TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - June 9, 2006

In this issue:

· Government Chicken Purchases Short-circuited
· No Money for CFNP as Human Services Funding Bill Begins to Move
· A Hunger Success Story Out West
· Fruit and Vegetable News
· Obesity Round-Up
· Reports from the Field
· Bonus Raspberries to be Bought
· Small Bites

Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@281.com.

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 the newsletter, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@281.com.

Government Chicken Purchases Short-circuited

Expectations that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would supply large quantities of chicken to emergency feeding organizations this spring and summer were dashed when chicken prices rose unexpectedly at the end of May 2006 – reportedly due to a combination of renewed export demand and a large industry donation to charity. As a result, USDA officials are now offering emergency feeders only a fraction of the chicken they had hoped to buy and it will not arrive until later in the summer.

Avian flu concerns contributed to a drop in the price of bulk chicken leg quarters, which fell from 48.3 cents per pound in September 2005 to as low as 12.3 cents per pound at the end of March 2006. Crying foul as commercial storage quantities grew, the poultry industry asked USDA to purchase chicken as a bonus item for federal food programs. USDA surveyed state food distribution agencies asking how much chicken they would accept for distribution to the needy, noting that some of the packaging, originally intended for the export market, might be labeled in Chinese or Russian.

Based on orders from the states, USDA announced on April 19, 2006 its intent to purchase $32.5 million in leg quarters for distribution through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and other programs. Deliveries to states were expected to start in mid-May, and state and local emergency food providers began clearing out their freezers for a glut of frozen chicken.

However, the procurement process broke down. Industry response to USDA’s May 1 invitation to bid on supplying chicken to TEFAP was anemic and high-priced. On May 10, USDA said it was buying only $2.5 million worth of chicken, at a cost of as much as 33 cents per pound, though the Department was still telling states that, “The amount of bonus chicken to be distributed is so large that we will not be able to move the entire amount through TEFAP outlets,” and other end users are needed.

USDA issued six more invitations to bid on chicken during May 2006, but offers stayed at around 34 cents per pound and quantities available at that price remained relatively small. On May 26, 2006, the Department informed states that, “It looks like due to quantities offered and price considerations, USDA has been unable to purchase sufficient quantities for a nationwide distribution of the bonus chicken.” By early June, USDA had spent only $12 million of the more than $32 million available and the chicken that was purchased would not arrive until July.

According to USDA, “a recovery of export demand” drove the rise in prices. However, a big donation by the nation’s largest chicken processor also reduced commercial stockpiles and aided the price recovery. Tyson’s Foods announced, also on May 10, that it would donate six million pounds of chicken to America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank network. Though many Second Harvest members distribute TEFAP foods, the two networks do not always overlap.

As quantities of chicken available fell to only 20 percent of TEFAP requests and emergency feeding organizations lamented the sudden cancellation of chicken orders, state TEFAP administrators were left to wonder if there was a connection between the Tyson’s donation and USDA’s inability to purchase chicken. “All of a sudden, if you take six million pounds off the market, don’t you think it will have an effect?” said Randy Marz, who runs TEFAP for the Maine Department of Agriculture.

No Money for CFNP as Human Services Funding Bill Begins to Move

House appropriators failed to provide funding to re-establish the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP) next year, as they acted on fiscal year 2007 appropriations for labor, health and human services (HHS), and education programs in a June 7, 2006 session. A House Appropriations subcommittee approved nearly $142 billion in discretionary spending next year, an increase of less than one percent over 2006.

The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill is important for food programs, as it authorizes funds for elderly nutrition services and, in the recent past, the CFNP. However, the low growth approach meant that many programs, if supported at all, received level funding, including low-income home energy assistance and elderly nutrition. The subcommittee allotted $389 million for congregate meals next year and $183 million for home-delivered meals. Both figures reflect tiny increases over current funding.

No funds were provided for the CFNP, last funded in fiscal year 2005 at $7.2 million. The House bill also takes a big swipe at the larger Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), under which CFNP was housed, proposing a cut of $200 million from this year’s $630 million total. The bill now moves to the full Appropriations Committee level

A Hunger Success Story Out West

Hunger among Oregonians dropped significantly in the past five years, according to a report released on May 17, 2006 by Oregon State University (OSU). “The overall rate of hunger has fallen from 5.2 percent, which was the highest in the nation at the beginning of this decade, to 3.7 percent, much closer to the national average,” said OSU researchers, who compared 1999-2001 data with that from 2002-2004.

“The hunger decline since 2000 was pervasive, across social categories, but non-metropolitan counties saw greater improvements than metro counties,” the report noted. Hunger fell among 11 of 12 analytical categories. Only among single mother households did the hunger rate remain constant. The largest declines in hunger were among: unemployed families, households in rural areas, two-parent households, and female-headed households where a woman was working in the service sector.

The apparent cause of the success: wider use of the Food Stamp Program. “Determining why Oregon’s hunger rate decreased – at a time when the national rate was rising – is more difficult to nail down,” said OSU sociology professor Mark Edwards, the lead researcher. “But it appears to me that a doubling in the number of food stamps allocated is the most logical explanation,” he said. Oregon’s food stamp rolls jumped from 109,000 individuals in 1999 to 218,000 at the end of 2004. State efforts to increase outreach and simplify the application process contributed to the caseload increases. To view the OSU report, see: http://arec.oregonstate.edu/ruralstudies/Publications/ChangesInOregonHunger.pdf.

Fruit and Vegetable News

· WIC supplements work: Women and children in the WIC Program, when given extra financial support specifically to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, will use the money on a healthful variety of foods. Of more than 600 mostly Hispanic post partum women provided supplemental benefits of $10 per week at three WIC sites in the Los Angeles area, 90 percent of those who responded said they used the vouchers, which could be redeemed at a local supermarket, a farmers’ market, or a control site. Results were reported in the May 2006 edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

WIC consumers said they most frequently purchased oranges, apples, bananas, peaches, grapes, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and potatoes. For details, see: http://www.adajournal.org/article/PIIS0002822306001416/abstract.

· Five a day for health and sales: If Iowans ate five daily servings of fruit and vegetables daily, as government nutritionists recommend, it could boost in-state sales by over $300 million a year and create over 4,000 jobs, even if only one-quarter of the produce was Iowa grown. The economic payoffs of healthy eating were contained in a report released by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames on May 23, 2006.

“Eating five servings of fruit and vegetables is recommended because of the potential health benefits,” said researcher Rich Pirog, head of the Center’s food systems initiative. “But if more of that produce is grown in Iowa, the state would reap considerable economic benefits, too.” To review the report, go to: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2006/healthy_052306.htm.

Obesity Round-Up

· Food security status affects weight change: Women in food insecure households were 50 percent more likely to be obese and gain weight annually than those in food secure households, according to the results of a study published in the May 2006 Journal of Nutrition. Researchers examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999-2002 and classified households by four different levels of food insecurity. Women in marginally food insecure households compared poorly to those in food secure households. There were similar, but not as pronounced, results for men.

“Gradual weight gain may occur from inconsistent access to food, leading to periods of underconsumption followed by compensatory overconsumption,” noted lead researcher Parke Wilde of Tufts University. “Alternatively, when less money is available, people may consume inexpensive, high-calorie foods.” Wilde said he believes this is the first study using national statistics to focus on the association between adults’ food security status and weight change over time. “Our results for weight change bolster the circumstantial evidence that intermediate levels of household food insecurity contribute to weight gain and risk of obesity,” he added. For additional details, see:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/…FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT.

· Poverty leads to teen weight gain: Older American adolescents living in poverty gain weight more rapidly than other teens, according to a new study. “Today, the percentage of adolescents age 15-17 who are overweight is about 50 percent higher in poor as compared to non-poor families, a difference that emerged recently,” said sociologist Richard Miech of Johns Hopkins University, the lead author for an article published in the May 24, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Miech and fellow researchers looked at records for more than 10,000 teens over the period of 1971 to 2004.

The main difference was among older teens, who generally have more autonomy to buy and eat what the want and determine their own activity level. The prevalence of overweight was not significantly different for younger adolescents in poverty among the 12-14 age group as it was for the non-poor. Increases in the consumption of sweetened drinks and the likelihood of skipping breakfast were two factors contributing to weight gain among poor teens.

“The campaign against obesity and the struggle against poverty are, in fact, one and the same,” commented Adam Drewnowski, a University of Washington obesity expert not involved in the study. “Healthier diets cost more” and access to physical activity also “depends on how much money you’ve got.”

To review the study, go to: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/295/20/2385.

· Government urges restaurants to post nutrition information: The nation’s eateries should do more to advertise healthier foods and give nutrition information to customers, according to a report funded and publicized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and released on June 2, 2006. The 136-pqge report, the Keystone Forum on Away-From-Home-Foods: Opportunities for Preventing Weight Gain and Obesity, is the latest in a series of government-sponsored efforts to address the country’s obesity epidemic. The report offers recommendations related to: understanding and influencing consumer behavior; increasing the availability of low-calorie products, menu items, and meals; and providing consumers with nutrition information.

Foods purchased and eaten away from home are having a significant impact on the American diet. Today, approximately 46 percent of the household food budget is spent on food prepared away form home and contributes nearly a third of total calories. About half of the nation’s largest restaurant chains now make some nutrition information available. “If companies don’t tell them, people have no way of knowing how many calories are being served at restaurants,” explained Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. “And chances are, they are being served a lot more than they realize,” she added.

To learn more, go to: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01379.html.

Reports from the Field

· The decline in government bonus commodities is pinching the emergency food system in New Hampshire, as the following article in the May 8, 2006 Concord Monitor describes:
Last month, the food pantry at Concord’s First Congregational Church distributed 4,704 meals. The Concord area Community Action Program gave out 1,500 meals. Each of the Salvation Army’s 600 monthly clients went home with ingredients for 10 meals. Last year, St. Peter’s Church handed out 42,000 meals.
Those numbers, many pantry workers say, are only climbing. “We keep longstanding records, and we are beginning to see people we haven’t seen in three or four years,” said Jo-Anne Buchanan, chairwoman of the pantry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Simultaneous with growing need, however, are dwindling federal money and products for food pantries. Food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) fills the shelves of 200 pantries, soup kitchens and charitable groups in New Hampshire. The federal government hasn’t cut entitlements, which give each state access to a certain amount of commodities based on the number of low-income residents. But states also receive “bonus commodities,” which are generally surplus products. The amount of bonus commodities available depends on agricultural surpluses and other market conditions. This year, New Hampshire is seeing a drastic cut in bonus commodities.

Last year, bonus commodities comprised nearly three-quarters of the USDA food that went to New Hampshire pantries, said Randy Emerson, program director at Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties. The state contracts with Emerson’s group to distribute USDA commodities. This year, Emerson expects the amount of bonus commodities to be cut almost in half.

“On paper, we’re not being cut because funding for the entitlement isn’t being cut. But there’s less surplus being purchased,” Emerson said. “The end result is that we’re getting less food.”

Last year, Emerson distributed 43 tractor trailer loads of bonus commodities. This year, he hopes for 25. Pantry workers are looking for donations from residents and businesses to make up the shortfall.

There are 11 pantries in Concord. Volunteers and staff cobble together food. Supermarket drop bins help. Local businesses donate day-old bread or vegetables. Many parishioners donate food or money to their church’s pantry. The Capital Region Food Program is a lifeline for many pantries. Last year, the program spent $35,000 on 28 tons of food, which workers distributed to 20 pantries in Merrimack County.

But USDA food makes up the bulk of many pantries’ supplies. “We rely on it quite a bit,” said Barbara Chellis, who runs the Community Action Program’s pantry. “We just hope that people will continue to make more donations.”

But some pantry workers don’t know how they’ll meet demand without the bonus commodities. The majority of the food at Friends of Forgotten Children comes from the USDA. “We’re not church-affiliated. We have to raise our own money, so it is hard,” said Alice Blodgett, the group’s director.

The cuts are already filtering down. Many clients, for example, are asking for powdered milk. “Last year, there was an excess of dried milk in the marketplace,” said Robert Stowell, an administrator in the state’s bureau of purchase and property. “This year, there’s no excess.” In the past year, pantries have received bonus commodities that range from asparagus to salmon. Emerson distributed 14 bonus commodities last October. He expects to distribute seven commodities this October.

· Emergency food assistance provided by faith-based organizations is increasing in central Iowa to help meet growing needs, as the Des Moines Register reported on May 22, 2006:

Members of two north-side churches that have offered free meals to the needy at Thanksgiving and Easter say those efforts awakened a greater sense of mission … by offering weekly meals to those in need. Meals are served Tuesdays at Epworth United Methodist Church and Thursdays at True Bible Baptist Church.

”We are trying to be a more outreaching church than we had been in the past,” said Gwen Hall, a retired school food service worker who coordinates the free meal at Epworth. “The program has been very successful,” she said, and is for those who may be alone and in need of fellowship as much as food. “It is such an amazing thing because every week we have three to five new people that come. It’s a real heartwarming thing.”

Upwards of 60 people have been coming to dine each week at Epworth, which began its mid-week meals during the Lenten season. At True Bible, volunteers regularly prepare enough to feed 100 people in a weekly program that started last Thanksgiving. The Rev. Larry Cooper, who helps handle the caregiving pastoral duties at True Bible, said some of that food is sent out via a shuttle van to places like the YMCA and House of Mercy in order to broaden the reach. “There is a need all over for this, not only in Iowa but across the country and across the world,” Cooper said.

Jean Brown, executive director of Churches United, which runs a downtown shelter for the homeless and facilitates five area community kitchens, agreed the meal sites are welcome additions to the Des Moines scene. “We’re always looking to fill gaps if there are any,” Brown said. “Maybe these churches are filling that bill for us.”

Brown said she thinks Des Moines “is one of the better cities for taking care of folks that way. In Des Moines, you don’t have to go hungry. As long as people are asking the right questions and getting directed the right way, I think they will get a meal.”

Karen Ford, executive director of the Food Bank of Iowa, stressed that food stamps are the first line of defense for combating hunger, but said that statistics indicate that helps feed the hungry only 2.3 weeks in any given month. After that, faith-based sites are a nice stop gap, she said, especially for families. “Not everyone wants to go out and take their children to a soup kitchen,” Ford said.

Ford also mentioned that finding a meal on the weekend tends to be a tougher challenge for the hungry. “One night a week is a wonderful thing to do, but it also comes up short,” she said.

Bonus Raspberries to be Bought

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on May 31, 2006 that it will purchase up to 1.5 million pounds of frozen raspberry puree for donation to child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs like The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Pack size is currently unknown, so it is uncertain whether the product will be appropriate for household distribution.

Small Bites

Oil for food: the food industry uses a fifth of all petroleum consumed in the U.S.; more than our cars and more than any other industry.

Bread for all: An acre of wheat produces enough bread to feed a family of four for 10 years.

But more wheat is needed for the crust: On an average day, Americans eat 18 acres of pizza.

Dividing up the land: Of the 2.3 billion acres that are the total land area of the U.S., forest use accounts for 28.8 percent, grassland is 25.9 percent, cropland constitutes 19.5 percent, parks and wildlife areas take 13.1 percent, other miscellaneous uses involve 10.1 percent, and 2.6 percent is urban.

Metro farms: Farms in or close to U.S. metropolitan areas produce 86 percent of fruits and vegetables and 63 percent of the dairy products.

It makes cents: 79 percent of Americans will stoop to pick up a penny off the ground.

mvauthier :: Jun.09.2006 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post

Feed on Comments to this post