TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America – February 29, 2008

In this issue:

• Farm Bill Impasse Continues
• Bonus Commodities at 10-Year Low
• School Food News and Notes
• Food Stamp Facts
• Obesity Round-Up
• Recent and Readable
• Reports from the Field
• Small Bites

Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

Foodlinks America is not copyrighted, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.

Farm Bill Impasse Continues

With expiration of the 2002 Farm Bill looming, key Congressional leaders say agreement may soon be reached on the long-overdue 2007 Farm Bill. The 2002 bill, that reauthorized the Food Stamp Program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TFEAP) and other commodity assistance, and provides legislative authority for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, will expire on March 15, 2008 unless action is taken.

“We are engaged in ongoing, intense negotiations to try and nail down a Farm Bill,” said Senate Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) in a February 28, 2008 briefing, noting that House and Senate leaders had met earlier in the week for substantive discussions. “We have an agreement on the range of a final number … that we would get from the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committee.” Those two committees must identify offsets from existing programs or new revenue sources to pay for additional spending in the $280 billion Farm Bill.

“We have narrowed the range and sharpened the focus on a specific, overall number,” Harkin added, but did not share details. Presumably that range is somewhere between the $6 billion spending increase that the House Agriculture Committee and the Administration agreed upon several weeks ago and the $12.3 billion that Harkin and the Senate Committee are seeking. However, Harkin insisted that, “Nothing has been agreed to as a hard and fast number.”

With the mid-March deadline fast approaching, “We’re already in problem territory, right today,” commented House Agriculture Committee chair Collin Peterson (D-MN) on February 21. “It’s taking longer that we thought.”

Even if the House and Senate reach agreement, President Bush has repeatedly vowed to veto any Farm Bill that does not meet his criteria for cutting subsidy programs and increasing funding without raising taxes. “There’s got to be some movement from the White House and I have not seen that yet,” stated Harkin. “We hope that the White House will come around.”

Bonus Commodities at 10-Year Low

The amount of surplus commodity foods provided to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) last year was the smallest total in a decade, according to figures provided to Foodlinks America by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In federal fiscal year 2007, USDA directed only $58.6 million in bonus commodities to TEFAP. That amount was down from the $67 million in bonus foods provided in fiscal year 2006 and the smallest number since $29.5 million in bonus was allocated to TEFAP in fiscal year 1997.

States received $130.6 million in TEFAP entitlement commodities last year, also down from fiscal 2006, when $138.1 million in entitlement foods were provided to the program. Federal law mandates that $140 million in entitlement foods be available to the program, but USDA allows states to transfer up to $10 million in food money to storage and distribution costs. In fiscal year 2007, 47 of the 55 states and territories administering TEFAP converted a total of $7.8 million in food dollars to meet storage and distribution needs.

Bonus commodities donated to TEFAP in fiscal year 2007 were: apple juice, applesauce, canned apricots, frozen and canned asparagus, green beans, beef stew, frozen and dried cherries, cherry-apple juice, canned chicken, geese, grape juice, grapefruit juice, lamb leg roast and shoulder chops, tomatoes, instant non-fat dry milk, and smooth peanut butter.

School Food News and Notes

Where’s the beef?: Federal nutrition assistance programs have attracted unwelcome attention in recent weeks after reports that more than one-third of the 143 million pounds of beef recalled from a California company – the largest recall in history – were destined for school and emergency food programs. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials acknowledged that approximately 50 million pounds of beef from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, CA had been purchased for the school lunch program and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Of that amount, an estimated 20 million pounds had already been eaten, 15 million pounds was still in storage, and another 15 million pounds was being traced.

Cattle at the Westland plant were reportedly subject to abuse after passing an initial inspection. USDA termed the risk to children’s health “negligible,” though Department officials ordered remaining stocks of the meat to be removed and destroyed. Every effort will be made to reimburse states and schools for the cost of disposing of and replacing the products, the Department claims.

Nutrition directors urge uniform standards: Food service directors across the nation will ask Congress to govern the sale of all foods and beverages available in schools throughout the school day, according to a February 26, 2008 news release from the School Nutrition Association (SNA). Currently, only food and drink provided in the cafeteria are regulated. SNA is urging adoption of uniform national school nutrition standards that would cover all foods and beverages available during school hours.

SNA’s legislative agenda for this year includes: giving the Secretary of Agriculture authority to both regulate and enforce food and beverage standards outside the cafeteria; requiring a la carte and competitive foods to be consistent with the dietary guidelines; mandating nationwide uniformity for school meal patterns; and increasing per meal reimbursement rates to support healthful meals.

“The federal government currently reimburses schools $2.47 for each balanced, healthy meal provided to children from families making 130 percent of the poverty level or less,” said SNA president Mary Hill. “A latte costs more. This is not adequate to cover the cost of producing a school meal,” she emphasized, noting the rapidly rising cost of food, labor, and milk.

National school breakfast week coming next month: March 3-7, 2008 has been designated National School Breakfast Week and efforts are being intensified to promote an underused program that is critical to children’s nutrition. SNA has launched a “Fuel Your Imagination” campaign encouraging children, parents, and teachers to help kids start each day of learning and achievement with a good meal. Research has shown that children who eat breakfast score better on standardized tests, are sick and absent from school less often, and behave better in class.

During the 2006-2007 school year, only 8.1 million school children ate breakfast on an average day, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C., considerably less than half of the low-income children potentially eligible. School breakfast numbers have been going up, but only in single digit percentages each year. For more detail, see FRAC’s annual School Breakfast Scorecard at: http://www.frac.org/pdf/SBP_2007.pdf.

Updated eligibility manual released: USDA has published a new version of the “Eligibility Manual for School Meals,” a 114-page document that details federal policy on the determination and verification of eligibility for school lunch and breakfast programs. This update, the first in seven years, covers the distribution, processing, and verification of school meal applications, categorical and income eligibility procedures, direct certification in coordination with other assistance programs, and confidentiality. The manual may be viewed at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/iegs/EligibilityManual.pdf.

Food Stamp Facts

Participation continues an upward trajectory: Nationwide enrollment in the Food Stamp Program continued to climb in November 2007, the latest month for which participation statistics are available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A total of 27,265,908 people received benefits that month, an increase of 336,912 over October 2007.

Grant funds available to increase participation: USDA has announced that $5 million will be awarded for projects aimed at simplifying the food stamp application and eligibility determination systems or improving access to food stamp benefits by eligible households. Entities that may apply for funds include state agencies, public health or educational organizations or private nonprofit groups, such as community-based or faith-based organizations, food banks, or other emergency feeding organizations. Applications are due by May 15, 2008 and additional information on application requirements may be found at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/government/grants/2008-RFA.pdf.

Obesity Round-Up

Salt’s contribution to child obesity: Children eating a salty diet drink more liquids, including more sugary soft drinks that contribute to obesity, according to a new study from British researchers published in the March 1, 2008 issue of the journal Hypertension. A team from the University of London examined data from a sample of nearly 1,700 children aged four to 18 who had their salt and fluid intake precisely measured. They found that in children, as in adults, eating products high in salt tends to make people thirsty, which increases the intake of sugary soft drinks consumed.

The researchers predicted that if children cut their salt intake in half, they would decrease their soda consumption by more than two drinks per week. Beyond contributing to obesity in childhood, a salty diet can have long-term implications. “When children regularly swill down salty foods with sugary, calorie-laden soft drinks, it can mean double trouble for their future heart health,” said a spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation. “This report is yet more proof that children must be supported to make healthier food choices to avoid becoming obese or increasing their blood pressure.” To view the study, go to: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/51/3/629.

Spanish-language TV weighs in on obesity: Latino children, who comprise one-fifth of the U.S. child population, have the highest rates of overweight and obesity of all ethnic groups. Fast food commercials on Spanish-language television may be one reason why.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore examined 60 hours of programming on Univision and Telemundo, the two Spanish-language channels with the broadest reach during prime child viewing time. They found that the stations averaged two to three food commercials per hour, with one-third of them targeted to children. Nearly half of those promoted fast food and more than half of the beverage commercials featured drinks with a high sugar content.

“While we cannot blame overweight and obesity solely on TV commercials, there is solid evidence that children exposed to such messages tend to have unhealthy diets and to be overweight,” said Dr. Darcy Thompson, a pediatrician and the study’s lead investigator.
More restricted television watching was recommended. For more information, see the Children’s Center news release at: http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/pages/news/pressdetails.cfm?newsid=411.

The wages of overweight: As American society gets fatter, overweight and obese white women are being singled out for worse treatment in the workplace, at least in terms of wages, according to a new study for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The wage gap for this population group continues to widen.

Analyzing data on nearly 13,000 women from 1981 to 2000, BLS researchers found that an overweight white woman had wages 4.29 percent lower than her normal weight colleague in 1981, but by 2000 the difference had increased to 7.47 percent. For additional details, see: http://www.bls.gov/ore/abstract/ec/ec070130.htm.

Recent and Readable

New books that may be of interest to Foodlinks America readers.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan, The Penguin Press, 244 pages. With just seven words, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” Pollan, a University of California – Berkeley journalism professor, challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach to the consumption of food-like substances perpetuated by the agro-industrial complex and provides sound dietary guidance that has catapulted his book to the top of the non-fiction best seller list. Pollan’s recommendations to “Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) unfamiliar, B) unpronounceable, C) more than five in number, or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup,” make sense in the commercial atmosphere where tens of thousands of new products are introduced every year.

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne, Beacon Press, 199 pages. Winne’s book is a must read for those concerned about the growing poverty, hunger, and income inequality in America today. The personalized account of his journey from a comfortable, middle-class upbringing in New Jersey to community organizing in the gritty, underserved neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut is witty and informative, demonstrating why he has become a leader in this nation’s food security movement. He doesn’t let any of the powers that be off the hook, from “the mean-spirited ideologues” who have, at times, dammed the federal assistance pipeline to corporate junk food purveyors who he says should be tried and sentenced “to eat nothing but their own food for twenty-five years to life,” and even food bankers who “will do virtually anything to appease [their corporate] donors.” His clarion call for bolstering sane, systemic changes in local food structures – like farmers’ markets, community gardens, and community supported agriculture – rings true.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle, North Point Press, 611 pages. The typical American supermarket is dissected in this aisle-by-aisle guide to healthful eating and responsible food choices. As a counterpoint to the multi-billion dollar food advertising sector, Nestle, a New York University nutrition professor, provides useful and understandable information on the full range of grocery store sectors, from dairy, “Yogurt: Health Food or Dessert,” to the freezer section, “Frozen Foods: Decoding Ingredient Lists,” to breakfast foods, “Cereals: Sweet and Supposedly Healthy,” and beverages, “Water, Water Everywhere: Bottled and Not,” based on common sense and sustainability.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver, HarperCollins, 370 pages. Popular fiction writer Kingsolver turns to non-fiction, teaming up with her husband and teenage daughter, in describing the family’s relocation to a farm in southwestern Virginia where they grow their own food, source it locally, or do without. Their year of coaxing subsistence from the garden – “Waiting for Asparagus” in March, being ruled by tomatoes under “Life in a Red State” in August, and “Smashing Pumpkins” in October – rather than depending on the industrial food pipeline, includes recipes for social and political action as well as healthy meals.

Reports from the Field

The Northeastern United States is experiencing a cold and snowy winter this year, which is not unusual, especially for Vermont. But it seems that more households than ever are facing a “heat or eat” dilemma, as reported in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus of February 12, 2008:

Even before the winter’s soaring fuel costs hit Vermont, record numbers of Vermonters were struggling to get enough to eat or making do with poor quality food.

Information gathered last February and released in the 2007 Vermonter Poll shows five percent of Vermonters ran out of food during the year of the study. That confirms the results of the 2004-2006 U.S. Census Population Survey. But the Vermonter Poll, conducted annually by the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies, differs in another measure of hunger. It reports that an additional 30 percent could not afford nutritious food. The 2004-2006 Census had the number at about 17 percent.

“You can tell your stomach to grumble and rumble for another day, but you have to have a certain amount of heat in your home or you’re going to have a disaster with frozen pipes,” observed Rep. Tony Klein of East Montpelier, who attended Monday’s meeting of the Washington County Hunger Council. One conclusion that has emerged from the Hunger Council’s meetings during the past year is that as health care and energy costs rise, more of the working poor find themselves unable to buy enough food.

“It’s no surprise that Vermonters are struggling with the rapidly rising cost of heating fuel – heating fuels are going up at a 30- to 50-percent clip,” said Klein, a member of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. “Vermonters are spending today $800 million more dollars to heat their homes than four years ago.” That sum represents more than all the money collected by the education property tax in Vermont in one year, he said.

Klein said that the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Robert Dostis, a Waterbury representative and the executive director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, is working on legislation to expand the state’s weatherization program for low-income Vermonters, with the goal of doubling the number of units weatherized from 1,500 a year to 3,000 a year for the next 10 years.

Many of those present Monday noted that increasing numbers of families are turning to food shelves. “Access to our food shelf is up 130 percent over last year,” said Hal Cohen, executive director of the Central Vermont Community Action Council in Barre. “People (under) a certain income level are not making it.” He said he is concerned low-income people can’t afford nutritious food and in order to fill themselves, eat unhealthy foods that will cause chronic diseases later in their lives.

Carol Seaver, a volunteer for CERV, Northfield’s food shelf, reported 14 new families had come in last month. In January 2006, the food shelf served 191 individuals; this January it served 296 people – a 55 percent increase. Bob McNamara, the superintendent of Washington West Supervisory Union in the Mad River Valley, said he had just met with the regional superintendents and brought up the “skyrocketing use of food shelves.” He reported that hunger “is on their radar.”

The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger has sent town-by-town reports on hunger to the Washington County town clerks to include in the town reports or make available at town meeting. The reports list food shelves and meal sites and include information on how to apply for food assistance programs.

The Hunger Council also discussed ways to expand and improve summer food programs for children. Food insecurity numbers go up in summer, when children who qualify for federally subsidized free and reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches lose access to those meals, said Sarah Kunz, the summer food outreach coordinator for the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. Low-income families have to provide 10 additional meals per week for each of their school-age children in the summer. For a family of four, calculating the cost at the federal reimbursement rate of $4 per child per day, the extra food balloons the budget by $160 a month.

“That means more kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” Kunz observed. The fact that many children fill up on high-calorie foods low in nutrition is reflected in research that shows children increase their body mass index twice as fast in the summer as during the school year, she noted. Three Washington County towns have summer food programs; so far the other 17 have none.

Small Bites

A meaty subject: The world’s total meat supply in 1961 was 71 million tons. Estimates for 2007 put that number at 284 million tons.

More meat for more mouths: American meat consumption, at about eight ounces a day, though twice the global average, has remained static for some time. However, world meat consumption is rising rapidly, having doubled in the past 20 years. It is expected to double again by 2050.

More than our share: The U.S. has approximately five percent of the world’s population, but processes (raises and kills) some 10 billion animals each year, about 15 percent of the global total.

Land for livestock: An estimated 30 percent of the ice-free surface of the earth is directly or indirectly involved in the production of livestock.

Making meat is a gas: Production of livestock generates about 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases – more than the total produced by transportation.

And a large load: The U.S. livestock industry produces about 900 million tons of waste annually, or about three tons of manure for every American.

mvauthier :: Feb.29.2008 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post