TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - March 3, 2006

In this issue:

· Fiscal 2007 Budget and Appropriations Processes Get Underway
· Proposed Elimination of Commodity Program Questioned
· Wal-Mart Tests Alternative Help for Food Banks
· Food Bank Network Tallies 25 Million Served
· Food Program Spending Continues Record Growth
· Food Donation Tax Incentive Still in Play
· TEFAP Commodity Updates
· Funding Opportunities
· 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.

There is no copyright on Foodlinks America, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. To receive the newsletter directly, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@281.com.

Fiscal 2007 Budget and Appropriations Processes Get Underway

The wheels of government that annually churn out budget and spending plans have begun to turn. President Bush released his fiscal year 2007 budget in early February and congressional committees have begun looking for places to cut next year. Nutrition assistance programs remain vulnerable and may be affected not only by the normal budget and appropriations processes, but by possible consideration of a new Farm Bill this year.

Budget committees are again looking to reduce mandatory spending in a $90 billion agricultural appropriations bill. In the recently completed five-year budget deal, which got a bare majority in Congress, agriculture programs were cut $2.7 billion, though food programs were exempted. However, next time around, the more than $50 billion in annual mandatory food program spending will be a big target.

Democrats have been unanimous in decrying agriculture and human services cuts. “Only Republicans in Washington could claim that they reduced the budget deficit while spending more money than they cut,” observed Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD). “This type of fuzzy math is misleading and is a classic case of Robin Hood in reverse: robbing the poor to give to the rich. It is morally bankrupt to enact capital gains tax cuts on the backs of needy Americans trying to pay medical costs, student loans, and food stamps.”

Even Republicans have been reluctant to further reduce agriculture spending. The House Agriculture Committee, in a February 16, 2006 letter to the Budget Committee, rejected any more cuts. Key members of the Senate were also hesitant. “Knowing the difficulty last year we had trying to achieve savings, we just simply think it’s not possible to achieve savings at the mandatory programs in agriculture in the next budget year,” Senate Agriculture Committee chair Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) told anti-hunger advocates on February 28.

“We’re going to be writing the Farm Bill next year,” added Chambliss. “Next year is the time to look at what savings might be achieved.” The Farm Bill is a broad-based piece of legislation that establishes government policies for crop payments and subsidies as well as for conservation, rural development, forestry, agricultural research, farm credit, and food assistance. With nearly half of all U.S. agricultural production exported, trade and food aid decisions are also key components of the Farm Bill.

The last Farm Bill, passed in 2002, will expire at the end of 2007. Some agricultural interests are calling for new legislation this year, but world trade talks currently being negotiated may significantly affect agricultural tariffs and farm subsidies that are encompassed by the Farm Bill. Food assistance programs authorized in the Farm Bill are the Food Stamp Program and commodity distribution programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which the Bush Administration has proposed to eliminate next year (see story below).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has held hearings around the country in recent months to receive public input on proposed Farm Bill changes. Congressional committees have begun to hold their own field hearings – the House Agriculture Committee began in February and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry will likely hold hearings this summer.

Meanwhile, in the short term, Congress has started discussing fiscal year 2007 appropriations. Members of the House must submit funding priorities to appropriations subcommittees by March 16. The Republican leadership would like to approve next year’s spending bills by the end of May.

Proposed Elimination of Commodity Program Questioned

Program advocates and congressional staff are puzzled by the Bush Administration proposal to terminate funding next year for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), a move that would end the monthly distribution of food boxes to nearly half a million Americans, most of them elderly. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials claim the CSFP is duplicative of food stamp and WIC Program benefits.

“There are far more questions than answers when it comes to helping those now served by the CSFP transition to other programs,” Roger Szemraj, an expert on food programs and chief of staff for Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) told a national anti-hunger audience on February 26, 2006. “What evidence is there that the CSFP is duplicative? None,” he responded. “There is scant research on the CSFP overall and virtually none on the elderly component of the program.”

Szemraj noted that the CSFP food package is of significantly greater value than food stamps and the program offers a more generous benefit structure. When a recent food stamp pilot project in North Carolina offered seniors a commodity alternative to food stamps, the commodities proved much more popular. He also pointed out, as the program name implies, the CSFP does not provide a full diet. “How is a supplemental program duplicative?” he asked.

The CSFP operates in 32 states, the District of Columbia, and two Indian nations, but coverage is often limited within those jurisdictions. However, the CSFP is particularly important in Nebraska and New Hampshire where it is offered statewide. Barb Packett, who administers the CSFP in 93 counties for the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, points out that it is the only program that fills the gap for children who have lost their eligibility for WIC but have not started school where they have access to lunch programs. “The CSFP is important for continuity of services, especially for five-year-olds and postpartum non-lactating mothers who are terminated from WIC after six months,” Packett said.

Kathleen Devlin, who oversees the largest CSFP project in the state for Southern New Hampshire Services in Manchester, is worried about the elderly people who will lose the food benefit if the program is ended, and about her co-workers who would have to give their clients the bad news. “It would be really hard on the line staff,” Devlin said. “They have relationships with these people. It’s like telling your grandmother.”

Wal-Mart Tests Alternative Help for Food Banks

On the heels of the recent decision that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. would discontinue the direct donation of out-of-date and nearly expired products to food banks and other local charities, comes the announcement that the company has begun an in-store promotion to raise up to $10 million for food for the hungry in partnership with America’s Second Harvest (A2H), the national food bank network. The “Be A Part of the Solution To End Hunger” campaign will operate throughout March 2006 in all 3,800 of the chain’s Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores nationwide, A2H announced on March 2, 2006.

Wal-Mart customers will be able to purchase a “piece of the solution to end hunger” at check-out counters in company stores. Wal-Mart has said it will match the first $5 million raised through the effort and provide it to A2H to purchase the highest demand foods – including protein and produce – for the network. Some funds may also be allocated to the BackPack Program, which provides food for children to take home on weekends and over school vacations.

Wal-Mart revealed on January 5, 2006 that it would no longer donate food because of liability concerns, and that company stores would throw away the food instead. There is no national estimate of how much food Wal-Mart previously gave to local feeding programs, but a local food bank and gleaning organization in Sacramento reported that it alone received 25,000 pounds annually from Sam’s Club.

For more information, see: http://www.secondharvest.org/news_room/2006_News_Releases/030206.html

Food Bank Network Tallies 25 Million Served

More than 25 million Americans receive emergency food assistance each year from charities affiliated with America’s Second Harvest (A2H), the national food bank network. The total represents an eight percent increase since the organization’s last nationwide survey in 2001. Among those helped are an estimated nine million children and three million seniors.

A2H currently distributes more than two billion pounds of food per year through more than 200 food banks, 29,600 soup kitchens, 5,600 food pantries, and 4,100 emergency shelters, according to Hunger in America 2006, an A2H report released on February 23, 2006. The comprehensive report is based on 52,000 face-to-face interviews with emergency food clients and more than 30,000 agency surveys.

A2H findings include:

· 70 percent of emergency food clients live below the poverty line;
· Nearly 40 percent of households have at least one adult working;
· Clients are 39 percent white, 38 percent black, and 17 percent Hispanic;
· 65 percent of pantries and 40 percent of soup kitchens are all volunteer;
· Faith-based organizations run 75 percent of pantries, 65 percent of soup kitchens,
and 45 percent of emergency shelters; and
· A2H provides 74 percent of food distributed by pantries, 49 percent of food for
soup kitchens, and 42 percent of food for emergency shelters.

“Millions of Americans rely every month on the agencies we serve,” said A2H president Robert Forney, “and millions of others are living less than one paycheck away from hunger. It is tragic and alarming that more and more people are relying on emergency food assistance in the United States, where we produce enough food to feed every hungry person in the world,” Forney added.

To learn more, view the report at: http://www.secondharvest.org/news_room/2006_News_Releases/022306.html.

Food Program Spending Continues Record Growth

Spending for nutrition assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reached a record total of nearly $51 billion in fiscal year 2005, a ten percent increase over the previous year. “Most of the total increase in food assistance expenditures between fiscal 2004 and 2005 was caused by expansion of the Food Stamp Program,” noted USDA in its semi-annual Food Assistance Landscape – March 2006, “although each of the other four major programs expanded as well during fiscal 2005.”

Though USDA oversees 15 nutrition assistance programs, five of them account for 95 percent of total food assistance spending – food stamps, the National School Lunch Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the School Breakfast Program.

Food stamp spending was $31 billion last year, 61 percent of the USDA total. Program growth of 14 percent was fueled by both an increase in participation and an increase in the average benefit per person. Individuals got an average of $92.70 per month, an eight percent increase over fiscal 2004. School Breakfast was the second fastest growing program, with spending rising eight percent over the year. School Lunch spending grew by 4.8 percent, CACFP, 4.1 percent, and WIC expenditures were up 2.8 percent.

For additional information, go to: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB6-2/.

Food Donation Tax Incentive Still in Play

Legislation designed to encourage private donations of food to local hunger relief organizations across the country through changes in the tax code is once again under consideration for final passage. The bipartisan “Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Act,” introduced several times over the past five years by Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate and Richard Baker (R-LA) in the House, is included in the Senate version of the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (H.R. 4297), currently pending in Congress. H.R. 4297 is being deliberated for final passage in a House-Senate conference committee.

The Good Samaritan bill would expand the tax deduction for donated food for the needy to allow donors to claim the fair market value of the product, not to exceed twice the product’s cost or “basis.” H.R. 4297 would make the expanded deduction available to all business taxpayers, including farmers and small businesses. The bill would also codify a legal decision that the fair market value of donated food can be determined by the donor rather than the Internal Revenue Service.

The tax incentive is viewed by the emergency food community as one way to address the downward slide in private sector food donations in recent years. America’s Second Harvest, a national food bank network, estimates that enactment of the legislation will result in 878 million new meals for low-income individuals. For additional details on H.R. 4297, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.html and type in the bill number.

TEFAP Commodity Updates

· Hurricane Relief on Hold: Six million dollars in food and funds to help The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) provide aid to states affected by hurricanes last year had still not been allocated by the end of February, Cathie McCullough, director of the Food Distribution Division (FDD) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) told a national anti-hunger conference in Washington, D.C. on February 27. The funds were part of an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for hurricane assistance passed in December. McCullough said she did not know when the money would be available.

· Not got milk?: More than a billion pounds of surplus powdered milk has been given away by USDA in the last few years, leading to the announcement by FDD that they do not expect there to be any bonus offerings of nonfat dry milk for TEFAP in fiscal year 2006.

· Bonus getting harder to buy: Fewer surplus or bonus commodities in general will be made available to TEFAP this year for two reasons: less overproduction in agriculture and a policy change within USDA. The Office of the Chief Economist is now requiring the two agencies involved in commodity purchasing – the Agricultural Marketing Service and the Farm Service Agency – to provide additional documentation on the need to make a purchase of surplus production. “The bar has been raised,” noted McCullough. “The Chief Economist is ‘pushing back hard’ on allowing additional buys,” which may cause some crops to be lost. “If you wait until it’s harvested, it’s too late” she added.

Funding Opportunities

Funds for projects to investigate and ease hunger at the local level are available from four different public and private funding sources. Community organizations are eligible to apply. The funding opportunities are:

• The Great American Bake Sale, which encouraged individuals and families to sponsor bake sales in their communities to raise money to help end childhood hunger, is accepting grant applications from current sponsors of summer and afterschool meal programs for children that receive reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and from advocacy organizations that provide technical assistance to these programs. Grants will support efforts to increase participation in the feeding programs.

The Bake Sale, sponsored by Share Our Strength (SOS), a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and PARADE Magazine, offers grants of up to $15,000 in selected states. Applications are due by April 15, 2006. For application information, go to: http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org/site/PageServer.

• The Congressional Hunger Center (CHC) and Victory Wholesale Grocers of Springboro, OH and Boca Raton, FL have announced their annual Victory Against Hunger Awards for 2006. Fifteen unrestricted grants of $1,000 each will be presented to anti-hunger organizations, food banks, schools, state agencies, and nutrition and health groups who have been successful in responding to this year’s theme of “Fighting Hunger through Developing and/or Implementing Local and State School Meals Wellness Policies.”

Potential awardees may only be nominated by a member of the U.S. Congress. The Congressperson or Senator should send a one or two page letter to the CHC highlighting the nominee’s efforts in regard to wellness policies. Nominations will be received from April 10 through May 31, 2006. To learn more about the CHC, see: http://www.hungercenter.org/.

• The Risk Management Agency (RMA) within the USDA has announced the availability of $5 million for its Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program. The program supports collaborative outreach and assistance efforts targeted to women, limited resource, socially disadvantaged, and other traditionally-underserved farmers and ranchers. Educational institutions, community-based organizations, farmer associations, state departments of agriculture, and other non-profit groups are eligible for funds for one year projects. No maximum or minimum funding level has been established for the program. For more information, see the notice in the Federal Register of March 1, 2006 at: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-2861.pdf.

• A “Small Grants Program to Examine the Impact of Food Assistance on Nutrition” has been announced by the University of California at Davis with funding from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of USDA. The purpose of the program is to stimulate innovative research related to the impact of US food assistance programs on the nutrition of the target populations. Proposals may also address determinants of dietary and nutritional outcomes, particularly obesity, in the food assistance-eligible population. Applicants should also address the policy implications of their proposed research for domestic food assistance programs.
Grants of up to $35,000 are available and collaborations with institutions of higher education are encouraged. Letters of intent are due by April 3, 2006 and final proposals must be sent by May 1, 2006. To find out more about previous research funded through the small grants program, go to: http://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/usdaers/usdaerssum.html. For additional information on the 2006 program, contact: UCD-ERS Small Grants Program by phone at (530) 754-9651, by fax at (530) 752-8966; or by e-mail at: tjmcmurdo@ucdavis.edu.

Reports from the Field

• Emergency food providers in Lexington, KY already working hard to meet increased need, are also facing potentially devastating program cuts, as excerpts from this story in the February 13, 2006 Herald-Leader newspaper detail:

God’s Pantry Food Bank opened its sixth food pantry last week in the Cardinal Valley area in an effort to respond to what food bank officials say is an unprecedented demand for food.

Central Kentucky’s largest food bank has been looking for years for a food pantry location in the Cardinal Valley area, where the pantry has clients but no presence. Since last summer, the food bank has seen a 25 percent increase in demand for food across Fayette County, pantry officials said.

After months of searching, the pantry finally found a home at the new Brenda D. Cowan Center on Devonport Drive, near Alexandria Drive. The Cowan Center is named after Brenda Cowan, the Lexington firefighter who was killed in 2004. The pantry will be open Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m.

“This new pantry will allow us to meet the growing demand for service in the evening, as many clients work during the day or depend on rides to the pantry from family members or friends who are unavailable in the afternoon,” said Marian Blanchard, executive director of God’s Pantry.

While struggling to find more space and funding for a growing demand for food, the pantry is also bracing for a possible cut to another program that serves more than 5,600 senior citizens in its 49-county service area.

President Bush has not included money in his 2007 budget for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides seniors and some low-income women and children with a once-a-month box of food staples such as dairy products, cereal and fruit juice.

If Congress approves Bush’s budget, more than 500,000 seniors nationwide, including 15,000 in Kentucky, will lose the supplement.

Herbert Shelton, a Lexington senior citizen, receives a 35- to 40-pound parcel that contains cheese, milk, peanut butter, canned juice, cereal and potatoes once a month.

“It fills in the blanks that you don’t have to get at the store,” Shelton said.

More than 20 of Shelton’s neighbors at Malabu Manor also receive the monthly food package, he said.

According to documents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the government thinks senior citizens who qualify for the program will be eligible for food stamps.

But Shelton and others say they don’t think seniors will apply for food stamps.

Sophrina Story of the Licking Valley Community Action Program in Flemingsburg said most of the 372 seniors currently receiving the commodities through the community action program view food stamps as a hand-out.

“Most of these people worked,” Story said. “A lot of seniors won’t come in and ask for services. They would rather go without food or have their heat turned off.”

• A brief article in The Washington Post of February 26, 2006 reported the following about emergency food needs in Washington, D.C.:

The Capital Area Food Bank served more than 383,000 people last year, a 39 percent increase over 2001, officials said.

Nearly half of those served had jobs, said Kasandra Gunter Robinson, a spokeswoman for the food bank. Rising housing costs have cut into family budgets, she said. “It’s the working poor who are struggling,” Robinson said.

• Another Capital Area Food Bank, this one in Austin, Texas, released a comprehensive study on hunger in Central Texas on March 2, 2006 documenting its efforts to feed 35,000 people a day and the growing need for food for children.

Under the headline, “Food bank helps thousands of kids,” with a three-column picture of an eight-year-old girl eating spaghetti captioned, “Face of Central Texas hunger is awfully young,” the Austin American-Statesman reported that 35 percent of the food bank’s clients are children. “I think that one of the biggest surprises is that one out of three people receiving our food is a child,” said food bank chief operating officer Michael Guerra. “It’s amazing.”

“So many people think the face of hunger is homelessness,” said Guerra. “But really, many are working.” Study results showed that 43 percent of households receiving food had at least one employed adult, but that almost half (49 percent) of those surveyed said they had to choose between paying for utilities and buying food.

Small Bites

The odds are with them: French psychologists report their research shows that people are more likely to buy pancakes if their price ends in a nine than in a zero, even if they had to pay only a penny more.

Dietary time savers: Among the top five most popular ways that Americans save time, according to a USA Today survey, are “eating fast food” at number three (43 percent of respondents) and “eating frozen meals” at number five (38 percent). Number one, at 55 percent, was “ignoring a dirty house.”

More time saved: The annual number of main meals skipped per person in the U.S. went from 102 in 1985 to 114 in 2005.

Hamburger and fries: The number one entrée ordered by men in America is a hamburger. For women, hamburgers are number two; French fries are number one.

Food and drink: Nearly 40 percent of Americans over 21 include alcohol with their dinner when they dine out over the weekend. During the week, it’s 34 percent.

Drink and food: Ordering an alcoholic drink not only increases the cost of a meal but also the amount of food consumed. A national survey found deserts were ordered more often when someone had wine with the meal.

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