Foodlinks America - February 26, 2010
Foodlinks America - February 26, 2010 
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In this issue:
• Administration’s Child Nutrition Priorities Detailed
• Obama Plan to Address “Food Deserts”
• Proposed Legislation
• USDA Unveils “Food Environment Atlas”
• Nutrition Notes
• Reports from the Field – Providence, RI
• 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.
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Administration’s Child Nutrition Priorities Detailed
Last year, the spirited and consuming debate over health care sidetracked a bill to reauthorize child nutrition programs. Lawmakers pledged to deal with the matter early this year, in order to assure that any program changes would be accommodated in fiscal year 2011 and future budgets. However, Congress is still holding hearings on child nutrition, and has yet to debate and vote on the matter.
The Obama Administration has begun prodding the legislative branch to take concerted action on child nutrition, starting with an announcement earlier this month from First Lady Michelle Obama that she planned to establish a physical activity and anti-obesity campaign called “Let’s Move!” Then, on February 23, 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack laid out a detailed agenda of child nutrition provisions the Administration wants to see included in the reauthorization, even though a number of them would result in increased spending.
Vilsack put child nutrition in historical perspective: “In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act, declaring that – ‘in the long view, no nation is healthier than its children.’ President Obama and I share that belief,” said Vilsack. “But the stark reality is that today we face a public health crisis of high child obesity rates across the country.”
In response to that crisis, the Secretary noted that the reauthorization package he was proposing “forms the legislative centerpiece of the First Lady’s campaign and the Administration’s effort to ensure the health of our youngsters.” Saying, “bold action” is needed, Vilsack offered a 10-point list of priorities that included the following:
• competitive grants to states for successful strategies to eliminate child hunger by 2015;
• funding to states and non-profit organizations to develop web-based or other systems to streamline the application process for school meals and expand direct certification;
• establish paperless application procedures to bring an additional one million children into school meal programs;
• increase the reimbursement rate for school breakfasts and provide commodities for those meals;
• “bridge the nutrition gap” in summer and when school is out;
• expand Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) after-school meal authority from the current 14-state pilot to all 50 states;
• implement nutritional changes recommended by the Institute of Medicine, even though they will increase costs;
• set standards for all the foods served and sold in schools, including those in vending machines;
• use the lunchroom as a classroom to make meals a learning experience; and
• continue to emphasize and develop farm-to-school programs.
“So today,” concluded Secretary Vilsack, “President Truman’s belief that a healthy nation depends on healthy children remains as true as ever. We must respond as past generations have before us to improve child nutrition. Our children deserve more and our country’s better and brighter future depends upon it. And with the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Programs scheduled this year, now is the time to act boldly.”
For the complete press statement, go to: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB/.cmd/ad/.ar/sa.retrievecontent/.c/6_2_1UH/.ce/7_2_5JM/.p/5_2_4TQ/.d/0/_th/J_2_9D/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?PC_7_2_5JM_contentid=2010%2F02%2F0080.xml&PC_7_2_5JM_parentnav=LATEST_RELEASES&PC_7_2_5JM_navid=NEWS_RELEASE#7_2_5JM.
Obama Plan to Address “Food Deserts”
The Obama Administration has proposed spending more than $400 million next year to launch a Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) focused on bringing grocery stores and other retailers of nutritious foods to the nation’s food deserts, underserved urban and rural communities across America. The inter-agency Initiative was announced at a February 19, 2010 news conference by two Cabinet ministers – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – along with First Lacy Michelle Obama, who earlier in the month launched her own healthy eating and physical activity campaign, “Let’s Move!” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will also participate in the HFFI effort.
The HFFI would promote a range of interventions for developing and equipping food stores and other small businesses to improve access to healthy, affordable food options. Federal funds would support large-scale projects such as construction or expansion of grocery stores to smaller-scale interventions such as providing refrigeration equipment to convenience stores to aid them in stocking produce.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which now has the Food Environment Atlas (see story below), an on-line repository of county-level economic and demographic information, estimates that 23.5 million people in the U.S., who live in low-income neighborhoods more than a mile from a supermarket, are affected by food deserts. In addition, 2.3 million people in low-income rural areas live more than 10 miles from a supermarket. Vilsack said that through the HFFI, the Administration “will work to eliminate food deserts across the country within seven years.”
Administration officials emphasized that the Initiative is but one component of a broader Obama strategy to foster economic recovery and create jobs while revitalizing neighborhoods and aiding communities to achieve sustainability and livability. Funding for the multi-year HFFI is included in the proposed Obama budget for 2011 and reflects a mix of federal tax credits, below-market rate loans, loan guarantees, and grants. Key elements are:
- $250 million in New Markets Tax Credit authority from the Department of the Treasury;
- $25 million in financial assistance to community development financial institutions (CDFIs) through Treasury;
- $50 million in USDA loans, grants, and promotions that will support another $150 million in public and private investments; and
- A $20 million set-aside for HFFI activities in Community Economic Development funds administered by DHHS.
“Encouraging people to choose fresh, nutritious food is important,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “But to achieve that goal that kind of food must be available, and in far too many parts of our country – both urban and rural communities – that’s not the case. This collaborative Initiative is a creative way to help solve that problem, while at the same time working to strengthen the economy of low-income communities through business development and job creation.”
Proposed Legislation
Among bills recently introduced in the 111th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:
House Resolution (H.R.) 4607: Introduced by Representative David Loebsack (D-IA), the Healthy Food for Healthy Schools Act would improve the purchase and processing of healthful commodities for use in school meal programs.
H.R. 4638: Introduced by Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) and four bipartisan co-sponsors, the Healthy Start Act would provide commodity assistance of five cents per meal served under the School Breakfast Program.
For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/ and enter the bill number.
USDA Unveils “Food Environment Atlas”
Putting most of its informational eggs together in one basket, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created and released a new web-based mapping tool called Your Food Environment Atlas. The Atlas presents highly detailed information on local food environments and health outcomes, including grocery store access and disease and obesity prevalence. The tool is intended to help researchers, policy makers, and the public more readily find information about a variety of factors that affect access to healthy and affordable food.
USDA’s Economic Research Service developed the Atlas as a follow-up to First Lady Michelle Obama’s recently-announced Let’s Move! campaign. Let’s Move!, which highlights healthy choices, healthier schools, physical activity, and accessible, affordable and healthy food, “has set an aggressive goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation.”
The Atlas contains county-level information on 90 indicators in three, broad categories: food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics. The first category offers information on proximity to grocery stores, the number of food stores and restaurants, and data on fast food consumption. The second category includes statistics on food insecurity, obesity, and physical activity levels. Entries in the third category provide information on income and poverty, demographics, and urban-rural demarcations.
To see Your Food Environment Atlas, go to: www.ers.usda.gov/foodatlas. For further details on the Let’s Move! campaign, click on: www.LetsMove.gov.
Nutrition Notes
WIC dominates infant formula market: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children or WIC Program is crucial to America’s current and future economy and health. Approximately half of all infants born in the United States participate in the WIC Program. Research has determined that between 57 and 68 percent of all infant formula sold in the U.S. was purchased through WIC.
WIC state agencies often secure significant discounts on formula in the form of rebates from infant formula manufacturers. In recent years, average rebates have been about 85 percent of the wholesale price. In exchange for the rebate, the manufacture’s brand is used exclusively by the state for WIC participants. In fiscal year 2008, infant formula rebates nationwide totaled some $2 billion, enough funds to support close to 25 percent of the WIC caseload.
A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study on the status of and future trends in infant formula rebates is available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR93/.
Eating out decreases nutrition: Among U.S. adults, food away from home is generally associated with poor diet quality. A new study from USDA actually quantifies the deficiencies. USDA found that, “On average, breakfast away from home decreases the number of servings of whole grains and dairy consumed per 1,000 calories and increases the percent of calories from saturated and solid fat, alcohol, and added sugar” consumed in a day.” Dinner away from home reduces the number of servings of vegetables consumed. For additional details on the nutritional composition of food away from home, connect with: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR90/.
“Vegging out” with the old folks at home: USDA researchers have determined that a person’s birth year affects their vegetable consumption: Households headed by older generations spend more money per person on at-home fresh vegetables than their younger counterparts, according to USDA.
The different spending levels reflect the fact that younger and older Americans eat differently. A 30-something may heat frozen entrées in the microwave or grab takeout meals from a restaurant, whereas a 60-something may prepare home-cooked meals from basic ingredients. One key difference between the generations lies in their demand for at-home fresh vegetables, those purchased in grocery stores and other retail outlets, although those changes are ameliorated over time. For additional information, see: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/March10/Findings/FreshVegetables.htm.
Reports from the Field – Providence, RI
Rhode Island is a small state but, like many others around the nation, it has a big problem – hunger. The resulting need has pushed helping organizations to take a new look at how they feed the hungry and to revise their mission. The following article by Elizabeth Rau from the February 10, 2010 issue of the Boston Phoenix in Boston, MA describes how one church has remade itself to address hunger in the community.
On a bitterly cold morning not long ago, Jerry Viou pulled into the parking lot at Open Table of Christ and a woman popped out from behind a dumpster and shouted, “Do you have food?” Viou was so startled he jumped. When a woman hides behind a trash can at the crack of dawn waiting for the doors of a church to open so she can get a bag of potatoes, you know times are tough, he says.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen it this bad,’” says Viou, the church’s pastor of community ministries. “It’s horrible.”
With the economy on the skids and an unemployment rate of nearly 13 percent – one of the highest in the nation – more Rhode Islanders are turning to food pantries, soup kitchens, and food stamps to keep them from going hungry.
New numbers released recently by the state and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which supplies food to pantries, should trouble anyone with a conscience or stake in the state’s future. An average of 52,450 people a month received food from pantries in 2009, an increase of 29 percent from 2008. What Andrew Schiff, the Food Bank’s CEO, finds especially troubling is that many of the families have children – four in 10, which he says shatters the theory that people who go to food pantries are “down-and-out” adults.
Food stamp use is also surging. About 129,400 people were receiving food stamps at the end of 2009, an increase of 40 percent from the same period a year before, says Donalda Carlson, of the state Department of Human Services. Schiff estimates that 150,000 people – a staggering 15 percent of the state’s population – are using food stamps, pantries or both. And in a state hit hard by job losses he doesn’t see people climbing back any time soon.
“I don’t know if public concern is at the level it should be,” Schiff says. “We’re in this for the long haul and that’s what’s so scary.’”
You don’t have to tell that to Viou, who sees hungry people every day at his church, which looms over a Family Dollar store, McDonald’s, and boarded-up buildings on Broad Street in South Providence, the most impoverished neighborhood in the city. Back in November, members removed 23 pews from the chapel and rear of the sanctuary to make room for a food pantry, which had to be moved out of a moldy basement. But the demand for food was so great members realized they had to do more.
Now Viou says they plan to take out the remaining pews and turn the entire sanctuary into a pantry and, eventually, a community center that offers GED classes, job training, and other programs for the needy. They hope to sell the pews on eBay and use folding chairs for services. “We are an urban congregation in a very difficult part of the city,” says Viou. “If that means we take out our pews and it looks like Sam’s Club, then that’s what we do.”
Built in the 1890s, the Methodist church has seen a lot of changes over the years but none as transformative as what’s happening now, Viou says, with less emphasis on ritual and more on outreach, offering hospitality, food, clothes, and even a hot cup of coffee to the poor during what is being called the Great Recession.
Many of the people who visit the pantry are like Ines Boyer, 44, who lost her apartment and job as a medical assistant after an illness. Now she and her 16-year-old son are living with a friend. She can’t find work, and she’s exhausted her food stamp benefits. “I never imagined in a million years that this would be happening to us,” she said, crying as she waited her turn.
When the cupboards are bare, which is often, Kimberly Martinez, 21, stops by the pantry for free onions, potatoes, and peppers to feed her sisters, who are eight and 13. Her mother works as a nurse’s aide and earns too much to qualify for food stamps, but too little to put food on the table every day. “Half the time we don’t have food in the fridge,” said Martinez, who, as a last resort, makes “that powder soup, Lipton.”
The pantry opens around 9:30 am on Tuesdays and Fridays, but many people come early, each clutching an empty tote bag. A few days ago, Viou found a man in a thin sweatshirt sitting on the steps outside, shivering. He invited him in, gave him a bag of groceries, and told him to come back the next day for a surprise. He did. The winter coat was green.
Small Bites
A manufactured mess: The largest part of our gross national trash – 76 percent – is industrial waste.
Swimming in other waste streams: “Special waste,” from activities such as mining and fuel production, constitute 18 percent of our national garbage.
Tearing the house down: Construction and demolition waste is 3.5 percent of the national rubbish heap.
Garbage at home: Municipal solid waste makes up only 2.5 percent of all garbage.
Only a few bites not eaten: Food scraps make up a mere 12 percent of municipal solid waste.
Garbage at home is not the problem: For every pound of trash sent to municipal landfills, at least 40 more pounds are created upstream by various industrial processes.
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