Foodlinks America - August 29, 2008
Foodlinks America - August 29, 2008
In this issue:
• Poverty Takes Another Leap
• Community Food Program Faces Funding Hiatus
• Boost for Nutrition Programs Proposed in Second Stimulus Effort
• Food Stamp Facts
• School Food News and Notes
• 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.
Poverty Takes Another Leap
The number of poor Americans increased last year, as the U.S. economy continued to sour, the Census Bureau reported on August 25, 2008. Some 12.5 percent of the nation’s population – or 37.3 million people – fell below the federal poverty threshold of $21,203 for a family of four last year. The number of poor climbed by 816,000 people overall from 2006.
Children continued to endure the highest poverty rate, with another half million added to the rolls last year. Eighteen percent of all children under age 18 were poor, a larger percentage than any other age group. Minority status also affected poverty rates. Poverty among non-Hispanic whites was 8.2 percent, while 24.5 percent of African Americans, 21.5 percent of Hispanics, and 10.2 percent of Asians were poor. The numbers are predicted to get worse, as the Census count covered 2007 and the economy has declined further in 2008.
Increasing income inequality was also noted in the Census figures. The nation’s top one percent of wage earners now grabbed 23 percent of total income, the highest level since 1928. “If we continue to turn a blind eye to the growing income gap between the very rich and the rest of us, we’ll find ourselves in a country with no middle class,” commented Mike Fishman, a labor leader in Washington, D.C.
The only positive note in the Census report was that the number of people without health insurance dropped in 2007 from a record 47 million down to 45.7 million. For further detail, see: http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf.
Community Food Program Faces Funding Hiatus
A glitch in the legislative language of the 2008 Farm Bill may prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from distributing nearly $5 million in grants to low-income communities to build and improve food systems under the Community Food Projects (CFP) program. USDA officials have notified fiscal year 2008 applicants for CFP funds that the Department does not currently have the authority to make awards.
The CFP is authorized by the food stamp section of the Farm Bill and a food stamp provision of the bill, unrelated to the CFP, was worded in a way that prevents disbursement of fiscal year 2008 CFP funds. More than a hundred applications for $4.6 million in CFP funds are pending until the issue is resolved. The money would support community food, planning, and training and technical assistance projects this year
“Through our advocacy on the Farm Bill, we are certain that it was the intent of Congress to ensure that there was not an interruption in funding for Community Food Projects,” Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition (CSFC) in Portland, OR told Foodlinks America. “Unfortunately the legislative language was not clear in this regard,” he added.
Fisher noted that a technical amendments bill is being prepared in Congress to correct this and other Farm Bill problems. It is not unusual for clean-up legislation to follow the passage of a measure as massive as the Farm Bill, which ran more than 670 pages. An error of even greater magnitude – the inadvertent deletion of a section on international trade – caused the final Farm Bill to be passed by Congress, vetoed by the President, and that veto overridden twice. A corrections bill must pass before the end of September in order for USDA to get its CFP grants out.
Since 1996, the CFP has pumped more than $40 million into low-income communities through 276 grants to non-profit groups in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and one territory. Activists hope to prevent a break in the funding. “CFSC and its partners have been working hard with the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and USDA to ensure that a technical fix passes, to allow that the full $5 million is allocated to deserving community groups this fiscal year,” concluded Fisher.
Boost for Nutrition Programs Proposed in Second Stimulus Effort
Legislation is being considered in Congress that would increase funding in fiscal year 2009 for four key nutrition assistance programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). On July 30, 2008, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced his intention to earmark $24 billion for a second economic stimulus package in fiscal year 2009, which begins on October 1. Byrd’s proposal includes an additional $50 million to purchase more food for TEFAP next year.
The legislation, which has not yet been introduced, would provide an additional $570 million for nutrition programs: $450 million for WIC to maintain current caseload in the face of rapidly rising food and administrative costs; $30 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) to maintain participation levels and the integrity of the program’s food package; $40 million for home-delivered meals to seniors to help cope with food and fuel costs; and $50 million for TEFAP “to buy additional food at a time when food prices are at record highs and the economy is weak at best,” according to Byrd.
Congress should “make nutrition program investments a priority in any economic stimulus legislation,” according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. “A temporary increase in food stamp benefits … is desperately needed to help low-income Americans grapple with rising food prices and shrinking incomes,” said FRAC, which has also called for additional food stamp administrative support; and increased funding for WIC, the CSFP, and TEFAP. Moreover, FRAC recommended augmented financial help for home energy assistance, and unemployment insurance. “Congress needs to act now and do its part to stimulate the U.S. economy and put our nation back on the right track,” concluded Senator Byrd.
Food Stamp Facts
Participation nears record level: Nationwide use of the Food Stamp Program increased to 28,435,841 persons in May 2008, a jump of more than 350,000 people over the previous month and over two million people more than were on the program in May 2007. The new caseload number was fueled by double-digit percentage increases over the past year in the states of Florida, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Delaware, Utah, Massachusetts, Georgia, and New York.
The May 2008 figure is the second highest monthly total on record, exceeded only by the 29.85 million people who received food stamps in November 2005, shortly after the landfalls of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Inflation updates announced: Fiscal year 2009 cost-of-living adjustments for food stamp allotments, deductions, and eligibility standards were announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on July 31, 2008. The maximum benefit allotment for a four-person household was raised from $542 to $588, reflecting an 8.5 percent increase, the largest inflation adjustment in more than 20 years.
As a result of recent legislation, USDA also announced that the minimum benefit for one- and two-person households would rise from $10 a month to $14 and that the minimum standard deduction will increase from $134 a month to $144. These new rates will be effective beginning October 1, 2008. For additional information, go to: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/rules/Memo/08/073108a.pdf.
School Food News and Notes
Fresh fruit and vegetable funds released: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of $49 million in funds to be provided to states under the new Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program, which was authorized in the Farm Bill. The program, currently undergoing a nationwide expansion, is targeted to students in the neediest elementary schools in each state. States receive applications to participate from local school districts. For more information, visit the USDA web site at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/FFVP/FFVPdefault.htm.
The latest lunch analysis: Key concerns in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are reviewed in a new USDA document, The National School Lunch Program Background, Trends, and Issues. The NSLP is the nation’s second largest nutrition assistance program, feeding over 28 million children a day in more than 100,000 public and private schools across the country.
Most program issues discussed in the report revolve around the meal’s nutrition, program cost, and student participation. Competitive foods, private food service management companies, labor costs, new foods, and nutrition education are also reviewed. See the study at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR61/.
Commodity food rules updated: Many federally-funded food assistance programs, including the NSLP and other child nutrition programs, receive donated commodity foods from USDA,. USDA recently revised and updated its procedures for the management, distribution, and use of donated foods. New rules on the subject may be found at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-18230.pdf.
Safe food handling proposal offered: Federal law requires school food authorities participating in the NSLP to implement a school food safety program for the preparation and service of school meals for children. Local programs must comply with USDA’s mandated hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system. Proposed rules on compliance were recently issued in the Federal Register at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-17941.pdf. Comments on the proposals may be made through September 19, 2008.
Obesity Round-Up
The top concern for children: Childhood obesity is now the nation’s number one issue when it comes to children’s health, displacing smoking and drug abuse, according to a new report.
“The National Poll on Children’s Health report clearly shows that adults in America are very concerned about the problem of childhood obesity and its causes,” said Matthew Davis, director of the National Poll for the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. “While recent studies have suggested that the childhood obesity epidemic may be leveling off, the results of this poll reveal that adults in the U.S. are still very much concerned about this issue,” he added.
The Poll asked adults to rate 20 different health problems for children in their communities and childhood obesity was number one, followed by drug abuse and smoking. Bullying and Internet safety were ranked numbers four and five. “Not enough opportunities for physical activity” was tied for 10th place. For more details, go to: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=448.
Southern states still tipping the scales: For 2008, the Southern United States remains the country’s fattest region, according to new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mississippi, for the third consecutive year, is the fattest state, with 31.6 percent of its citizens classified as overweight or obese. Second-ranked West Virginia and third-ranked Alabama, also topped the 30 percent mark, at 30.6 percent and 30.1 percent, respectively. Colorado remained the leanest state with just 18.4 percent of its residents obese or overweight. Only one jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, got slimmer this year, with the obesity rate dropping by one-tenth of one percent.
Advertising implicated: The marketing of food and drinks to children is a multi-billion industry that is shaping kids’ bodies and diets. A new estimate from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), released on July 29, 2008, found that at least $1.6 billion was spent by the nation’s largest food and beverage companies in 2006 to have their products appeal to children. And the numbers go far beyond TV. “The Internet – though far less costly than television – has become a major marketing tool of food companies that target children and adolescents, with more than two-thirds of the 44 companies reporting online, youth-directed activities,” the FTC report noted.
Although the total was less than previous estimates, it is still a large number combining FTC estimates for spending on sodas, fast food, and sugary cereals. “More and more we see advertising for kids to get them hooked on high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt diets,” said Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who requested the study. Harkin called for change at the corporate level. “Industry needs to step up to the plate and use their innovation and creativity to market healthy foods to our kids. That $1.6 billion could be used to attract our kids to healthy snacks, tasty cereals, fruits, and vegetables,” Harkin said. See the FTC repot at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/07/foodmkting.shtm.
Fat but healthy: Not all fat is created equal. A new study shows that a large number of overweight and obese people have healthy heart profiles, while some normal weight people do not. Researchers who looked at government surveys of more than 5,400 people age 20 and older found that over 50 percent of overweight people had normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, as did 30 percent of obese adults. More than a quarter of normal weight people had unhealthy levels of at least two of the measures.
Stereotypes about body size can be misleading, said Mary Fran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity expert who helped prepare the results. The fat but healthy group tended to be older, less physically active, and have larger wastes, she pointed out, noting that where fat is located on the body may be a better indicator of heart disease than overall weight. The research, published in the August 11, 2008 issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine, may be viewed at: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/168/15/1617.
Los Angeles to test fast food moratorium: On July 29, 2008, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on the construction of new fast food restaurants in a 32-square-mile section of the South Central part of the city. Thirty percent of adults in that part of the city are obese and 73 percent of the restaurants there now are fast food establishments.
The California Restaurant Association (CRA), which says it is investigating legal means to oppose the moratorium, stated that fast food “is the only industry that wants to be in South L.A. Sit-down restaurants don’t want to go in,” commented CRA spokesperson Andrew Casana. “If they did, they’d be there. This moratorium isn’t going to help them relocate.” Ban supporters noted that activities to encourage the development of grocery stores and fresh-food outlets were endorsed along with the moratorium.
Reports from the Field – Vermont
Earlier this summer, U.S. Senator Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont, sent a request to his email list of constituents asking them how rising food and gas prices had affected their lives. Sanders, who expected only a couple dozen responses, received more than 600 emails in reply. His office has gathered the comments into an on-line booklet titled “The Collapse of the Middle Class,” which is available at: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/qa/meetingqs.cfm.
Senator Sanders claims the emails portray, “in flesh and blood terms,” the havoc that the declining economy has wrought. “Statistics are one thing, however,” stated Sanders, “and real life is another. The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline. These e-mails tell the stories of working families unable to keep their homes warm in the winter; workers worried about whether they’ll be able to fill their gas tank to get to their jobs; and seniors, who spent their entire lives working, now wondering how they’ll survive in old age.
Here are some excerpts:
My husband and I have lived in Vermont our whole lives. We have two small children (a baby and a toddler) and felt fortunate to own our own house and land. But due to the increasing fuel prices, we have at times had to choose between baby food and heating fuel. We’ve run out of heating fuel three times so far and the baby has ended up in the hospital with pneumonia two of those times. We try to keep the kids warm with an electric space heater on those nights, but that just doesn’t do the trick.
I am a single mother with a nine-year-old boy. We lived this past winter without any heat at all. Fortunately someone gave me an old wood stove. I had to hook it up to an old, unused chimney we had in the kitchen, though I couldn’t even afford a chimney liner (the price of liners went up with the price of fuel). To stay warm at night my son and I would pull off all the pillows from the couch and pile them on the kitchen floor. I’d hang a blanket from the kitchen doorway and we’d sleep right there on the floor. By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother’s dining room furniture.
My husband and I are retired and 65. We would have liked to have worked longer but because of injuries caused at work and the closing of our factory, we chose to retire earlier. Now with oil prices the way they are we cannot afford to heat our home unless my husband cuts and splits wood, which is a real hardship as he has had his back fused and [needs] most of the day to keep up with the wood. Not only that, he has to get up two or three times each night to keep the fire going. We have a 2003 car that we only get to drive to get groceries or go to the doctor or to visit my mother in the nursing home three miles away. It now costs us $80.00 a month to go nowhere. We have 42,000 miles on a five year old car. We also only eat two meals a day to conserve.
I am a working mother of two young children. I currently pay on average around $80.00 a week for gas so that I can go to work. I see the effects of the gas increase at the grocery stores and at the department stores. On average, I spend around $150.00 per week at the grocery store; I buy just enough to get us through the week. I can’t afford to make sure we have seven wholesome meals to eat every night of the week – some nights we eat cereal and toast for dinner because that’s all I have. The price of gas has created a hardship for most average Americans. We have less money to pay to living expenses which have also increased. It seems as if it’s just a rippling effect. I am really scared of what the future holds for me and my kids because I just simply cannot afford to live from day to day. I am getting further and further in credit card debt just trying to stay afloat.
I am a 71 year old man and have been retired since 2000. With the price of fuel oil I have been forced to go back to work just to heat my home and pay my property taxes.
As a student and a part-time employee working for just above minimum wage, I have found it more and more difficult to survive under these conditions. The drive to school and work require me to use roughly 30 percent of my paycheck just to go where I need to, to make it through my day. Recently I had to vacate my apartment because I could not afford to pay rent and I am now living out of my car. This too seems like it may not be able to last that much longer because I am encountering difficulties in making my car payment. Because of the gas prices, I have nothing but an extremely low budget for food. I was forced out of my home and now I might lose the one thing that is allowing me to continue my schooling and keep going to work – my car.
My family has been hit so hard by this economy, we are barely staying afloat. We have re-mortgaged the house four times in the last three years to pay credit card debt. Now we are trying to tap into our annuity to pay more credit card debt. The debts on the credit cards are all for bills – mostly grocery, oil, and the mere cost of living. We had a dream to own our own home, and that dream came true seven years ago. I am afraid our dream is slipping through our fingers and it won’t be long before we lose our home, the way things are going.
I am a single mother, owning a home, preparing to send a son to college, and working two jobs most of the time. While I am managing to keep my house, I am falling behind on my bills and have to use my credit card more often for necessities. People say, “Cut back.” When I look at my bank and credit card statements, I see gas, groceries, gas, fuel oil, gas, groceries, school-related activities, car maintenance, gas, electricity. Cut back on what? The occasional pizza between jobs and athletic events? The trip to college to seek financial aid? Clothes for work and school?
Small Bites
Extra vision: The typical American home has more televisions than people. There are 1.1 TV sets per person in U.S. homes.
Extra water: It takes 68 times as much water to make a pound of beef than it takes to make a pound of wheat flour.
Awash in suds: Americans spent $27 billion for beer at the retail level in 2007, nearly three times as much as the next three markets – Japan, Russia, and Germany – combined.
Garbage in, garbage out: About 25 percent of Americans now pay for trash collections based on how much waste they generate under “pay as you throw” systems.
Seed control: A mere six companies now control 98 percent of the world’s seed sales.
A heritage unknown: Most U.S. consumers have tasted less than one percent of the vegetable varieties grown here a century ago.
mvauthier :: Aug.29.2008 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.