TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - November 10, 2006

In this issue:

· Election Results Likely to Affect Nutrition Programs
· Appropriations Decisions May Await New Congress
· In Absence of Federal Action, States Increase Minimum Wage
· The Politics of Hunger
· TEFAP Advocacy Materials Available
· Bonus Purchase Planned
· 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.

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Election Results Likely to Affect Nutrition Programs

Democratic election gains in the House of Representatives and the Senate should result in significant changes in the tenor of agriculture and nutrition programs next year. A changeover of key players at the committee and subcommittee levels is expected to raise the profile of government nutrition and food assistance programs, as long-time supporters take over the reins.

Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota is in line to become chair of the House Agriculture Committee in the 110th Congress, replacing Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. One of the most important items on the Committee agenda next year will be reauthorization of the Farm Bill, which covers the Food Stamp Program, commodity programs – including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) – and the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.

Farm Bill Futures

Peterson, co-sponsor of a bill introduced in May to extend the current Farm Bill for two years, recently said he will push for new legislation rather than an extension. He claimed he is “confident a new Farm Bill, which sets policy for agriculture and related programs for six years, could be written before the current bill expires in September 2007.” He added, “The only way we’ll extend [the current bill] is if we get to an impasse next year and we can’t pass anything.”

However, Peterson is a strong supporter of crop subsidies and his district is one of the top six recipients of subsidy payments in the nation. That situation may cause tensions when Farm Bill reauthorization is considered. The collapse of world trade talks has removed international pressure to reduce U.S. subsidy payments. But the Bush Administration is expected to propose a reduction in subsidies when it introduces its version of the Farm Bill early next year. In addition, conservation and nutrition advocates have targeted reduced price support payments as a potential source of funds to boost their programs and still stay within current Farm Bill spending limits.

Significant changes are also expected at the Agriculture subcommittee level as a result of election outcomes. Democrat Joe Baca of California is now in position to chair the Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Dairy, Nutrition, and Forestry. That subcommittee lost its two top Republicans – Gil Gutknect of Minnesota and Richard Pombo of California – who were both defeated in re-election bids, leaving Jerry Moran of Kansas as the Republican member with ranking seniority.

Californians to Lead on Other Nutrition Programs

In the House, child and elderly nutrition concerns are under the jurisdiction of the Education and the Workforce Committee. Its leadership will switch hands between two Californians, with Democrat George Miller ascending to the chairmanship and Buck McKeon moving from chair to Ranking Member. In the Subcommittee on Education Reform, which oversees the child nutrition programs, Lynn Woolsey of California will replace Mike Castle of Delaware as chair.

In the important area of appropriations, David Obey (D-WI) will take over as chair of the House Appropriations Committee, replacing Jerry Lewis (R-CA). In the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, which has a key role in setting spending levels for food assistance programs, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will become the chair, while Henry Bonilla (R-TX) will be the Ranking Member, if he survives a run-off for his Congressional seat.

Senate Leadership Changes

In the Senate, Republicans and Democrats each won 49 seats, but Democrats will have a one-vote majority in the upper chamber, because two independents – Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont – will caucus with the Democrats.

With a Democratic majority, Tom Harkin of Iowa assumes the chairmanship of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, replacing Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will become chair of the Subcommittee on Research, Nutrition, and General Legislation, replacing Rick Santorum (R-PA), who lost his re-election bid, leaving Richard Lugar (R-IN) as the Ranking Member on the subcommittee.

Elderly nutrition concerns in the Senate fall under the purview of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Under Democrats’ control of the chamber, leadership of that committee will pass from Michael Enzi (R-WY) to Edward Kennedy (D-MA). As for the Senate Appropriations Committee, the leadership will change from Thad Cochran (R-MS) to Robert Byrd (D-WV). In the crucial Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies, Herb Kohl (D-WI) will take over the chair from Robert Bennett (R-UT).

Regardless of the election outcomes, political observers note that Congress remains narrowly divided, and George W. Bush will remain as President until January 2009, with Republicans retaining enough seats in both Houses to sustain vetoes. Consequently, bipartisan efforts will be needed to move any legislation.

Appropriations Decisions May Await New Congress

Congress returns for a post-election lame duck session on November 13 and one of the key issues facing lawmakers will be appropriations levels for fiscal year 2007, which began October 1, 2006. Before leaving for six weeks of campaigning, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) that expires on November 17, postponing decisions on funding for programs next year until after the election. Ten unfinished fiscal year 2007 spending bills are pending, including those that fund nutrition programs under the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

Options for legislators returning to Washington. D.C. this month include: passing 10 separate appropriations bills to keep programs funded through next September; enacting an omnibus spending bill for all of fiscal year 2007; or passing another CR to fund programs until the 110th Congress convenes in January 2007. Democrats, who will control the House and the Senate in the new Congress, will likely be pressing to delay spending decisions until January when they will be able to exert more influence over the outcomes.

In Absence of Federal Action, States Increase Minimum Wage

America’s working poor are finally getting some help, not from Congress or the Administration, but from state legislators and voters. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for ten years, but now, for the first time, a majority of states will have a minimum wage rate exceeding that level. As of the end of the year, workers in 29 states and the District of Columbia will be paid more than $5.15 an hour.

Voters in all six states that had minimum wage increases on the ballot this week – Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio – approved them. Minimum wage increases gained the support of 76 percent of Missouri voters, 73 percent of the Montana electorate, 69 percent of Nevada residents who voted, 66 percent of those going to the polls in Arizona, 56 percent of Ohio voters, and 53 percent of Colorado electors.

“A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it,” said Reverend Paul Sherry, campaign coordinator for Let Justice Roll, an alliance of faith-based and labor organizations actively supporting minimum wage increases around the country.

Raising the minimum wage has widespread support. In mid-October 2006, a group of more than 650 distinguished economists, including Nobel Prize winners, endorsed a statement circulated by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., calling for a $1.00 to $2.50 increase in federal or state minimum wage rates. “We decided as a nation that we wanted to emphasize work and personal responsibility and get people into jobs,” said Alice Rivlin, former vice chair of the Federal Reserve, past director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and one of those signing the statement. “We’ve done that. Unfortunately, we’ve let their real wages decline. It’s a bad bargain.”

Federal action to increase the minimum wage may occur next year. In a post-election news conference, President Bush, whose Republican party had earlier opposed a rise in the minimum wage, conceded that this was an issue on which he might “find common ground” with the Democrats. The incoming Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives has pledged to pass an increase within the first 100 hours of the new Congress that convenes in January 2007. Presumed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently stated, “Eighty-five percent of Americans agree with us. It’s time for a new direction – let’s reward work and raise the minimum wage.”

The Politics of Hunger

Just prior to this week’s election, Democrats accused the Bush Administration of withholding information on hunger in the U.S. Since 1999, annual statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on domestic hunger and food insecurity have been released in October, approximately a month after Census poverty figures are provided.

But this year, USDA officials claim that the planned release of the report in mid-November has nothing to do with politics. “There has been absolutely no political pressure to hold this report,” said USDA spokeswoman Terri Teuber.

Democrats, however, voiced concern that delayed release of the numbers was politically motivated. “It seems like a pattern is emerging where the Administration simply tries to bury bad information the closer they get to the election,” stated Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY). “The professionals in these agencies who want to do their work in this Administration are being thwarted, because of politics, all the time,” Weiner added.

Other Democrats chimed in. Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Ranking Member on the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee said the Administration “continues to put politics ahead of hunger in America.”

Leading anti-hunger advocates expressed displeasure with politicians from both parties as well as the private sector. “Our real concern is that so few people are talking about the problem and proposing ways to address the struggle that 38 million people constantly face,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. “If we ought to be able to do anything as a country,” said Weill, “it’s that we ought to be able to get enough adequate, decent food to everybody.”

TEFAP Advocacy Materials Available Soon

Supporters of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) will be working to increase program funding next year, via raising the authorized funding limit in the Farm Bill and augmenting appropriations. TEFAP advocates are urged to bookmark the TEFAP Alliance web site at: http://www.tefapalliance.org, check regularly for activity updates, and join in boosting the program to help meet the needs of hungry Americans.

Bonus Purchase Planned

Though there has been a dearth of surplus or “bonus” items for donation to child nutrition and emergency food programs during the past year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on November 6 that it plans to purchase up to 34.8 million pounds of grapefruit juice. Suppliers will be invited to submit bids so USDA can determine how much juice will be available to be shipped in the coming months.
Reports from the Field

· Restricted access to food stamps can seriously exacerbate hunger and, unfortunately, delays are common in many locations around the country. Major problems are occurring in East Texas, as noted in this report from the Lufkin Daily News of October 7, 2006:

The hungry are tightening their belts in Angelina County as state social service cutbacks leave them waiting up to 40 days for food stamps, according to the director of the largest food bank in the county. Hungry people arriving at her door are often stuck in a bureaucratic no man’s land, said Linda Smelley, executive director of the Christian Information and Service Center (CISC). The center is funded by grants and donations from citizens and churches.

Many people don’t meet the state’s complex formula for “emergency need” status, or a crisis situation has pushed them to a desperate level, beyond the state’s response capability, she said. Like the mother who didn’t qualify for emergency help — grocery debit cards handed out within 24 hours — because “on paper” she was getting child support, meaning she had too much income. “But she hadn’t been getting it. If the check doesn’t come, her kids go hungry,” Smelley said.

Qualifying for an emergency card means a person is not merely in crisis, but among the poorest of the poor. It’s a situation that state Rep. Jim McReynolds (D-Lufkin) described last week as “horrible.” “You can’t make more than $150 a month, or have liquid assets of more than $100. You really have to be homeless,” he said.

That leaves many hovering between homelessness and stability to fall through the cracks, waiting for benefits to come through. A mother of four arrived at CISC two weeks ago looking for help. She’d planned to squeak by waiting to qualify, trusting her children would get free breakfasts and lunches through a school program. But all four came down sick, and had to stay home. “She didn’t have any food in the house, and didn’t know what to do,” Smelley said. “What do they do? What do the children do? Mothers count on them to have a big lunch at school and just stretch it until the next day. I know they’re starving.”
Clients come to her shaky, angry and sad, Shelley said. She can tell by their hair and skin they’re not eating enough. Women who appear to be in their 70s are closer to 50, bodies ravaged by hunger and hard lives. One woman in particular stays on her mind, Smelley said — a woman she described as looking “like a skeleton.” State workers allegedly told the woman she would have to wait 40 days to qualify, Smelley said. Smelley said her call to the local food stamp office confirmed it. An employee there told her they were looking to hire six new people, in hopes of trimming the wait to 30 days, she said.
The food stamp office’s emergency food pantry went by the wayside, the victim of short staffing, according to a former employee who asked his name not be used. “It got so overwhelming they didn’t really have time to go over and pick up food to supply the pantry. It was not a state requirement, it was something we did … just wanting to help the people,” he said.

Applying can be so difficult, caseworkers from the Burke Center in Lufkin, an outpatient drug and mental health center, often accompany the more confused clients to the food bank, Smelley said. “Caseworkers are worried. They see how hungry people are. The paperwork just floors (clients). They’re scared. We calm them down and tell them, ‘You’re not going to be hungry,’” Smelley said.
As the [political] debate goes on, the hungry continue to stream to CISC’s door. On Friday, a man suffering from hepatitis arrived. Already gravely ill and in the system for medical care, he waited hours on a call to qualify for emergency food stamps. “I truly believe this man is probably going to die. It’s just a nightmare. You can get the general idea of what’s happening,” Smelley said. “They’re so understaffed and the criteria for some of these people is so high, that an emergency to them and an emergency to the state are two different things. And that’s the biggest problem.”

A look at the CISC food line, which often begins at 6 a.m. for a 9:15 a.m. opening, represents a cross section — of all ages, colors and backgrounds — of the hungry seen each year by the thousands. Smelley said every civic group, church and organization in Lufkin needs to get on board and give. “It’s become too big a ministry. The whole town should be involved,” Smelley said. “It’s heartbreaking. I think Lufkin doesn’t know what’s going on.”

· Food shortages are limiting aid for hungry families around the nation. An example of these restrictions is found in Elkhart, Indiana, as reported in the South Bend Tribune of October 25, 2006:

The food on the shelves at Church Community Services is dwindling, yet the number of people using the facility’s food pantry is increasing. Because of recent record demand for food, the church-based, nonprofit agency at 629 S. Third St. is limiting the amount of food it hands out to those in need. To deal with the problem, the organization, which serves all of Elkhart County, has been forced to shut its doors daily after the first 80 families come through.

“It’s hard,” said Dean Preheim-Bartel, executive director. “We don’t like doing that, and we don’t want to do that, but I’d rather serve the people who need food rather than not being able to serve at all.” Over the last year, on average, the facility served 60 to 80 families a day, Preheim-Bartel said. In recent months, it hasn’t been unusual for that number to spike to 100 families a day. But when those occasional spikes reached 130 families a day, the facility realized it couldn’t support the demand.

The 80-family-per-day limit was put into effect earlier this month, but with donations from a recently closed Martin’s Super Market in Mishawaka and other donations, Preheim-Bartel is hopeful things will return to normal.

So what’s causing this recent demand for food? “What appears to have happened, and we’ve gotten it confirmed,” Preheim-Bartel said, “is that when we’ve started to see layoffs and plants closing (our clientele increased). Unemployment is actually up a bit in Elkhart County.”

Although the family limit hasn’t affected Doral Haab too much because he makes sure to get to the pantry early in the day, Haab relies on Church Community Services’ pantry, along with others, to eat. “I hit several food banks a month,” Haab said. “With them and my food stamps, I survive.”

Church Community Services isn’t the only one feeling the burn. The Salvation Army in Elkhart and Goshen report an increasing number of people in their food programs who are working or senior citizens. About 60 percent of the approximately 180 people who partake in a free breakfast each morning at the Elkhart Salvation Army are working poor, said Major John Crampton.

Some are coming because they’ve lost the overtime that they’d counted on from their employer, he said. And when clients lack health insurance or benefits, he said, “Any emergency at all puts their life in a tailspin.” The Elkhart agency’s pantry shelves are bare now. It needs nonperishable food, which won’t fill up again until the holiday donations come in November, Crampton said.

Small Bites

Men at work, at home: Between 1965 and 2000 the amount of housework per week done by mothers declined from 32 hours to 19, while the amount done by fathers has increased from 4 hours to 10.

Long distance fast food: Wendy’s and McDonald’s are among the restaurant chains that have set up remote call centers to take food orders. A customer at a California restaurant may actually place an order with an operator at a computer terminal in New Hampshire. The system can increase the number of cars going through a drive-through by up to 50 percent by letting in-store employees concentrate on making the food.

Less for the farmer: The farm share of retail food prices continues to shrink. In 1982, farmers got 33 cents of each dollar consumers spent on fresh fruit at the grocery store. By 2004, the farm share was down to 20 cents.

Going with the grain: Nearly three-quarters of the corn grown in the U.S. is fed to livestock.

Meat monopolies: In 1970, the four largest U.S. meatpacking companies controlled 21 percent of the beef market. Today they control 85 percent.

That’s a lot of s–t: Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are standard in the meat industry. Just two cattle feedlots in central Colorado operating at full capacity produce more excrement than Atlanta, Boston, Denver, and St. Louis combined.

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