TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - November 23, 2005

In this issue:

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Food Stamps Threatened in Budget Bill
Health and Human Services Funding Plan Defeated
Elderly Nutrition Efforts Not So Small
CFNP Grants for 2005 Announced
Milk to Cheese Pilot Project Shut Down
School Food News and Notes
Obesity Round-Up
National Groups Donate Trucks to Food Banks
Reports from the Field
Small Bites

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.

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Foodlinks America is available free of charge to non-profit, public, and faith-based organizations. Our biweekly newsletter is dedicated to providing you with useful information on food, nutrition, and hunger concerns in the United States.

If you like Foodlinks America, please share the news and forward a copy to a friend or colleague. To receive the newsletter directly, send a request to: bvauthier@281.com.

Food Stamps Threatened in Budget Bill

Congressional negotiators face a difficult task in reaching an accord before the end of the year on a five-year budget plan that contains billions of dollars in cuts in medical, health, and nutrition programs.

In the early morning hours of November 18, 2005, the House of Representatives, on a 217-215 vote, passed a budget reconciliation bill that reduces spending on mandatory programs by almost $50 billion. Included in the cuts are $700 million in food stamp savings that would remove up to 250,000 people from the program.

The bill will now be sent to a House-Senate conference committee, which will try to resolve differences between the House bill and Senate legislation passed earlier this month that reduces spending by $35 billion over five years. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a senior negotiator in the conference, has said via a spokesperson that he was aiming for “zero” food stamp cuts in negotiations with the House.

Newspaper editorials, like one in Florida Today, referred to the House cction as “a reverse Robin Hood. They stole from the poor to give to the rich.” Keeping pace in Congress with the budget cutting bill, the newspaper continued, is “a companion bill extending some $57 billion in tax-cut benefits over the next five years to the nation’s wealthiest citizens. That would entirely negate the deficit-reduction savings the poor are being asked to pay.”

Health and Human Services Funding Plan Defeated

In a rare defeat for the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, the fiscal year 2006 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services (HHS) was rejected on November 17, 2005 by a 224-209 vote. Twenty-two Republicans joined Democrats to kill the $602 billion proposal.

The bill included funding for nutrition programs under the Older Americans Act. Funding for the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP), normally in this bill, was eliminated by the House for fiscal year 2006.

Republican leaders had hoped to complete appropriations before the Thanksgiving recess, which lasts until December 112 in the Senate. But negotiations on next year’s spending will now carry into December. With the failure of a direct appropriation for Labor-Education-HHS, Congressional leaders were debating whether to continue negotiations to assemble a bill that could pass, enact a year-long continuing resolution, or add the Labor-Education-HHS bill onto a “must-pass” military spending bill.

Elderly Nutrition Efforts Not So Small

Editor’s Note: Foodlinks America received the following letter from Jean Lloyd, National Nutritionist with the federal Administration on Aging, regarding an article in our November 9, 2005 issue.

In your second article on USDA appropriations and the appropriations for various food programs, you indicate that the Nutrition Program for the Elderly funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a small program. I agree with you that at its current appropriation, $718 million (congregate nutrition – $386,353,000, home delivered nutrition – $179,917,000, and Nutrition Services Incentive Program – $148,192, 000), it is far smaller than WIC ($5.3 billion) or School Lunch ($7.4 billion), but seems to be a bit larger than the Senior Farmers’ Market Programs ($15 million) or Team Nutrition ($10 million) or the Commodity Supplemental Food Program ($114.3 million).

My concern in bringing this to your attention is the characterization of the program as “small” and readers might interpret it as “minor.” On the contrary, it is the largest community based food and nutrition program targeted to older adults in the country. It provides higher benefits to more older adults in more places in the country than the programs administered by USDA.

It provides benefits to about 2.5 million older adults in all states and territories (including Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and Guam). Average benefit would be about $100 per month for a minimum of 20 meals per month. There are 4,400 nutrition service providers and they are located in all states and territories. If you look at total expenditures (which includes additional public and private funding), rather than simply federal appropriations, the total funding for the program is closer to $1.25 billion (older adults contribute about 18% of the cost of the meals through voluntary contributions). The program participants are, in general, older, sicker, poorer, more functionally impaired, more likely to be minority, more likely to live alone, and more likely to live in rural areas than the general U.S. older population.

Under the Older Americans Act (OAA), the Title VI program provides benefits to older Indians, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians. There are 243 tribal grants in this program and additional funding of $26.4 million. Not all of the funding is used for nutrition services. It is also considered part of the OAA Nutrition Program or Elderly Nutrition Program.

In comparison, the Food Stamp Program (USDA’s largest program) serves about 1.7 million older adults. The average benefit to an eligible older adult [who often fits the profile of the OAA Nutrition Program (Elderly Nutrition Program) participant] is $65.00 per month. So, the Elderly Nutrition Program provides a larger benefit to more older adults than does the Food Stamp Program.

The other USDA program that targets older adults is the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). It is not available in every state (32 states, 2 tribes, 1 territory), has 458,000 slots for older adults or 89% of its caseload. It provides a package of benefits that is less than the benefits provided of a minimum of 20 meals/month through the OAA Nutrition Program or Elderly Nutrition Program.

Taken together, I think that it is essential that poor older adults access all food and nutrition assistance programs available to them (OAA Nutrition Program, Food Stamps, CSFP, Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program); however, it might be helpful to put the OAA Nutrition Program in context for your readers who probably are not very familiar with it and to help them understand that it is the largest community food and nutrition assistance program targeted to older adults.

As a program, it does not function in isolation from other services (funded under the OAA) needed to help keep older adults healthy, at home, independent and in the community – such as transportation (to the doctor and grocery store), meals (when homebound, about 30% of our home delivered meal population is nursing home level of care), and access to health promotion/disease prevention programs for the more able or assistance for family caregivers (who provide the majority of long term care in the country) or legal assistance (neglect, abuse, fraud and exploitation).

To provide another context, the single meal that most participants in the OAA Nutrition Program receive provides more than one-half of their daily food intake. Despite this fact, 11% of congregate (or 220,000 participants) and 25% of home delivered participants (or 250,000 participants) do not have enough money or food stamps so as not to go hungry. The OAA Nutrition Program is not an entitlement program, so there are waiting lists and some participants may need more intensive services.

So, although it has less funding than the large USDA Food Assistance Programs that target other populations, it is larger than and serves more participants than USDA programs that provide benefits to older adults. It is also the foundation service for a home and community based care system that helps keep vulnerable, at risk (from a socio-economic, health, functionality, and nutrition perspectives) older adults in the community.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide you with some additional information. And thanks for keeping your readers informed about the HHS appropriations and the Elderly Nutrition Program. For additional information, visit the web site of the Administration on Aging at http://www.aoa.gov.

CFNP Grants for 2005 Announced

Fiscal year 2005 awards for discretionary funds under the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP) were recently revealed by the Office of Community Services (OCS) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than $2 million in CFNP funds were distributed to 49 public and private non-profit organizations in 22 states and the District of Columbia to operate year-long local projects.

The purposes of the CFNP are to: 1) Coordinate private and public food assistance resources, wherever the grant recipient involved determines such coordination to be inadequate, to better serve low-income populations; 2) assist low-income communities to identify potential sponsors of child nutrition programs and to initiate such programs in 
underserved or unserved areas; and (3) develop innovative approaches at the State and local level to meet the nutrition needs of low-income individuals.

Examples of funded projects include the following:

Boat People SOS, Inc. of Falls Church, VA will operate a Health Awareness Program for Immigrants that will promote healthy diets among the 18,000 Vietnamese refugees and immigrants in the State of Maryland.

Community Servings, Inc. in Roxbury, MA will include a Therapeutic Meals Program under its Food for Health Initiative that targets individuals living with HIV/AIDS.
Food Change of New York, NY will create a Vegetable of the Month Club for Seniors program to include cooking workshops and nutrition education presentations.

In Fulton, GA, Georgia State University will implement Project Healthy Grandparents to improve the quality of life for families where grandparents are raising grandchildren in parent-absent households.

Metropolitan Family Service in Portland, OR will establish a Strong Schools, Fit Families program for nutrition, fitness outreach, and education.

In Rogersville, TN, Of One Accord Ministry will transform a school bus into a mobile cafeteria to implement a summer food service program for children living in housing projects and mobile home parks.

Milk to Cheese Pilot Project Shut Down

On October 26, 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) abruptly ended an 18-month experiment in which a local anti-hunger organization exchanged government surplus nonfat dry milk for cheese to feed the needy.

The Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee (HTFM) was told to end its relationship with Alto Dairy Cooperative in Waupun, WI, which received the powdered milk, kept some as a form of compensation, and turned the rest into 20,000 pounds of cheese a month that was distributed in low-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

“We feel cheated,” said HTFM executive director Sherrie Tussler. “We’re representing the needs of low-income people.”

USDA discontinued the project because it claimed that the cheese giveaway decreased demand for and sales of nonfat dry milk and that surplus stocks had been reduced. Tussler responded that cheese was a better product for at-risk families. “The powdered milk tastes really bad,” she said. “It doesn’t taste like regular milk. We all know that kids like cheese, and it’s a healthy snack for them.”

The termination of the pilot project just five days after USDA announced that it would donate 25 million pounds of the nonfat dry milk to food banks and others as part of a humanitarian initiative, raised some eyebrows in Washington, D.C. “This disparity seems incongruous and I would welcome further elaboration on this point,” Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) wrote USDA. “I have been an ardent supporter of [the pilot] and our staffs have talked at length about this initiative.”

USDA also denied HTFM permission to barter other surplus commodities, like raisins, into processed products. “It would have made a lot better sense to turn raisins into granola bars and raisin bran than just to deliver tons and tons of raisins,” commented Tusssler.

School Food News and Notes

Cool atmosphere = Better sales. The Philadelphia-based food service giant Aramark, which has been working to increase meal sales and nutritional awareness among “tweens” (grades 6-8) and teens (grades 9-12) in the more than 420 school districts were it provides meals, appears to have hit on a successful formula with its “U.B.U. Lounge” format. Healthy new menu items – such as chicken wraps and fruit smoothies – are served in a cool atmosphere with brightly painted walls, new lighting, piped in music, casual uniforms worn by food service employees, and creative merchandising techniques.

For the 93 percent of students who want to spend lunch time talking to and hanging out with their friends, U.B.U. allows them to do so. “It’s just more attractive, so kids want to stay for lunch,” said Jerry Binder, principal of Sterling High School in Sterling, IL. Among the 130 schools trying the U.B.U. concept, meal sales have increased as much as 40 percent.

Competitive foods examined. In spite of nationwide efforts to help school students eat healthier meals, a recent government investigation found that nine out of ten schools sold competitive foods (those that compete with nutritious school lunch items) to students in the 2003-2004 school year and that the availability of competitive foods in middle schools increased over the last five years. High and middle schools were more likely to sell competitive foods than elementary schools.

The August 2005 report, from the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, also noted that competitive food sales “generated substantial revenues” for schools. To read more, go to: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05563.pdf.

School nutrition advocacy made easier. The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. has published an “Advocate’s Guide to the School Nutrition Programs.” The comprehensive, 195-page guide is intended as a complete reference manual for advocates, school administrators, educators, lawyers and paralegals, state and local officials, parent groups, and community organizations on these crucial programs that benefit millions of American children.

The guide features advocacy tips and suggestions, and explains the policies, laws, and best practices governing the federal school nutrition programs including: who is eligible for free and reduced price meals; how children and households apply for the programs; nutritional guidelines and meal quality issues; the school nutrition environment; and civil rights and privacy protections. Published in a 3-ring binder format so it can be updated, the guide can be ordered from FRAC for $35. For more information, go to: http://www.frac.org/pdf/advguide_school.pdf.

Obesity Round-Up

Produce prices affect obesity. There is a strong link between fruit and vegetable prices and weight gains in young children, according to a study conducted by the RAND Corporation of Santa Monica, CA and reported in the October 2005 issue of the medical journal Public Health. In the years between kindergarten and third grade, children living in areas where fruits and vegetables were more expensive were more likely to gain weight than children residing in areas where produce prices were relatively cheaper.

“These findings may help explain the growing obesity epidemic among children over the past 20 years,” said Roland Sturm, a RAND senior economist and lead author of the study. “During the same time period, prices of fruits and vegetables have increased faster than other food prices, and faster than the cost of living.” The study examined data on nearly 7,000 children in 59 metropolitan areas around the U.S.

Among the findings were that in Mobile, AL, the region with the highest fruit and vegetable prices, children gained 50 percent more weight than the national average. In contrast, in Visalia, CA, where produce prices were among the lowest, excess weight gain was half the national norm. To read more, go to: http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/10.05.html.

Federal food programs and obesity examined. On November 17, 2005, the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released a new paper, “Obesity, Food Insecurity and the Federal Nutrition Programs: Understanding the Linkages.” The paper analyzes the dual, and simultaneous, impacts of food insecurity and obesity on low-income individuals, households, and communities. The paper includes information on definitions, prevalence, and consequences of these public health problems for low-income people, along with a detailed examination of child nutrition program operations and their impacts.

The paper discusses the current and future positive role that child nutrition programs can play in the prevention of the two, key public health problems – food insecurity and obesity. A final section offers recommendations and policy approaches at the state and national levels, focusing on local wellness policies, changing competitive foods, improving school meals, implementing physical activity programs, and nutrition education.

The 33-page paper includes an extensive reference list and is intended for use by policymakers, anti-hunger advocates, and organizations and individuals that work on children’s hunger education and health issues. To learn more, see: http://www.frac.org/pdf/obesity05_paper.pdf.

National Groups Donate Trucks to Food Banks

In November 2005, for the fifth consecutive year, a public-private partnership has provided trucks and food to ten members of the nation’s food bank network. Ford Motor Company, actor Paul Newman, sole owner of Newman’s Own, and America’s Second Harvest again teamed up to deliver refrigerated trucks to food banks that primarily serve rural areas.

Beneficiaries of this effort were: High Plains Food Bank, Amarillo, Texas; Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, Duluth, Minnesota; Food Bank of the Southern Tier, Elmira, New York; Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida, Ft. Myers, Florida; Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas, Jonesboro, Arkansas; Northwest Louisiana Food Bank, Shreveport, Louisiana; Harvest Texarkana, Texarkana, Texas; Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank, Toledo, Ohio; America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia, Valdosta, Georgia; and Northeast Iowa Food Bank, Waterloo, Iowa .

For additional information, see the news release on the America’s Second Harvest web site at: http://www.secondharvest.org/news_room/2005_News_Releases/110205.html.

Reports from the Field

The following quotes are from a story in the November 14, 2005 Waterbury Republican American in Waterbury, CT:

“Through this time last year, up to 2,000 people in need had eaten a meal at the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries soup kitchen in the hall at St. John’s Episcopal Church.”

“During the same period this year, that number has tripled.”

“Besides the soup kitchen, the Ministries operates a food pantry that distributes an emergency three-day supply of food. In one month, 769 clients got food from the pantry.”

“We have people wall-to-wall from the time the pantry opens to it closes,” said Sue Pronovost, director of administration and resources. We see no decrease in requests, especially as we get into the heating season.”

“The increased requests for food have soup kitchen and food pantry administrators scrambling to re-stock their shelves to meet the need.”

“We are seeing staggering numbers,” Pronovost said. “The question is, `what is going on?’ Waterbury, being an urban center, will attract more homeless. We’ve seen a definite increase in homelessness, but the real increase is in families not being able to make ends meet, including the elderly in downtown.”

A November 14, 2005 article published in the Battle Creek Enquirer in Battle Creek, MI examined the effect of proposed food stamp benefit cuts on low-income households.
“Rachel Reed, 34, of Battle Creek, is a single mother of two. She said she has been in the food stamp program since her divorce four years ago, and she gets about $134 a month.”
“Reed said she doesn’t receive any child support, and without the food stamps, she has about $30 a week left in her budget for food.”
“It works, because to really be able to afford to feed my family healthy and nutritious foods from like Meijer or Felpausch [two regional grocery chains], I can’t afford it,” she said. “I think where the cut is going to hurt is when single parents, like me, or the elderly have to choose between buying food or paying for medications.”
“According to Bob Randels, executive director of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan, there is never a good time to cut what he calls the already insufficient food stamp program.”
“People need to realize the amount of food stamps people are getting right now aren’t lasting very long, so they will still have to come to our program,” he said. “We are already seeing double-digit increases showing up on the front lines of pantries and shelters.”

A November 20, 2005 article in the Los Angeles Times addressed the challenges emergency food providers are encountering:

“The shelves are almost bare at the Seventh-day Adventist Church food pantry in South-Central Los Angeles.”

“As Thanksgiving approaches, instead of the 400 bags containing a turkey, canned vegetables, milk and other staples typically handed out for the holiday, the charity will be hard-pressed to find provisions for 100 families – and most will not get a turkey.”

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and this is the worst I’ve seen it,” said Margaret Carson, community service director.

“It is a lament echoed in food pantries throughout Southern California and the country.”

“The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which has seen a 12% decrease in food supplies over the last year, is rationing items such as meat and cereal …. Alameda County Community Food Bank [in Oakland] has seen a 34% decrease in food supplies.”

Small Bites

Do what I say, not what I do: 84 percent of Americans say they try to eat a well-balanced diet, but most fail; only 42 percent say they actually eat a healthy variety of foods.

Getting your goat: Goat meat imports rose 140 percent during the period of 1996-2003. About 40 percent of the goat meat eaten in the U.S. comes from Australia or New Zealand.

Airborne restaurant lands in Arkansas: You can have dinner on the plane at the regional airport in Walnut Ridge in northeast Arkansas without taking off. That’s because the local Parachute Inn is housed inside the fuselage of a retired Boeing 737. Just store your coats in the overhead bin.

Still have your Halloween candy?: More candy is sold in the U.S. at Halloween that at any other time of year – beating even Easter and Valentine’s Day

Coffee craze: Eighty percent of Americans drink coffee, with 53 percent imbibing it on a daily basis.

Home cooking declines: Recent research estimates that 92 percent of Americans eat some form of “ready-to-eat” foods in the home on a daily basis.

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