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July 2005

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WASHINGTON UPDATE – July 27, 2005

Funding Decisions Delayed Until September

Congress will take its traditional summer recess next month, effectively delaying action on fiscal year 2006 appropriations until September. The recess, which begins August 1, will run until Congress reconvenes on September 6. In the meantime, next year’s funding for a variety of programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), hangs in the balance.

Two legislative tracks will affect future funding for TEFAP and other federal food and nutrition programs: budget reconciliation and regular fiscal year 2006 appropriations. Under the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution, nutrition assistance programs must be reduced by $3 billion dollars over the next five years, potentially jeopardizing food stamps and child nutrition services. Some of the cuts, once approved, may take effect next year.

Funding for TEFAP is, at this point, expected to be unchanged, with $140 million provided for food purchases and $50 million for storage and distribution. A provision in the appropriations bill will likely give states the option of transferring up to $10 million of food funds into distribution.

This year was the first time since 1988 that the House completed all of its spending bills before the summer recess. However, final appropriations levels must await action by the full Senate and a House-Senate conference. If Congress does not complete all appropriations by the October 1 start of the new fiscal year, funding bills may be combined into a large omnibus spending bill or could be funded on a short-term basis through one or more continuing resolutions.

More Bonus Fruit and Juice on the Way

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the purchase of 7.5 million pounds of canned pineapple juice to be donated to child nutrition and domestic food assistance programs, including TEFAP. USDA is also buying 68 million pounds of canned fruit – clingstone peaches, freestone peaches, and mixed fruit.

Cohen to Retire

Phil Cohen, a mainstay of the Food Distribution Division in USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and a font of information on TEFAP, has announced his retirement after more than 30 years of federal service, effective August 3.

Reports from the Field

• Under the headline, “Legions of poor in Ohio grow,” The Columbus Dispatch reported the following in June 2005: “At the food pantry run by the Westerville Area Resource Ministry, demand was up 50 percent the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2004. Serving 150 families in the Westerville school district a month, the pantry has begun turning some away, said Lori Humphrey, director of development, programs, and services.”

“The (poverty) numbers would surprise me if I wasn’t working here,” she said. “It would appear that the economy is getting better and you would expect (demand) to slow down, but the people we’re seeing have wages that are not enough to sustain a family.”

• “’The number of county residents who struggle to put food on their table has surged over the last two years to 15,000, up 7 percent from two years ago,’ the San Luis Obispo Tribune in California reported in its June 20, 2005 edition. ‘Some of those people – perhaps as many as 6,000 – are so financially stressed that they occasionally cannot buy food. So they go hungry.’”

“’That figure isn’t surprising,’” said Nancy Ruester, executive director of the Food Bank of San Luis Obispo County. “’They are people who are crunched by rents and gas prices and utility bills, and one item that can be discretionary is how much food they can purchase for their families.’”

• “Families needing emergency food and shelter remain concentrated in Milwaukee’s central city, but a new analysis of calls for help reinforces the perception that more of their neighbors to the west and northwest are joining them in poverty,” according to a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article on June 22, 2005.

“I think it has to do with the loss of manufacturing jobs and more people falling vulnerable to food and housing issues,” Mike Davis, executive director of IMPACT, a local non-profit agency, said. “Money gets tighter, paychecks or whatever resources people have don’t make it to the end of the month, so they call 211 and get connected to a food bank.”

“Residents in and around the Westlawn housing project, the city’s largest at 726 units, made more than 4,000 visits to the food pantry at the Silver Spring Neighborhood Center. They are the real people behind the numbers listed in the 211 report. James Bartos, the executive director of the center, said many of them are parents who struggle each week to feed their children or skip meals themselves to provide for the rest of their family.”

• Here are some quotes from the April 2005, Hunger in Vermont: Report on the 2005 Survey of Vermont Food Shelves and Community Kitchens.

“Vermont’s food shelf caseload grew 23 percent since 2003, when the last survey was done.”

“From the middle of the month on, we see more families. There’s a lot more out there that are just too proud to ask for help.”

“We’ve never fun out of food, but we have been really close. It’s been a difficult year.”

“We are seeing more single parents, often times raising more than two children. We have elders raising grandchildren becoming more common. The communities we serve have families that move often. About 10 percent of our clients have been with us over ten years. As the children grow up and establish their own homes, they are now our clients, too.”

WASHINGTON UPDATE is published monthly by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 419 West Broad Street, Suite 204, Falls Church, VA 22046; telephone: 703-532-5700; fax: 703-532-3780; email: zyweinberg@attglobal.net.

Washington Update
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

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