Rep. Rick Allen speaks out after protest at his Augusta office
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - We’re hearing from Georgia Representative Rick Allen weeks after protestors flooded his office.
The congressman is on a tour in his District 12 this week.
He made his way to Lincoln, Washington, Wilkes, and Jenkins counties and on Wednesday, he was in Augusta.
Congressman Allen toured Golden Harvest Food Banks’ new buildings.
Golden Harvest had one goal, to help Rick Allen understand the need here, and the impact food insecurity has on our community.
With food insecurity still on the rise, it’s a big problem to try and solve.
“The food insecurity levels are rising and continue to rise so that’s important,” said Jake Griffis, Golden Harvest Food Bank’s chief operating officer.
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Local organizations and nonprofits are constantly looking for ways to help solve the ongoing issue.
“It’s always expressed in the neighbor experience,” said Griffis. “When I show up as a neighbor at a food pantry, at a soup kitchen, whatever it may be, what is my experience when I’m having the absolute worst day, I’m there for food. I’m not there for anything else. So how can we as a food pantry, as those who work in D.C. best be able to meet the needs of those neighbors at that particular time.”
Calling on leaders such as Rick Allen to see the need here first hand, and he says there’s more to the issue than just food insecurity – it’s about having access and choosing the right food.
“How do we deal with the chronic disease epidemic in this country on your end. as well try, and we know that some of it is caused by malnutrition, not hunger. Malnutrition and it’s the things people eat.”
And looking for solutions, starting here at home.
“We need to solve this problem because there’s no reason as the supplemental nutrition issue grows,” said Allen. “I mean it’s up to 54,000,000 now and you know, we don’t want chronic disease to grow.”
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They’re hoping to show more leaders just how important this issue is because it’s something that takes more than just their food bank to help solve it.
Three weeks ago, local constituents went to his Augusta office, calling for in-person town hall meetings.
We asked Allen about this and he says there was concern among the community.
Protestors were holding the congressman able to host more in-person town hall meetings.
The demand stems from recent political issues they feel Allen has not addressed.
Allen told us a lot of it stems from what he says is misinformation and used the example of Medicaid and how they aren’t going to cut Medicad.
We asked him about the demand for in-person town hall meetings and if they are in the works.
“We do that digitally,” said Allen. “We do digital town halls. We will have 3,00 to 5,000 people on a call, it’s kind of like a radio show. Every question is answered. Even if we do get to you, submit your question, you can get our newsletter. We do everything we can to get the truth to the people.”
They’re hoping to be able to clear up some concerns with the online town hall meetings – something that we work to stay on top of.
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