TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - August 4, 2006

In this issue:

· Taking A Break
· Fiscal 2007 Appropriations on Hold
· Breakdown in Trade Talks May Delay Farm Bill
· Food Stamp Facts
· “Food Deserts” Tied to Health Problems
· Obesity Round-Up
· The Corn Dilemma: Food Versus Fuel
· Reports from the Field
· 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 a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@281.com.

Taking A Break

Foodlinks America staff will be taking a summer break, and there will be no newsletter sent on August 18. The next issue will be published on September 1, 2006.

Fiscal 2007 Appropriations on Hold

Funding for food and nutrition programs next year remains pending, as Congress goes out for its month-long August recess. Congress has until September 30 to complete appropriations for fiscal year 2007, which begins October 1, or enact a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund government programs and services until agreement is reached on spending bills.

The House of Representatives has voted all appropriations for all agencies, except the bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which includes funding for elderly nutrition programs. The Senate has completed action on only one appropriations bill for fiscal year 2007. Congressional staff told Foodlinks America that Congress may put a CR in place next month and delay spending decisions until after the November elections.

Breakdown in Trade Talks May Delay Farm Bill

Prospects for adjusting U.S. agriculture programs next year under the Farm Bill dimmed considerably with the collapse of global trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland last month. Congress and the Administration had been waiting for the outcome of WTO negotiations before re-assessing funding levels for farm program price supports that constitute an important part of the Farm Bill.

Congress usually re-writes the Farm Bill every five years. “If I read the tea leaves, I think we’re going to end up with a Farm Bill that looks a lot like what we have now,” said Representative Colin Peterson of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, who is backing a one-year extension. However, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, wants a five-year bill to provide stability for farmers. Congress will likely address the issue next year.

The Farm Bill is important for domestic food programs, as it authorizes the Food Stamp Program, commodity distribution programs, and other nutrition assistance. Chambliss said he thought nutrition programs could be adjusted, but the big unknown is “does that require more money?” And the failure of the WTO negotiations will affect the situation. As Senate Finance Committee chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) recently noted, “The Farm Bill, instead of being what I call WTO-driven, is going to be budget-driven and that kind of depends upon 12 months from now what the budget deficit looks like.”

Food Stamp Facts

• Caseload down but still high: Total nationwide participation in the Food Stamp Program (FSP) dropped to 25.9 million in April 2006, 294,000 fewer people than were enrolled in March 2006. Caseloads that grew in the latter half of 2005 to accommodate victims of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma have begun to return to the levels they were at before those natural disasters.

However, overall caseload levels still reflect a weak economy and increased eligibility for many working families. The April 2006 caseload was more than 500,000 persons above April 2005 and nearly 8.8 million above April 2001.

• Error rates remain low: The combined national FSP payment error rate for fiscal year 2005 set a new record low at 5.84 percent, according to figures released in June 2006 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The combined rate encompasses overpayments (when a household gets too high a benefit) and underpayments (when a household is shorted of benefits it deserves).

The payment error rate, which reflects accuracy and efficiency in program operation, has fallen every year since 1999, when the national error rate exceeded 10 percent, claimed the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress. Last year, over 30 states had combined payment error rates lower than or nearly the same as their rate in fiscal year 2004.

Moreover, most errors are relatively small and very few represent intentional fraud in the program. “Almost two-thirds of the payment errors in the Food Stamp Program are caused by caseworkers, usually when they fail to act on new information or make mistakes when applying program rules,” GAO reported. Increased FSP services to the working poor also increases the error rate, since “managing cases with earnings contributes to payment error in part because caseworkers may find it difficult to keep up with frequent changes reported to them,” the GAO noted. To learn more, go to: http://www.cbpp.org/6-30-04fa.htm.

• Disaster food stamp guide updated: The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a Washington, D.C. advocacy organization, has released its new Guide to the Disaster Food Stamp Program. The Guide highlights how rapid response, advanced planning, utilization of technology, and outreach are important ways for public agencies and social service providers to assist with disaster relief and connect needy families to emergency nutrition programs.
“As we head into the heart of a new hurricane season, we wanted to be sure that the lessons learned from 2005 are widely available,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “A crucial strength of the Food Stamp Program is its ability to respond quickly to changes in need, whether those changes are caused by economic downturns or disaster situations,” explained Weill, in noting that last year alone $928 million in FSP assistance aided 2.4 million households affected by hurricanes.
The 45-page Guide may be found at: http://www.frac.org/pdf/dfspguide06.pdf.
• Pizzeria accepting food stamps: A north central Texas pizza restaurant is the first in the state to accept food stamps for its take-out pizzas, according to an article in the Burleson-Crowley Connection of July 27, 2006. Papa Murphy’s Take ‘n Bake Pizza in Crowley, Texas, south of Fort Worth, has been authorized to take food stamps for pizzas prepared on the premises but consumed elsewhere.

Customers come into the restaurant and choose the crust type and ingredients they want on their pizza and the restaurant prepares it on site. But rather than baking it there, the pizza is boxed and sent along with the consumer to be cooked at home, since the FSP generally does not allow for payment of restaurant meals. Papa Murphy’s, with 880 stores in 32 states, has won the “Best Pizza Chain in America” award in each of the last three years from Restaurants and Institutions magazine.

“Food Deserts” Tied to Health Problems

Urban residents who live in areas that have fast food restaurants but few grocery stores nearby – so-called “food deserts” – are more likely to die prematurely and suffer from higher rates of chronic diseases, according to a landmark study released last month. For half a million residents of Chicago, this lack of choice is more than an inconvenience, it is causing life-shortening health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Mari Gallagher, a researcher and consultant who conducted the study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, commissioned by LaSalle Bank, could not claim a direct cause-and-effect relationship between living in a food desert and developing a disease, but noted there is a “statistically significant” link between the two. She also found that African Americans were the most disadvantaged when it comes to food options and that areas with the highest concentrations of single mothers and children “is almost a one-on-one match” with areas designated as food deserts.

Gallagher measured the distance from every block in Chicago to the nearest grocery store and fast food restaurant to map out food deserts and then compared them to county death records and city health data to arrive at her results. She found that African Americans on the City’s South and West Sides had to travel an average of 0.59 miles to reach any type of grocery store, while whites and Latinos had to go 0.36 miles. In general, as grocery store access decreased, rates of obesity increased.

“What Mari’s work is doing is really building the case that this is a public policy and public health issue,” commented LaDonna Redmond, president of the Institute for Community Resource Development, a non-profit organization on Chicago’s West Side, that advocates improvement of existing stores and expansion of community gardens as other measures that can improve the situation. “There has to be a comprehensive plan to restore access to underserved communities,” Redmond said, “It’s not just a matter of getting more supermarkets.”

To learn more, visit: http://www.lasallebank.com/about/july182006_chicagoil.html.

Obesity Round-Up

• Childhood diabetes increases risk of kidney problems: Obese children who get diabetes face a higher risk of kidney failure and death by middle age than people who develop diabetes later in life, according to a study released last month. Compared with non-diabetic subjects, “the death rate was three times as high in individuals with youth-onset diabetes mellitus and 1.4 times as high in individuals with older-onset diabetes,” the study, published in the July 26, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found.

The research was based on a study of some 1,800 diabetics among the Pima Indians in Arizona. For further details, see: http://jama.ama-ssn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/4/421.

• Childhood obesity problem getting more recognition: A growing number of U.S. adults – 84 percent – now say they believe childhood obesity is a “major problem,” up from 77 percent last year, according to a Harris poll released on July 12, 2006. Adults acknowledge that they are part of the problem, with 81 percent agreeing that children are becoming more obese because parents do not pay enough attention to their eating habits. Nonetheless, parents think schools should be doing more to address the epidemic, with 83 percent saying public schools should limit student access to unhealthy foods, like soft drinks and fast food.

Exercise is also seen as a way to help kids slim down. Ninety-four percent of adults believe parents should lead by example, being more physically active themselves and encouraging children to be. A similar number – 93 percent – say public schools should do more to promote regular exercise. To learn more about the survey results, see: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/printerfriend/index.asp?NewsID=1071.

• Obesity changing snack food habits: Though Americans spent over $61 billion on snack foods in 2005, they did eat a little better, according to “Snack Food Trends in the U.S.,” a report issued in July 2006 by the industry trade group Packaged Facts and noted on the PR Newswire. Expenditures on cookies and bakery snacks were down $334 million between 2001 and 2005. Sales of crackers and popcorn/rice cakes also dropped. Meanwhile, yogurt snacks had the largest dollar growth during the five-year period, increasing $721 million. Food bars and nut snacks also showed big gains.

“In the last five years, snacking overall has increased by 1.5 percent, as the trend for meals being replaced by snacks continues to grow,” said Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts. “Consumers are serious about these ‘meals’ being healthy,” he added. Get additional information at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=47036&nfid=rssfeeds.

• Big and cool: Add air conditioning to the list of probable causes of America’s obesity epidemic. At least David Allison, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, thinks so. His findings, reported in the July 2006 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, point out that obesity has ballooned since 1980, about the time that residential air conditioning became common.

“On a 100-degree day back then, with no air conditioning, would you want to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and gorge yourself?” Allison said. Moreover, perspiring burns up calories. “You need to expend energy to sweat to keep your body cool. That could lead to slightly lower body weight, all other things being equal,” he noted.

• Fat cats (and dogs): The old truism that pets look like their owners carries even more weight these days. Extra pounds on household pets is a growing concern.

“Obesity is considered one of the most common nutritional problems in cats and dogs,” researchers from the University of California, Davis, reported at an international symposium last year. ”Studies in Western Europe and the United States have indicated that more than 24 percent of dogs and about 25 percent of domestic cats are obese,” veterinarians Jon Ramsey and Kevork Hagopian reported in the July 2006 issue of The Journal of Nutrition. Similar percentages are now found in humans.

The Corn Dilemma: Food Versus Fuel

As gasoline prices rise, Congress and the Bush Administration are increasingly looking to biofuels – gasoline made from plant products – as a renewable source of power for the automobiles clogging American highways. But the U.S., which has produced a surplus of corn, the primary ingredient in domestically-produced ethanol, may soon be facing a serious energy policy dilemma.

“The food versus fuel debate is definitely on,” Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa, told a meeting at the Chicago Board of Trade on July 12, 2006. Corn supplies are dwindling, he noted, because of strong demand from livestock feeders, the growing ethanol industry, and food producers, who rely on corn syrup and oils in their products. Approximately 18 percent of America’s corn is converted to fuel today, up from just eight percent in 2000. That makes ethanol the second leading use of corn, after livestock feed.

But there is considerable debate about whether ethanol, which is currently cheaper and burns cleaner than gasoline derived from petroleum, actually yields an energy savings. When the external costs of industrial corn farming, including petroleum-based fertilizers, diesel fuel consumption to run tractors, and other costs are added up, as well as water and electric power needed to manufacture ethanol from corn, estimates range from a 67 percent net energy gain to a 29 percent net energy loss.

Reduced availability of corn for livestock feed affects meat, milk, and egg prices, and rising demand for ethanol has already begun to push up corn prices, making it more expensive for food companies to source the raw materials they use to make their products. Moreover, there is simply not enough farmland to meet the growing demand for biofuels. If every bushel of corn produced in America today were allocated for ethanol, only about 20 percent of the nation’s demand for renewable fuel would be satisfied. And as more corn and farmland go for fuel production, there is less land for the production of locally grown fruits and vegetables, which can reduce the fossil-fuel consumption needed to ship those items from distant locations.

“We need an energy policy and agriculture that guzzle less, not more,” said author Christopher Cook. “We cannot simply replace oil-powered cars with the lesser evil of those run by corn fuel. Far greater changes are needed in production and consumption if we want sustainable energy and agriculture in our future,” Cook added.

Reports from the Field

• Emergency food providers throughout the country are hard pressed to meet local needs. The Clayton News Daily in Jonesboro, GA ran a July 9, 2006 story headlined, “Food Bank struggling to stock shelves,” that gave the following account:

She opens all the cupboards, the ones above the sink and the ones below it. The signs on the cupboard doors say “Food Bank” but she opens them and the shelves are bare. 

“The food bank, or the lack thereof,” said Eileen Misek, Community Resource Specialist at the Clayton County Department of Family and Children Services. “This is what we don’t have.”

Most of the off-white pressboard shelves are empty. In one cupboard there’s a pile of Gatorade packets. There are four boxes of Fruit Loops, some two liter bottles of tonic water, a couple of boxes of saltine crackers, a few cans of tomato soup and a few of tomato paste. 

“It’s heartbreaking. It’s a joke,” Misek said. “It’s getting worse. We’re getting a lot of people who come from out of state. They hear of Atlanta as the great avenue of opportunity.”

On an average month, the DFCS food bank distributes 2,100 to 2,500 pounds of food to 255 to 260 people on an emergency basis, said Nancy Ward, Community Resource Specialist, but it’s not enough. 

“We only help a little bit, over the hump,” Misek said. “Nobody should go to bed hungry. They just shouldn’t.”

Food stamps take seven to ten days to process, said Carl Gaffney, Family Independent Case Worker, but many people don’t apply for food stamps until they have no food in their kitchens. The food bank is intended to help Clayton County residents through that period.

“When I get the story ‘I got nothing to eat,’ I try and get them a bag of something from the food pantry,” Gaffney said. “If I can load them up with canned goods, it really helps. As long as the kids have food to eat, parents don’t care about themselves.”

• Under the headline, “Feeding the Multitudes,” the North New Jersey Herald News in West Paterson, NJ ran a lengthy story on local food panties in its July 16, 2006 edition. Excerpts are provided below:

Doors to the Father English Community Center and its emergency food pantry swing open at 8 a.m. on a rainy Wednesday in early July, and a jumbled crowd moves through, dripping and solemn.

A 17-year-old mother with a baby girl, 3 months old; a thin and stooped man of uncertain age wearing a U.S. Army jacket with the flag of South Vietnam stitched on the back; an out-of-work welder with a bad leg; a heavily tattooed man still in his late teens and not long out of a lockup; a recovering alcoholic in his 50s; a woman and two children just in from Ecuador, speaking only Spanish and still living with relatives in a small apartment; a couple in their 70s, fraught over the wife’s kidney disease; a woman in her late 40s who takes care of her grandchildren; a man from Slovakia struggling to find work and hoping to join a brother in Chicago.

On sight, no one looking at them can guess the sting and tangle of their stories, Barbara Gaschler is saying from inside the office, but two things are certain: Nearly all are going through a short-term or long-term struggle, and nearly all are, in one or more ways, hungry.

“We don’t see the kind of hunger they have in Africa; we don’t see bloated bellies,” says Adele LaTourette, director of SEFAN (Statewide Emergency Food and Anti-Hunger Network), based in the Center for Food Action in Englewood. “It’s much, much more hidden. It’s people cutting back on food because they can’t cut back on rent. It’s mothers skipping meals themselves so they can feed their children.”

Some moving into Father English off Main Street that morning have been referred by the county’s Department of Human Services or other social service agencies, shelters or churches. The center provides not just emergency food but job and computer training, English classes, after-school programs, work assistance, even bus passes. Many have heard of the pantry and other services through friends or family. A few find it through word-of-mouth on the street.

From a desk within the front office at Father English, Bill Hudson and Gaschler oversee the Emergency Food Coalition for Passaic County, a group of 31 pantries including Father English and a host of smaller outlets. Last year, coalition members served more than 278,000 people something over 4 million meals, up 39 percent from the year before.
“This is a big safety net,” Hudson says, “and the people holding it up are really dedicated. But we’re always on the edge. We need help, too.”

Despite government, corporate and faith-based efforts to stem hunger, the clientele continues to grow. In June alone, the food pantry at St. Paul’s (Episcopal) Community Development Corp., on Van Houten Street in central Paterson, saw more than 2,300 people, and its annual number of clients has nearly doubled in five years, to more than 30,000. In the meantime, resources are shrinking. Agencies and community groups such as the United Way, the Boy and Girl Scouts, schools, clubs and especially churches continue to give and work. But overall corporate food contributions and grant money are down across the board.

Some pantries, Adele LaTourette says, are running out of food.

On this day at Father English, between the front office, the food pantry and the clothing outlet downstairs, Gaschler and her office staff, including Maritza Rosa, might see 40 or 50 people. By the last two weeks of the month, when food stamps and money run short, an average day might bring in 100 or more.

Rosa feels the pain she sees more deeply than many. “I came here as an unwed mother, needing food,” she says. “I had welfare and food stamps, and they weren’t enough. Then I volunteered. After 4-1/2 years, I got hired as a secretary. I’m assistant director, now, and I understand what these people are going through. You really feel for them. Many of them are embarrassed and ashamed. I say, ‘I’m trying to feed you.’”

The most nutritious and appetizing food, though, can prove elusive and expensive. Part of any pantry’s ongoing struggle is matching what clients want and need with what food banks, government and donors can provide, and finding money to buy the rest.

Small Bites

Improving the throw-away society: Disposable, compostable plates and bowls – made from potato, corn, and ground limestone – are expected to reach commercial markets early next year in an attempt to reduce the more than 75 million tons of non-biodegradable solid waste packaging and containers that are dumped in U.S. landfills annually.

No need to pinch the fruit: Also under development is a sticker that can let consumers know if a fruit or vegetable is ripe. When the sticker detects the item releasing ethylene gas, a sign of ripening, it will turn from white to blue.

A statistic to make you cry: Onion consumption in the U.S. has risen 70 percent over the last two decades, from 12.1 pounds per capita in 1983 to 21 pounds in 2005.

Nothing to wine about: Grapes are grown around the world more than any other fruit.

Why pumpkin growers love Halloween: Ninety-nine percent of all pumpkins are sold for decoration.

Glued to the tube: Twenty percent of American adults watch 44.5 hours or more of television per week.

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