Reagan Reiterates Belief on Hunger

WASHINGTON — President Reagan, who lives across the street from a park where a mobile soup kitchen dispenses sandwiches to the homeless and hungry, said Wednesday night that he found it difficult “to find any cases of starvation” and undernourishment in the United States.

Asked at his news conference about his controversial comment May 21 that anyone who is hungry in America simply does not know where to turn for help, the President reiterated his belief that “there are people who lack the information” about finding assistance.

“We’ve had plenty of evidence of that,” he said, adding that federal spending on nutrition, which he said totals $18.6 billion, is $3 billion more than in 1981.

“I think there is considerable merit for saying it’s difficult to believe that people are starving in this country because food isn’t available,” Reagan said. “In many instances, people just don’t know . . . how to go about it and, at the same time, I find it difficult also to find any cases of starvation and undernourished.”

Last month, three days after he was criticized for saying that the hungry just did not know where to find help, Reagan reversed an earlier decision and took part in the “Hands Across America” effort to raise money for the nation’s hungry and homeless.