TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - December 9, 2005

In this issue:

Taking A Break for the Holidays
Nutrition Programs Face Funding Cuts
Obesity Round-Up
Food Stamp Outreach Funds Offered
Thanksgiving Observance Sparks Hunger Report
Bonus Purchases Announced
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.

Taking A Break for the Holidays

Foodlinks America will be taking an end-of-the-year break and will not publish a newsletter on December 20, 2005. Our next issue will be sent on January 6, 2006. Our staff wishes you a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Nutrition Programs Face Funding Cuts

Congress returned this week from a Thanksgiving recess to grapple with budget and appropriations issues. A five-year budget reconciliation bill that would reduce spending on mandatory or entitlement programs has been sent to a House-Senate conference committee. House cuts total $50 billion and include $700 million in food stamp savings that would remove up to 250,000 people from the program. The Senate would reduce overall spending by $35 billion and avoid any direct cuts to food programs.

To date, 11 of the 13 annual appropriations bills have passed Congress, including one for the Department of Agriculture that encompasses the majority of nutrition assistance programs. Still pending are spending bills for Defense and for Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, which includes funding for the Elderly Nutrition Program and the Community Food and Nutrition Program.

Even though final fiscal year 2006 appropriations have been enacted for most programs, nutrition assistance efforts and other human services are not out of danger yet. The budget reconciliation package may contain cuts or program terminations that take effect this fiscal year. Additionally, House Republican leaders are reported to want an unspecified across-the-board cut (perhaps two or three percent) in discretionary spending, depending on final action in the reconciliation bill.

Outcomes are still in doubt and time is short. Congress plans to adjourn before the December holidays and not return until late January. It is possible that final budget decisions may be delayed until early 2006.

Obesity Round-Up

Food marketing puts children at risk: Cartoon characters like Spongebob Squarepants, Shrek, and Scooby-Doo should stop hawking unhealthy foods to children said a landmark report from the Institute on Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Science released on December 6, 2005. “The prevailing pattern of food and beverage marketing to children and youth in America represents, at best, a missed opportunity, and at worst, a direct threat to the health prospects of the next generation,” noted the IOM in a news release.

The IOM reviewed over 120 scientific studies that examined the role and effect of food advertising and concluded that “current food and beverage marketing practices puts children’s long-term health at risk.” The report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?, requested and funded by Congress, includes recommendations for changes by industry, retailers, the media, parents, schools, and government, calling for Congressional action to block ads of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods if the $11 billion a year food marketing sector does not police itself.

“Food marketing is endangering the health of our children, pure and simple,” said Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who requested the report. The report may be viewed at: http://www.iom.edu/report.asp?id=31330.

And they should know: Who recently released a report crowing that the amount of non-diet soft drinks sold in the nation’s schools went down 24 percent between 2002 and 2004? It was none other than the industry trade group, American Beverage Association. Replacing the sugary beverages, the Association noted, are sports drinks – with sales up 70 percent in the same period – bottled water (up 23 percent), diet soda (a 22 percent jump), and fruit juice (up 15 percent).

The soda study was reportedly intended to shore up defenses against litigation, as “A coalition of lawyers who have actively and successfully sued tobacco companies says it is close to filing a class-action lawsuit against soft drink makers for selling sugared sodas in schools,” according to a December 3, 2005 article in The Washington Post. “Litigation isn’t the answer to a complex social problem like childhood obesity,” responded Susan Neely, president of the beverage association.

In spite of its decline, regular soda is still the largest seller in schools, with 45 percent of the beverage market in the 2002-2005 period, down from 57 percent. Sports drinks have doubled their market share to 14 percent and water has increased to 13 percent. The drop in non-diet soda sales did not impress some experts, who noted that sports drinks may have fewer calories, but still contain a considerable amount of sugar. “It’s a substitution of one bad product for another,” commented New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle.

Dietary guidance now available in Spanish: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has translated materials about healthy eating from its Food Guide Pyramid into Spanish, according to a December 7, 2005 news release. Nutrition information for good health can now be found at “MiPiramide: Pasos Hacia Una Mejor Salud” translated, as “MyPyramid: Steps to a Healthier You.”

USDA notes that three of four Latino adults and one in four Latino children are overweight or obese. The Pyramid guidance allows individuals to tailor the dietary information to meet their needs. To learn more, go to: http://www.mypyramid.gov/sp-index.html.

A new obesity resource for the CFNP world: Among the $2.4 million in discretionary grants made in September 2005 under the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP), was a $236,000 award to the American Dietetic Association Foundation (ADAF) in Chicago to work with other CFNP grantees on obesity issues. The Foundation plans “to systematically examine the work of CFNP grantees with projects focusing on childhood and youth obesity.” The project will work with fiscal year 2005 CFNP grantees and fiscal year 2004 grantees with no-cost extensions.

Food Stamp Outreach Funds Offered

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that it is accepting applications for at least $1 million in grants to public and private non-profit entities, including community and faith-based organizations, to improve awareness of the Food Stamp Program among low-income households. “These grants will help ensure that working poor, immigrants, and elderly are accessing food stamp benefits,” said USDA Secretary Mike Johanns on November 30, 2005.

There are some restrictions. Awards will be limited to $75,000. While many private non-profit organizations and public entities are eligible, some are not. The competition excludes state and local food stamp agencies and groups that received USDA outreach grants awarded between 2001 and 2005. Those prior grantees may not apply or participate as sub-grantees to another applicant. Due dates are January 6, 2006 for optional letters of intent to apply and April 3, 2006 for submitting applications. For details, go to http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/outreach/grants/2006/default.htm or http://www.grants.gov.

Thanksgiving Observance Sparks Hunger Report

“Poor families using food stamps cannot afford to buy Thanksgiving dinner, let alone nutritious food,” claimed David Beckman, president of Bread for the World (BFW), in releasing the organization’s 16th annual report on domestic hunger, Frontline Issues in Nutrition Assistance, on November 17, 2005. The report pegged the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry, and pumpkin pie for an adult and two or three children, at $34.51, an amount that would use up more than one-eighth of the household’s monthly food stamp allotment.

In the report, BFW, a nationwide, faith-based anti-hunger movement, examines food stamps, child nutrition programs, emergency food assistance, and the need to address world hunger, in addition to making recommendations for action. For further information, see: http://www.bread.org/.

Bonus Purchases Announced

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in early December that it would purchase large quantities of three additional commodities for use in child nutrition and domestic food assistance programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). USDA will buy up to 15 million pounds of tart cherries, 30 million pounds of dry beans, and 2.8 million pounds of canned crushed pineapple.

Reports from the Field

In its annual survey on hunger in America’s largest city, the New York City Coalition Against Hunger found that, “More than one in seven New York City residents live in a food insecure household, where someone has gone hungry or faced the brink of hunger – sometimes chronically – within the last year. That equals 1.2 million New Yorkers [emphasis in original].”

The Coalition’s November 2005 survey of soup kitchens and food pantries, The Hunger Squeeze: Skyrocketing Costs, Sinking Wages Increase Hunger in New York City, noted that “73 percent of these agencies faced increasing demand in the past year, with 39 percent claiming their need increased ‘greatly.’” It was the fifth consecutive year that majority of respondents reported an increase in need.

In a quote in the executive summary of the survey, Reverend Will Nichols, who runs a soup kitchen and food pantry on Staten Island, said: “I’ve been doing anti-hunger work in New York since the late ‘70s, and at Project Hospitality for 22 years. Across the board, this has been the most difficult year making sure no one on Staten Island goes without food. More than ever, people are struggling with increases in housing and transportation costs, and finding themselves in situations they would never have imagined possible. We’re expected to do more and more, and given less and less to work with. We’re feeling the squeeze in supply and demand.”

To view the survey report, go to: http://nyccah.org/survey2005/.

“Anything can happen. A child gets sick, the car breaks down, the roof leaks.

It can be enough to push a family over the edge and into financial trouble.

And that’s when the food bank sees them: Working people, holding down jobs, needing a food box to help the family maintain.”

Those were the opening lines of an article in the November 23, 2005 Arizona Republic under the headline, “Food banks feed struggling families.”

“If we couldn’t come to this food bank, I’m not sure what we’d do,” Eva Dortch told the newspaper, as she picked up groceries at the Desert Mission Food Bank. “We’re people who work; we don’t want to look for charity. But thank God we can come here and be treated well and helped to feed our family.”

“There is a misconception that the only people who rely on a food bank are the destitute,” said Jerry Ketehut, Desert Mission director. “We see many people where both the husband and the wife work, but their salaries are modest. They have children, and they live on the edge.”

Thanks to the Food Stamp Program running the way it should, at least one food bank in the devastated Gulf Coast area is not feeling a pinch this holiday season.

“Although many other food banks say Hurricane Katrina has left their cupboards barer than usual for the holidays, the Houma food bank’s shelves are well-stocked,” reported the Houma Daily Courier in Houma, LA on November 23, 2005. “It’s the first time in recent memory that the Good Samaritan Food Bank has enough donations to supply needy families for Thanksgiving.”

“The reason:” noted the paper, “many residents who usually would have to use the only food bank in town received state disaster food-stamp cards after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and can go shopping for groceries.” Retail sales at local supermarkets rose as much as 93 percent when emergency food stamps were first distributed.

“Right now, we are doing OK, for the first time,” said Reynold Pitre, manager of Good Samaritan. “We are getting a lot of donations right now, with all the food drives they are doing down the bayous.”

Rising poverty and food stamp cuts are “quickly becoming a crisis” for food banks across North Carolina, according to a November 4, 2005 story on News 14 Carolina, a 24-hour cable news channel in Raleigh-Durham.

“One-point-two million people statewide live below the poverty line, whether it’s $14,000 or $19,000 for a family, so it really could be someone next door who needs food assistance,” said Lindsey Graham, a representative of food banks statewide. Food Banks provide nearly 63 million pounds of food annually on a statewide basis.

Small Bites

Thirsty to grow: Agriculture consumes 70 percent of fresh water worldwide.

Changing food shopping habits: Twenty years ago, traditional grocery stores captured nearly 90 percent of Americans’ at-home food purchases. Today, their share has dropped to 69 percent, as competition from supercenters, warehouse clubs, and other non-traditional food stores increases.

Take-out winner: Pizza is the top take-out meal choice of 78 percent of Americans.

Brown bags still popular: A full 44 percent of Americans brown-bag it for lunch daily.

Keeping out of the holiday kitchen: One-third of Americans prefer to dine out or have their holiday meal catered rather than prepare it themselves.

And the partridge is pricey, too: Last year, the price of three French hens rose 200 percent, while the cost of five golden rings fell 29 percent.

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