Foodlinks America - July 3, 2009
Foodlinks America - July 3, 2009
In this issue:
• Fiscal 2010 Appropriations Measures on Track
• SNAP Participation Record Broken Again
• Proposed Legislation
• Government Study Assesses the Impact of Food Deserts
• Farmers’ Market Matters
• Reports from the Field – Oakland, CA
• Small Bites
Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 122 South Main Street, No. 9, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.
Foodlinks America is not copyrighted, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.
Taking A Summer Break
In keeping with its publication schedule of 24 times per year, Foodlinks America will be taking a summer break this month. Our next issue will be July 31, 2009.
Fiscal 2010 Appropriations Measures on Track
Congressional Democrats are sticking to their timetable for finishing fiscal year 2010 appropriations well before the October 1 start of the new fiscal year. The House leadership is hoping to make decisions on next year’s funding before the summer break. On-time completion of the appropriations process would help nutrition assistance programs plan and operate without funding delays.
Fiscal 2010 appropriations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where most food programs are housed, were approved by the full Appropriations Committee on June 18 and are to be considered on the House floor on July 8. The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to begin its review of the bill that same day.
In urging his colleagues to take action early this month, House Appropriations Committee chair David Obey (D-WI) noted that, “This schedule would allow the House to complete action on all Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations Bills before the August Recess. It is an ambitious schedule, but it is workable if we all work together and if other crucial considerations do not intervene.”
Highlights of the Agriculture Committee bill include:
*Expansion of the Afterschool Meal or Supper program under the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to two new jurisdictions – CT and DC;
*Record funding for the WIC Program at $7.541 billion in order to reach 10.1 million women and children;
*SNAP/food stamp funding of $63.6 billion, along with an initiative to improve elderly participation;
*Funding of $180 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), enough to allow for start-up in six new states – AR, DE, GA, NJ, OK, and UT;
*A total of $74.5 million in storage and distribution funds for the distribution of government commodities under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP);
*Support to purchase $253.3 million in TEFAP commodities; and
*Funding of a new Food Bank Infrastructure Grant Program at $5 million.
SNAP Participation Record Broken Again
As the nation’s economic troubles continued to worsen, record numbers of Americans are turning to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help meet household food needs. In March 2009, a total of 33,156,745 people participated in the program, the highest level on record, besting February’s high by nearly 600,000. More than one in ten Americans is now getting SNAP/food stamp benefits.
All states reported an increase in caseload between March 2008 and March 2009. During that 12-month period, participation grew by more than 5.2 million individuals. Eleven states saw their numbers grow by more than 25 percent – Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Florida, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, and Maryland.
Proposed Legislation
Among bills recently introduced in the 111th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:
House Resolution (H.R.) 3100: Introduced by Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL) and 13 co-sponsors, this legislation would establish a Food Desert Oasis Pilot Program.
Senate (S.) 1293: Introduced by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) and two co-sponsors, the Enhancing Child Health with Automatic School Meal Enrollment Act would improve automatic enrollment procedures for the national school lunch and breakfast programs.
S. 1313: Introduced by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and five bipartisan co-sponsors, the Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Extension Act would amend the Internal Revenue Code to permanently extend and expand the charitable deduction for contributors of food inventory.
S. 1343: Introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and two co-sponsors, the Hunger Free Schools Act would improve and expand direct certification procedures for the national school lunch and breakfast programs.
For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/ and enter the bill number.
Government Study Assesses the Impact of Food Deserts
In last year’s Farm Bill, Congress directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to examine the connections between food availability and health. In particular, legislators wanted to know how Americans, particularly those with low-incomes, gain access to food that is both nutritious and affordable to help address obesity and diet-related diseases. A just-released report on “food deserts” provides significant new information on the extent of the problem.
Although “Access to a supermarket or large grocery store is a problem for a small percentage of households,” concluded USDA’s Economic Research Service, millions of people are affected. In total, some 11.5 million people live in low-income areas more than a mile from a supermarket. Among those are about 2.3 million people who live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have a vehicle, according to Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food – Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: A Report to Congress.
Among other key findings in the 160-page document are:
*Supermarkets and large grocery stores have lower prices than smaller stores;
*Low-income households shop where food prices are lower, when they can;
*Easy access to all food, rather than lack of access to specific, healthy foods, may be a more important factor in explaining increases in obesity;
*Understanding the market conditions that contribute to differences in access to food is critical to the design of policy interventions that may be effective in reducing access limitations;
*Food has been used as a tool for community development; and
*The current state of research is insufficient to conclusively determine whether some areas with limited access have inadequate access.
The study includes chapters looking at the relationship between diet and health outcomes, access and food choice, and the economics of food store location. The report also takes a closer look at the USDA’s Community Food Projects program, which fosters food system changes at the local level as a means of providing healthier food to low-income people.
To view the report, go to: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/AP/AP036/.
Farmers’ Market Matters
National survey offers market details: Updated information on the structure and operation of farmers’ markets throughout the U.S. is now available in a new report form the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The National Farmers’ Market Managers Survey – 2006 is AMS’ periodic update of market activities, this one based on information gathered in 2005.
The report presents data from seven different regions around the nation. It looks at such information as the number of vendors, the number of customers, the age of the market, the types of goods sold, and more, including an analysis of the factors that contributed to the success of the markets. The survey also questioned market managers about the assistance they need; the most common request was for help with advertising and publicity, according to AMS.
Average sales at farmers’ markets in 2005 totaled about $245,000; average annual sales per vendor totaled $7,108. Marketing opportunities at farmers’ markets were sufficiently favorable in 2005 so that, on average, 25 percent of vendors from surveyed farmers markets relied on these markets as their sole source of farm-based income. For additional information, see:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5077203&acct=wdmgeninfo.
New market opportunities in WIC examined: With the addition of fruits and vegetables to the revised WIC food package this fall, farmers’ markets can increase sales to low-income women and children beyond the current Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) and a new report from the Community Food Security Coalition examines how this can be done.
State Implementation of the New WIC Produce Package: Opportunities and Barriers for WIC Clients to Uses Their Benefits at Farmers’ Markets is a 21-page report that provides general background on the new WIC rules, a primer on the differences between WIC produce purchases and the FMNP, an overview of state survey data and implementation of the new produce provisions, and policy recommendations. To learn more, go to:
http://www.foodsecurity.org/pub/WIC-FarmesMarketReport.pdf.
Marketing campaign announced: USDA and the national Farmers’ Market Coalition will be increasing publicity for markets with their “Markets Are Up” initiative next month, centered around National Farmers’ Market Week, scheduled for August 2-8, 2009. The campaign will offer market promoters prepared advertisements, posters, mailers, postcards, and other materials to help them publicize local markets. For details, see: http://www.farmersmarketcoalition.org/membership/.
Reports from the Field – Oakland, CA
Many Americans enjoy the bounty of summer and fall with fresh fruit from the trees in their yard. But what is outside the yard may be fair game for others, including those helping to feed the poor, as the following article from The New York Times of June 10, 2009 explains:
The loquats were ripe and just begging to be picked. But there was a problem. Although the tree was planted on private property, the loaded branches hung over the street. Did that make the fruit public property?
In the end, with no one around to ask, Asiya Wadud decided the answer was yes. So she added them to a bag already heavy with Meyer lemons picked (with permission) from a yard a few blocks away. Then she headed off to check on some plum trees.
It was just another day of urban fruit foraging for Ms. Wadud, one of a growing number of people who looked around their cities, saw trees full of fruit and thought, “Delicious.”
A year and a half ago, Ms. Wadud, who studied urban sociology in college and bartended at Chez Panisse, began organizing a little neighborhood fruit exchange called Forage Oakland. She did it as much to build neighborhood relations as to get her hands on some of that fruit.
It works simply. A woman with a yard full of lemon trees, say, can share her bounty in exchange for a paper bag full of someone else’s persimmons when they come into season. So far, 200 people have signed up.
All over the country, the underground fruit economy is growing. At new Web sites like neighborhoodfruit.com and veggietrader.com, fruit seekers can find public mulberry patches in Pennsylvania and neighbors willing to trade blackberries in Oklahoma. In Royal Oak, Mich., a woman investigated how to start a fruit exchange modeled after Fallen Fruit (fallenfruit.org), an arts group that designs maps of accessible fruit growing in Los Angeles neighborhoods.
In Alaska, cooks used Facebook to find willing donors of backyard rhubarb, the first dessert crop that grows after the long winter. In Columbia, S.C., university students pulled spare peaches from orchards and donated them to a local food bank.
Supporters of this movement hold two basic principles. One, it’s a shame to let fruit go to waste. And two, neighborhood fruit tastes best when it’s free.
“There have always been people harvesting fallen fruit,” Ms. Wadud said, “but there’s a whole new counterculture about gathering and eating public fruit. This tremendous resource is growing everywhere if people just start looking around.”
Jennifer Perillo, a mother and food writer who lives in Brooklyn, became an accidental neighborhood fruit forager last summer. She was driving to her mother’s house in Bensonhurst when she saw vibrant red balls hanging from a tree in someone’s yard. Cherries! She saw a peach tree, too, and leaned over a fence for a sample. The owner was none too happy, but when she explained that she only wanted her children to taste a fresh Brooklyn peach, he gave her half a dozen.
Then she started looking for fruit in her own neighborhood, Carroll Gardens, finding apricots and figs in abundance. “Honestly, for years I walked around the neighborhood in my own world and I never noticed all of this before,” she said.
Three years ago, Katy Kolker had a similar experience in her northeast Portland, OR, neighborhood. Fruit was going to waste, and she decided to do something about it. She and some friends went to the home of a woman who had planted apple trees 30 years before, but was too old to pick them. They gathered nearly 200 pounds, gave some to the woman and went back to prune her trees.
That apple adventure inspired the Portland Fruit Tree Project, a database of more than 300 trees, each registered by the owner, who promises to call about two weeks before the fruit is ripe to arrange a harvest.
“A family can only really eat 20 pounds of fresh apples or so before they cry uncle,” Ms. Kolker said. “A fruit tree is really made for sharing with your neighborhood.” This year, 20 picking parties are planned. Half the fruit goes to the people who pick, and half to a local food bank. Ms. Kolker reserves half of the dozen slots at each picking party for low-income people.
Hynden Walch, a voice-over actress for animated films, put together a more modest fruit program in her Los Angeles neighborhood. “I would walk up in the hills where I live and I would see all this incredible food just dying on the tree and rolling down the hill,” she said. Plus, her own seven fruit trees were going unpicked, which was an embarrassment. Last August, she sent an e-mail message to her neighbors asking them to drop extra fruit and garden bounty at her house, where she would divide it up and give everyone back a bagful.
Since then, membership in her little Hillside Produce Co-operative has doubled, and other neighborhoods are copying her. She recently filled bags with lemons, oranges, grapefruits, kumquats and loquat jam. The jam came from a chef who didn’t have fruit but had skills.
“Everyone’s contribution weighs the same,” she said. “A fig will get you a bag. In my gigantic idealism, where money isn’t the center of the universe, this is a small way I can right the balance of the world.”
For cooks, like Samin Nosrat, a cook at the restaurant Eccolo in Berkeley, free fruit is like a little kitchen miracle. She sneaks grape leaves to wrap sardines. Once, she stumbled upon so many fallen green walnuts on a sidewalk that she piled a bunch into a blanket she retrieved from her car, and made nocino, a walnut liqueur. Ms. Nosrat calls it opportunistic cooking, which she means in the best way. “It’s cooking from nothing,” she said.
As with content on the Internet, though, not everybody believes that fruit wants to be free. Danila Oder, who works at a hospital in Los Angeles, learned that lesson a few years ago when she wrote a list of tips on making public fruit tree maps for Fallen Fruit. A woman whose tree was included on one of the maps was furious that people were raiding her trees, even though some of her fruit was hanging over public space, making it legal to pick under California law.
Since then, Ms. Oder has wrestled with the issues of fairness and legality, which can vary by state and neighborhood. She has come to see that not everybody is respectful when it comes to the civic sharing of public fruit. “If you let everyone know who’s got extra food, someone is going to break in or go over the fence,” she said.
Then there is the debate over whether money should be made from spare backyard fruit. Two new Web sites are trying to find a balance. The thousands of people who have registered on veggietrader.com can choose to swap or sell their backyard garden’s overflow, Craigslist style. Neighborhoodfruit.com offers a swapping system and lists 5,000 public fruit trees around the country. The founders are considering charging a $4 finder’s fee for people who want to use the site, said Kaytea Petro, who helped start the project.
That sum could help pay for the Web site but still be affordable for people with low incomes, who might be able to sell pies or other items made with the fruit. The fee would be waived for people who give fruit away. They might even add a V.I.P. service for “the super-fancy Slow Food people who really like the idea of extremely local food but don’t have time to go get it,” she said.
Of course, there are legal considerations. So the founders carefully worded their site user agreement. “If they register a tree with malicious intent, then they are liable,” Ms. Petro said.
Some money-for-fruit models are less ambitious. Jennifer Fisher, a stockbroker, sells the Santa Rosa plums that proliferate in her Berkeley backyard. “It became this big ordeal to give away my plums every year,” she said. She decided to set out a table of paper bags each holding a generous pound of plums. Next to them was a box where people could drop in a dollar per bag.
Last summer, she made $75, including the dollar she charged parents who wanted their three children to pick the fruit themselves. It’s not about the money, Ms. Fisher maintains. She just wants to make sure the plums go to people who really care about fruit. “You could just give them away,” she said, “but if you sell them for a dollar a pound you know people are using them.”
Small Bites
The basis of obese: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the ubiquitous liquid sweetener, accounts for 10 percent of all calories in the U.S. diet.
Spoon-fed sweets: The average American ingests 17 teaspoons of HFCS daily.
Sugar substitution: In 1975, the average American consumed 70 pounds of sugar and four pounds of HFCS; by 2009 that had changed to 39 pounds of sugar and 45 pounds of HFCS.
Taking more than our share of water: Americans use twice as much water as others in the world and, moreover, that use has tripled in the last 50 years.
Water footprints being traced: The average person in the developed world drinks a gallon of water a day, but “eats” another 800 gallons.
Food needs water: It takes a gallon of water to produce one almond; 25 gallons of water to grow a cantaloupe; and 55 gallons to make a pound of tomato paste.
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