TEFAP Alliance Blog

March 2005

In This Issue:
• Editorial
• Legislation Proposed for Donated Transportation
• Flow of Bonus Commodities Remains Steady Though Composition Changing
• Food Bio-security Training Sessions Offered
• New Policies on TEFAP Distribution at Kids Cafes
• Views from the Field

Editorial
Current funding for TEFAP food and distribution expenses is grossly inadequate. Hunger is on the rise all across the nation, with most families having not just emergency needs but chronic food shortages, due to low-wage jobs, unemployment, and rapidly rising housing and health care costs. Food banks and food pantries trying to meet those needs are rationing and, at times, even running out of food.
A strong case must be made to Congress in the next few weeks that increased funding is essential for both TEFAP entitlement foods and for storage and distribution expenses. Congress must understand that TEFAP provides a wide variety of nutritious foods and high protein items and that the program forms the backbone of the nation’s emergency feeding system. We have been told that in some states TEFAP is providing as much as 40 percent of the food coming into food banks.
The TEFAP food purchase account, exclusive of bonus buys, should be increased from $140 million annually to $250 million. Storage and distribution funds should be provided at $100 million a year, up from the current $50 million, and that amount should be guaranteed and not subject to annual appropriations.
In the coming weeks, the TEFAP Alliance will be gathering information to convey to Members of Congress regarding the need for TEFAP increases. We will share with you anything that we develop so that you can help us educate your elected officials on why TEFAP needs additional support and what impact that can have on your local area.
Please send us by email (zyweinberg@earthlink.net) or fax (703-532-5780) statements about the importance of and need for TEFAP in your state or community. Give us specific facts and figures if you have them. Tell us about the quality of TEFAP food compared to other donations you receive. Send us your comments no later than March 15, so we can get this information to Congress expeditiously, before decisions are made on appropriations for fiscal year 2006.

Legislation Proposed for Donated Transportation
Bipartisan legislation was introduced in Congress last month to provide tax credits for the transportation of food for charitable purposes. S. 283 was proposed by Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) and eight co-sponsors – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Richard Burr (R-NC), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Richard Lugar (R-IN), and Rick Santorum (R-PA).
The proposed “Hunger Relief Trucking Tax Credit Act” would allow up to 25 cents per mile in tax credits for firms that used qualified trucks for the transportation of food in connection with the hunger relief efforts of a federally tax-exempt organization, beginning in 2005. The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Flow of Bonus Commodities Remains Steady Though Composition Changing
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that surplus or bonus commodities made available to TEFAP last year exceeded the amount available in fiscal year 2003. According to preliminary figures provided by staff from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), a total of 279.7 million pounds of bonus items were provided to TEFAP in fiscal year 2004, up from 217.8 million pounds the year before.
However, the types of foods being offered are changing. There are no meats, and most of the surplus items are fruits and vegetables. In addition to cranberries (in dried, sauce, and juice forms) currently available, FNS expects to offer potatoes and apple products in the near future.
In regard to non-fat dry milk, however, it looks like the long-time glut is over. USDA claims it moved more than one billion pounds of dry milk last year, nearly exhausting the stock of more than 1.4 billion pounds that was in storage as fiscal year 2004 began. “The surplus is drying up very quickly, and dry milk for fiscal year 2006 is not looking good,” said one FNS official.

Food Bio-security Training Sessions Offered
Federal agencies are teaming up to offer food security awareness sessions around the country this year to help reduce the risk of an attack on the nation’s food system. “Protecting the Food Supply from Intentional Adulteration: An Introductory Training Session to Raise Awareness” is the title of a series of 12 workshops scheduled between late March and late September to improve food bio-security. The workshops are being sponsored by three agencies within USDA – FNS, the Agricultural Marketing Service, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service – along with the Food and Drug Administration.
Nutrition assistance program operators are among those encouraged by USDA/FNS to consider attending the workshops. A six-hour general session will be followed by a two-hour training specific to FNS programs. Training sessions will be held in: Atlanta, GA on March 22; Seattle, WA on April 19; Alameda, CA on April 21; Philadelphia, PA on May 17; Boston, MA on May 19; Kansas City, MO on June 7; Boulder, CO on June 9; Chicago, IL on July 12; Minneapolis, MN on July 14; Los Angeles, CA on August 4; Miami, FL on September 13; and Washington, DC on September 20.
Seating in each location will be limited. To register in advance with FNS, contact Carmen Nordlund at: carmen.nordlund@fns.usda.gov.

New Policies on TEFAP Distribution at Kids Cafes
FNS recently outlined new procedures for the distribution of TEFAP commodities to children through Kids Cafés or similar types of programs. TEFAP agencies may provide TEFAP foods to a child in such settings, provided that the child’s household is certified as eligible for TEFAP and proper distribution records are maintained. For additional information, see Food Distribution National Policy Memorandum number FD-041.

Views from the Field
There’s trouble out West:
·Emergency food needs in Colorado have been exacerbated since last September by the near total breakdown of the state’s Benefits Management System. Eligibility determinations and benefit issuance for food stamps and other assistance programs are being delayed for months, if they get processed at all.
Denver Post columnist Diane Carmen, writing on February 22, 2005, noted that, “food pantries and homeless shelters have been overwhelmed by demand this winter. The explosion in hunger across the state is the direct result of problems with the state’s $200 million Colorado Benefits Management System, a nightmare computer-software program that has thrown food stamps, Medicaid, Old Age Pensions and other relief services into chaos since it was brought online September 1.”
The Denver Foundation tried to ride to the rescue by establishing the Colorado Hunger and Homeless Response Fund, raising more than $235,000. The Foundation issued a request for proposals that received 137 applications in just two weeks, requesting nearly three times the amount available.
The state’s computer system is still not fixed, causing ongoing stress on emergency providers. “The food pantries and food banks and homeless services providers are really ill-equipped to take on a need of this magnitude,” said Linda Murphy, director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Relief organizations “have been flooded with desperate families unable to get benefits. They need food for weeks at a time,” Carmen added.
·“I’ve been here for 12 years, and I’ve never seen our food programs go through so much food,” Peggy Grimes of the Montana Food Bank Network told the Missoulian in Missoula, MT on February 12, 2005. “We’ve never had so many people coming in for food. And they’re also coming in more often.”
And a bad situation could get worse. “We are going to have some real problems if the Bush budget, as it’s proposed, comes to pass,” Grimes said. “If Congress doesn’t make some changes, there will be issues that come out of lots of social service cuts. It’s all connected, so we’re quite concerned. We’re hoping Congress will take some action that will help us out here.”
And in the East:
·“The stereotype of Greenwich [Connecticut] is that it’s an oasis of affluence, but in reality, it’s a diverse community and many people who live here are the working poor and they need help, more and more of them,” explained Sandy Motland, president of Neighbor to Neighbor, a local non-profit operating out of a church basement that provides shoes and clothing as well as food, in a February 10, 2005 interview with Greenwich Time. “Sometimes it’s an emergency situation, where once they get over the hump they’ll be all right,” she said. “But more generally, it’s an ongoing need.”
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Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, Texas 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@281.com.

Washington Update
Monday, March 7, 2005

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