TEFAP Alliance Blog

June 2005

In This Issue:
• Appropriations Bills Moving Apace
• Transfer Deadline Fast Approaching
• Unused Fiscal 2004 Funds Allocated
• Two More Bonus Items Offered
• New Commodity Recipes Available
• Reports from the Field

Appropriations Bills Moving Apace
Congress began moving ahead on appropriations bills this month at a faster pace than in recent years. No major cuts to food programs have occurred yet, but a plan approved earlier in the year to help cut the national deficit may portend trouble for nutrition assistance efforts later in the year.
The full House of Representatives passed a fiscal year 2006 agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 2744) on June 8 by a vote of 408-18. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its bill (as yet unnumbered) for agriculture spending next year on June 23. The full Senate may consider the legislation before taking a break for the Fourth of July holiday later this week.
Both House and Senate bills provided level funding for TEFAP, allocating $140 million for food purchases and $50 million for storage and distribution expenses. In addition, the legislation in both Houses gives USDA authority to let states collectively transfer up to $10 million from food to distribution.
There has been no mention yet of across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending – the portion of the budget where TEFAP distribution funds reside – but such cuts in the past have limited TEFAP activities.
Moreover, Agriculture Committees must decide by mid-September how to achieve $3 billion in reductions in mandatory spending – a category that includes TEFAP food purchases. Recent rumors of a proposed “proportionality” scheme – in which each sector (commodity, conservation, and nutrition) would be cut according to its share of federal spending – have alarmed advocates who fear that such a plan would seriously disadvantage the Food Stamp Program, which accounts for 57 percent of mandatory agriculture expenditures.

Transfer Deadline Fast Approaching
States have been given until July 1, 2005 to decide whether they want to convert their share of $10 million in fiscal year 2005 TEFAP food purchase funds into the storage and distribution category. State breakouts on the need for food versus distribution funding this year may reflect the changing emergency food landscape. As emergency food lines lengthen and private sector donations dry up, there has been a trend towards states keeping more TEFAP dollars in the food category. Last year nine states kept all their funds in the food account, an increase of five over fiscal year 2003, when only four states did not transfer food money into distribution.

Unused Fiscal 2004 Funds Allocated
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reallocated $485,050 in unused storage and distribution funds to states. Final approval on use of the money is pending, according to USDA officials.

Two More Bonus Items Offered
USDA is making dehydrated potatoes and canned apricots available to states under TEFAP, USDA staff has informed WASHINGTON UPDATE.

New Commodity Recipes Available
Been wondering what to do with those sweet potatoes, cranberries, or walnuts? USDA has posted a new collection of recipes for TEFAP participants using donated foods, entitled, “Creative Recipes for Less Familiar USDA Commodities Used By Household Programs.” Find the 29-page booklet at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/recipes/hhp/HHP-CreativeRecipes-rev2.pdf.

Reports from the Field
·Some comments from Mary McKinnon Gann of the First Unitarian Universalist Church on her week spent among homeless men and women on the streets of San Francisco as part of the Faithful Fools Street Ministry, and reported in the May 20, 2005 SFGate.com:
“The line at St. Anthony’s dining room stretches all the way down the block on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It moves not at all for a while. Since my last extended street retreat a year ago, I had heard that St. Anthony’s feeds 300 more people a day (making a total of 2,400 daily). This year, the food is less attractive, less appealing, and just plain less.”
“I was having to choose between a meal and a shower because there isn’t time to stand in both lines.”
Upon returning to her congregation, she noted that “I got to church early, and people were already lined up around the block for dinner to be served that afternoon in our church kitchen.”
·A little further north up the California coast, Food for People, the food bank in Eureka does all it can to help the hungry, but is reaching its financial limits, as reported in the May 12, 2005 North Coast Journal:
“Many families rely on Food for People, the local food bank. In addition to monthly food boxes, which helped 887 households in April, the organization has provided summer lunches for low-income kids who might otherwise go hungry. But it’s a financial stretch, because federal reimbursements don’t cover all the expenses, said Anne Holcomb, executive director of Food for People. “We’ve lost money every year on the program. We just can’t afford to keep doing that.”
·In Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Public Schools (BPS) is trying to alleviate summer hunger among children by serving breakfast, lunch, and snacks daily to any child who shows up at 180 sites around the city, according to the June 9, 2005 Roslindale/West Roxbury Transcript.
“I think our children are threatened in that they don’t get the healthy meals that they need,” said Debra Korzec-Ramirez, nutrition coordinator for the BPS. “Many children depend upon us for breakfast, lunch, and snack. Parents know about our meal plans.”

Korzec-Ramirez said that food pantry supplies are at an all-time low, and that the BPS program is an excellent alternative to food pantries.
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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, June 27, 2005

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