TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - January 6, 2006

In this issue:

• CFNP Funding Suspended in Appropriations Finale
• Low-Income Programs Cut as Budget Bill Advances
• Cities Record Hunger Increases
• Food Banks Tested by Hurricane Relief Efforts
• Food Stamp Briefs
• Obesity Round-Up
• School Food News and Notes
• 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.

CFNP Funding Suspended in Appropriations Finale

Congress completed appropriations for fiscal year 2006 on December 21, 2005 when the Senate endorsed a spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education and another for the Department of Defense. For anti-hunger advocates, the elimination of funding this year for the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP) under HHS was a big disappointment. With the $7.18 million appropriated in fiscal year 2005, the CFNP supported a network of over 300 state and local organizations working to improve access to better food and nutrition for low-income people through state formula and discretionary grants.

Before final passage, Congress trimmed $1.4 billion in popular health, job training, and education programs from the $602 billion Labor-HHS-Education measure, then added a one percent across-the-board cut on all domestic discretionary programs, effectively doubling the reductions. The across-the-board cuts will be applied to several food and nutrition programs that had escaped direct reductions in other appropriations bills, including the WIC Program, Elderly Nutrition Program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and storage and distribution funds for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

Although CFNP was not funded for fiscal year 2006, the program’s authorizing language was left intact. Consequently, “efforts to secure funding for [the CFNP in] FY 2007 are expected to begin very early in 2006,” according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. Elimination of CFNP funding for federal fiscal year 2006 will not affect projects already in operation with fiscal year 2005 funds.

Low-Income Programs Cut as Budget Bill Advances

With Vice President Dick Cheney on hand to cast a tie-breaking vote, the U.S. Senate passed a budget reconciliation bill on December 21, 2005 that will reduce spending on entitlement programs by $39.7 billion over the next five years. Although nutrition assistance programs were not affected directly in the deficit reduction scheme, significant cuts to health care services under Medicaid and Medicare, child support enforcement, welfare programs, and student loans will impact low-income households.

Although the House had endorsed the bill and recessed for the year earlier that week, procedural changes inserted by Senate Democrats will delay final enactment until early in 2006 and require the lower chamber to consider the bill again. The legislation squeaked through the House on a 212-206 vote in the early morning hours of December 19.

The budget plan was essentially a Republican document; no Democrat in either the House or the Senate backed the budget cuts. And dissidents from both parties criticized the bill, which will reduce spending by less than one-half of one percent from a projected $14.3 trillion in federal outlays over the next five years. This is “a cynical piece of legislation that punishes our most vulnerable citizens,” stated Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). “It’s very disappointing that Congressional leaders would decide to cut health care benefits and coverage to children, while imposing a greater cost-sharing burden on the poor, disabled, and elderly,” added Jeff Bingaman, a Democratic Senator from New Mexico.

Cities Record Hunger Increases

Requests for emergency food assistance increased in major U.S. cities by an average of 12 percent during 2005 in more than three-quarters of cities surveyed, according to the annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), released on December 19, 2005. In the 24 cities supplying data, 18 percent of requests for emergency food assistance went unmet, with food providers in 43 percent of the cities saying they had to turn away people in need due to lack of resources.

In 10 of the survey cities, USCM found that emergency food request increases were in the double digit range: Louisville (41 percent); Charleston (35 percent); Detroit (30 percent); Providence (30 percent); Miami (28 percent); Los Angeles (25 percent); San Antonio (19 percent); Philadelphia (15 percent); Denver (14 percent); and Nashville (10 percent). Other cities taking part in the survey included: Boston, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Phoenix, Portland, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Seattle, and Trenton.

Other hunger-related findings:

• in 83 percent of cities, emergency food facilities had to decrease the number of bags of food provided or the number of times people could receive food;
• 54 percent of people requesting emergency food assistance were children and their parents;
• A full 40 percent of adults needing help were employed; and
• 86 percent of cities expect further increases in requests for food assistance in 2006.

To view the 105-page report, go to: http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/hh2005_121905.pdf.

Food Banks Tested by Hurricane Relief Efforts

Late summer Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma severely stressed emergency food networks in the Gulf Coast areas affected, with food banks reporting as much as a ten-fold increase in the amount of food distributed at the peak of the relief effort, according to a report from America’s Second Harvest (A2H) published on December 15, 2005.

“The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina … is unlike anything this country has seen,” claimed A2H, as was the “unprecedented response” that provided “more than 62 million pounds of food, accounting for 48.3 million meals and valued at an estimated $84 million” for a demand that was “shockingly high.”

The report looked at clients, who were “the poorest of the poor,” with more than 20 percent having household income below $10,000 and consisting of disproportionate numbers of children and African Americans, as well as helping agencies, many of which were “temporary disaster-relief programs,” since 41 percent of the usual service agencies in the region were closed or inoperable due to hurricane damage. A2H noted that demands for emergency food “remain 50 percent higher than before the disaster.”

For additional details, see: http://www.secondharvest.org/learn_about_hunger/katrina_rita_study.html.

Food Stamp Briefs

♣ Disasters drive caseload increases: Food stamp participation jumped by more than 1.77 million people – to 27.5 million overall – in September 2005, principally due to nutrition relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The four states most heavily impacted by the hurricane – Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi – accounted for more than 1.51 million of the increase. Georgia, Arkansas, and Florida also contributed significantly to the larger numbers, as they sheltered hurricane evacuees. Nationwide, ongoing stagnation of worker wages, state actions to improve program access, and the effects of implementing new policies arising from the program reauthorization earlier in the decade also fostered caseload growth.

♣ “Heat or Eat” dilemmas intensified by policy decision: Low-income households across the nation will face difficult choices this winter, as they decide how to allocate limited resources among medical, food, and rising energy costs. Partial relief by of increased food stamp benefits was eliminated as an option on December 9, 2005, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) denied a request from five states to adjust food stamp standard utility allowances (SUAs) for the coming months based on projected costs.

Kansas, Maine, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia had petitioned USDA to increase their SUAs, used to calculate benefit allotments, based on anticipated increases in heating costs. Approval of the SUA change would have given households in the program up to $30 more a month to spend on food.

Home heating costs are expected to skyrocket this season, with the federal Department of Energy projecting that natural gas prices will be 50 percent higher this year than last, while heating oil prices will jump 30 percent, propane 20 percent, and electricity 10 percent. However, USDA decreed that, “Basing standard utility allowances on estimates of future costs would result in benefit levels that are not contemplated in our current budget.”

The result is likely to be increased hardship and hunger for low-income families. The decision “will force people to choose between heat, medicine, and food,” stated James Weill of the Food Research and Action Center. “We know that people will eat less, and it will have particularly damaging effects on kids, especially poor kids,” Weill added. For background, see the policy paper from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. at: http://www.cbpp.org/12-14-05fa.htm.

♣ New York appeal approved: Not satisfied with USDA’s initial decision on the SUA, the State of New York contested the policy and won a reprieve on the second round, establishing a new, annualized SUA. As a result, food stamp participants in New York will get a monthly increase in benefits of about $10. “This increase will help some of our most vulnerable residents stretch their food budget just a bit further at a time when they can use all the financial help they can get,” said Russell Sykes, an official with the state’s food stamp agency. “This request was clearly warranted under the circumstances.”

Obesity Round-Up

• School policies affect student weight gains: Researchers from the University of Minnesota have uncovered an association between body mass index (BMI) in adolescents and schoolwide practices such as the use of food in fundraising incentives and classroom rewards, according to an article published in the December 2005 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Collecting height and weight data from over 3,000 eighth-grade students and school policies from 16 middle schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, investigators found a correlation between student weight gain and the extent to which schools engaged in using food as an classroom incentive or reward or in in-school fundraising campaigns.

Students’ BMI increased 10 percent for every additional food practice permitted in their school, leading the researchers to conclude that: “Schoolwide food practices that supported frequent snacking and the consumption of foods and beverages high in calories and low in nutrients by students throughout the school day were common and adversely associated with body mass index of the students. Prevention of overweight in childhood must include attention to the nutrition integrity of schools, and school nutrition policies that consistently support and promote healthy dietary practices among young adolescents are urgently needed.”

To learn more, see: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/159/12/1111.

• States ranked for better health: In spite of the preceding item, Minnesota has been listed as the healthiest state in the nation in 2005, according to the United Health Foundation’s annual Health Rankings. The rankings looked at a number of factors, including prevalence of obesity, percentage of children in poverty, infant mortality rate, motor vehicle deaths, cardiovascular death rates, prevalence of smoking, and high school graduation rate.

Other states in the top five were: Vermont, Utah, Hawaii, and North Dakota. The most unhealthy states were Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

To find out more, go to: http://www.unitedhealthfoundation.org/shr2005/Findings.html.

• New Year’s changes for food labels: Revised federal requirements for labels on packaged foods took effect on January 1, 2006, with new information mandated on trans fat and food allergies. Trans fat, which occurs naturally in animal-based and processed foods, has been found to increase “bad” cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, so the amount per serving now must be included on the label. The presence of eight major allergens in foods – tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat – must also now be noted to prevent allergic reactions.

School Food News and Notes

• School Breakfast Gains Noted: The number of children participating in the School Breakfast Program rose to record levels in the 2004-2005 school year, but still reached only 44 percent of low-income children who eat lunch at school, according to a December 13, 2005 report from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C.

A total of 7.5 million children received a free or reduced price breakfast last year, a 5.3 percent increase over the previous year and the largest increase in a decade. In all, an average of 9.2 million children ate a daily breakfast at school in 2004-2005, when middle and upper income kids were added to the count. However, only 81 percent of schools offered a breakfast program.

“No child should have to start the school day hungry to learn, but unable to do so because of a hungry stomach,” said FRAC president James Weill upon releasing the organization’s annual School Breakfast Scorecard. “The states and schools that are leaving millions of hungry children behind need to act now.” For further information on school breakfast and state-by-state performance, go to: http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/12.13.05.html.

• New meal guidelines in L.A.: The Board for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest in the nation after New York City, voted unanimously on December 13, 2005 to implement comprehensive, district-wide, healthy school food policies. Since 77 percent of the student population is low-income and eats nearly half their weekly meals at school, the changes should have a significant impact on the almost 350,000 children who eat lunch daily at LAUSD schools.

The District, which banned sodas in 2002 and ended junk food sales in 2004, will be taking another huge step by reducing sodium, sugar, and fat in cafeteria foods, posting nutritional information on what is served, making sure lunch is served at an “appropriate” time (lunch periods now start at 10:30 a.m. and go well into the afternoon), seeking partnerships with chefs, and involving students in menu planning.

“It’s ironic that those kids who could suffer from hunger are the same group who can be at risk of obesity because they don’t have enough access to fruits and vegetables,” said Board president Marlene Canter, who sponsored the motion to revise the meal policies. “It is especially incumbent on us to serve the healthiest food we can,” Canter added. “The time for change is now.”

• Rural transportation funded for summer food: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided multi-year grant funds for five states to explore innovative approaches to addressing limited transportation resources in rural areas for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). A total of $4 million was awarded in December 2005 to Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia for three-year projects that will test new ways of transporting food to children or children to the food. USDA anticipates that the pilot efforts will aid some 18,000 children in getting summer meals at more than 265 rural sites. For additional information, see: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1RD?printable=true&contentidonly=true&contentid=2005/12/0550.xml.

Reports from the Field

• From the December 2, 2005 PR Newswire comes the following account about hunger in Boston, MA:

“Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline, a toll-free statewide service that connects people with food resources in their town, received more calls this Thanksgiving than ever before, resulting in 2,715 holiday referrals to food distribution sites, an 11 percent increase over last year.

“The fact that we’re running out of food before Thanksgiving gives us all pause,” said Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread. “The emergency food programs are working harder than ever to meet a need that is larger than ever before. And we know that this will just get worse as it gets colder. Our pantries need help.”

“It was sad to see so many people in line, asking for food,” said Gina Maniscalco, Project Bread’s director of corporate relations, after helping to give away 1,100 holiday meals in Mattapan. “It makes you feel good to be able to do something for them. But it’s heartbreaking to see elderly people, standing out in the cold, waiting for a holiday meal just because they can’t both heat and eat this season.”

“Emergency food programs are no longer just serving the homeless or the family that is suddenly out of work,” said Ms. Parker. “They are setting places for the working poor, for seniors, for teens, because they or their families cannot manage the cost of living in Massachusetts. This has our resources stretched to the limit.”

• The Indianapolis Star in Indianapolis, IN carried the following observations in a December 5, 2005 column:

”If you want to see what hunger looks like, just visit my community center on a Monday morning,” said the Rev. Jay Height, who operates a faith-based community center in Indianapolis. “For most of the kids we serve, the last meal they eat is the snack we provide during our after-school program on Friday afternoon. Many of them will not have anything to eat over the weekend. You should see how they just inhale bowls of cereal on Monday morning.”

The number of Hoosiers enrolling for food stamps increased by nearly 75 percent during the first half of this decade….And according to Pam Altmeyer, executive director of Gleaners Food Bank, the food stamp statistics do not tell the entire story. “Yes, there are more people on food stamps,” Altmeyer said, “but there also are more people who no longer qualify for food stamps but still need food assistance, even though they’re working.”

• From next door to President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, the Waco Tribune reported on December 6, 2005 that:

“During the past year, local food pantry officials noticed a troublesome trend – instead of feeding only people who need help during emergencies, they also are supplementing the food supply of the working poor.”

”The phenomenon has strained resources, officials say, as pantries try to help both the newly hungry and the perpetually undernourished.”

• In its December 26, 2005 edition, the Chicago Tribune examined the struggles facing food banks nationwide:

“In cities from coast to coast, food bank operators are reporting that food and cash donations are down and the need is up.”

“In New York, some food pantry shelves are bare, a situation never seen before by 15-year employees. Food donations are off about a million pounds in a city that normally deals with 67 million pounds a year.”

“In Los Angeles, food donations are down 125 truckloads – five million pounds less than the typical 45 million pounds a year.”

“Almost certainly, the key cause of the worsening of the situation was weakness in the economy for the bottom half of American wage earners,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks.”

Small Bites

• But still not as popular as duck gizzards: As its global soda sales declined, Pepsi turned to snack food production abroad in the 1990s. The company now has nearly 40 percent of the growing potato chip market in China, catering to local tastes with varieties like green-tea flavored chips. But potato chip sales constitute only $50 million of the $3 billion-a-year Chinese snack industry in which duck gizzards are still a favorite.

• Rich, but not so generous: Working-age Americans with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 are up to six times more generous in sharing their investments with charities than taxpayers with incomes between $500,000 and $10 million, according to IRS data analyzed by the NewTithing Group in San Francisco. The former sector donates 2.5 percent of their assets versus 0.4 percent for the millionaires.

• Wide load: Automakers are responding to America’s growing girth. Seats in the 2006 Honda Civic are three-quarters of an inch wider than last year’s models. Mercedes and Subaru are widening their benches a half inch, since the average American male got 27 pounds heavier and an inch and a half wider in the hips between 1962 and 2000.

• Cheap labor; cheap food: According to the federal Bureau of labor statistics some two million Americans – 2.7 percent of the workforce – earned the minimum wage or less in 2004. About 60 percent of all workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage worked in restaurants or bars.

• Not so fresh: Americans’ use of at least one fresh product in main meals prepared at home declined between 1985 and 2005 from 56 percent to 46 percent.

• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Eighty percent of U.S. products are used once, then thrown away.

mvauthier :: Jan.06.2006 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post

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