food for the hungry.

Tuesday [Feb. 16] was Food Bank Day at the Statehouse, providing legislators and other state officials with an important reminder of the nearly 600,000 Hoosiers who go to bed hungry each night. Advocates and many Senate Democrats hope the event will also help encourage the state to release $300,000 appropriated by the General Assembly to the state’s food banks last year in the state budget.

The appropriation was intended exclusively for Indiana grown and produced products to feed low-income children, adults, and seniors in need throughout the state. Releasing the $300,000 appropriation would mean that Indiana’s food banks could provide more than 1,250,000 additional meals to hungry Hoosiers across the state.

Read the rest here. It seems like it's a non-controversial, bi-partisan measure to appropriate these funds for food banks during this economic crisis. But why is any spending intended for infrastructure that will alleviate hunger and health problems in the long term regarded as a strain on the budget?

Indeed, SB 194, proposed in January in the Indiana Senate by Sen. Errington, contained no spending provisions. The bill was discarded by the Agriculture and Small Business Committee Chairman (Sen. Johnny Nugent), in part, because it could involve spending "down the road."

Where is the discussion of food deserts? Of urban farming? Of Indiana's health rankings?