TEFAP Alliance Blog

May 2005

In This Issue:
• Congressional Action Expected as Time Runs Short
• Proposed Legislation
• More Bonus Buys Announced
• Updated Regulations Available
• Reports from the Field

Congressional Action Expected as Time Runs Short
Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2006 have begun to move this month, as Congress wrestles with trying to prioritize spending needs under the budget resolution passed in late April. On May 25, the House Appropriations Committee passed a bill providing approximately $100 billion in funds for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs next year. The Senate Appropriations Committee will not meet to consider agriculture funding until June at the earliest.
TEFAP was approved at the funding level recommended by the Bush Administration – $140 million for food purchases and $50 million for distribution and storage, with USDA given authority to allow states to transfer up to $10 million in food funds to the distribution account.
Although it is uncertain when fiscal year 2006 appropriations will be completed, the congressional clock is ticking, with holiday observances planned for Memorial Day at the end of this month and Independence Day in early July. Plus, Congress will take its usual summer recess, a five-week break that starts August 1 and will carry through Labor Day on September 5. WASHINGTON UPDATE will continue to monitor funding levels for food and nutrition programs next year as decisions are made.

Proposed Legislation
Among bills recently introduced in the 109th session of U.S. Congress are the following:
• House Resolution (H.R.) 1954: Introduced by Representative James McGovern (D-MA) and five bipartisan co-sponsors, the proposed Hunger Relief Trucking Tax Credit Act would allow a tax credit of 25 cents per mile for use of a truck for a qualified charitable purpose, including hunger relief efforts.
For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov.

More Bonus Buys Announced
Potatoes and asparagus may grace the plates of hungry Americans later this year, as the USDA announced on May 16 that it would purchase surplus production of those two items. USDA will buy up to 80 million pounds of frozen and dehydrated potatoes for donation to TEFAP and other domestic food assistance programs. Asparagus purchases will total as much as seven million pounds and will be offered as canned and frozen product.

Updated Regulations Available
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service recently posted updated TEFAP regulations on the program web page. The rules, current as of January 2005, may be found at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/regs/final/7cfr251_05TEFAP.pdf.

Reports from the Field
Stories about the increased hardship and the need for emergency food continue to appear throughout the country. Here are some recent examples.
·“In New Mexico, more than 54,000 people visit food banks every week in order to get enough food to feed themselves and their families, according to Melody Wattenbarger, director of the Roadrunner food bank in Albuquerque,” The New Mexican reported on April 17, 2005.
“The biggest worry is the rise in the number of working poor, those who work and receive wages that don’t cover all their bills,” added Wattenbarger.
·“Every day when I go to sleep, I pray to God that nothing breaks before I wake up,” Kathy Schunk, a 46-year-old nurse’s aide in Cedar Falls, Iowa told reporters from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier on April 2, 2005.
“If something goes wrong with the van, I’m ballistic. I have to sit down and say, ‘OK, I can take this much out of groceries and we can not go here or there and that’ll save $5 in gas.’ It sounds pretty crazy, but that’s how I make it work. Groceries and gas are about all I can pull from.”
·In its April 2005 newsletter, in a story headlined “Pantry Usage Up for 3rd Consecutive Year,” the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center noted that, “Based on reports from nearly 500 pantries across the State, during March the typical pantry distributed food to 135 households. This compares to 131 households served during March 2004, 121 households in March 2003 and 110 households in March 2002.”
“The increase, though modest this year, continues a trend that really adds up when you look back over the history of the survey, said Laura Tobin, who administers the study for Hunger Action. “Pantries are serving 23 percent more people than just three years ago.”
·Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes in Kalamazoo, MI provided 70,000 two-day boxes of food to area residents last year, executive director Anne Wend Lipsey told the Kalamazoo Gazette on March 10, 2005. That constituted a 19 percent increase over the previous year and the agency cannot keep pace with the growing demand.
“A lot of the people we are serving are eligible for food stamps, have food stamps, and are working or have some income,” Lipsey said. “But together these resources are not enough to ensure that they have three meals a day, seven days a week.”
·“More and more, the ones turning to the Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula for assistance are grandparents caring for grandchildren, single mothers working two jobs but unable to feed their children, and people who are homebound with little income or family support,” the Hampton Roads, VA Daily Press reported on March 4, 2005.
The food bank is participating in a national survey with America’s Second Harvest to know more about the needs of their clientele. “We know the demand for food has increased, and we want to know why,” said Loretta Jones, the food bank’s director of development.
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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
Thursday, May 26, 2005

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