TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - December 22, 2006

In this issue:

• Democrats Decide to Pass on Appropriations Battles
• Mayors Report Hunger Growing in American Cities
• Food Stamp Facts
• School Food News and Notes
• Changes Made in Senior Farmers’ Market Program
• Wealth Disparities Growing Worldwide
• Having a Very Cherry New Year
• Community Food Project Profile: An Island Food System Reborn Out of Disaster
• 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@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 Break

In keeping with our publication schedule of 24 issues per year, there will be no Foodlinks America distributed on January 5, 2007. The next issue will be sent on January 19, 2007. Foodlinks America wishes all of its readers a happy holiday season!

Democrats Decide to Pass on Appropriations Battles

The Democratic leadership of the new 110th Congress that will convene in January has decided to keep government programs funded under a long-term continuing resolution (CR). Incoming Appropriations Committee chairmen, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Representative David Obey of Wisconsin, have said they will not attempt to complete individual spending bills but rather will focus on a supplemental funding bill and the 2008 budget cycle, which will begin when President Bush submits his budget request to Congress on February 5, 2007.

“Unfortunately, there are no good options available to us to complete the unfinished work of the Republican Congress,” said Obey and Byrd in a joint statement on December 11, 2006. “After discussions with our colleagues, we have decided to dispose of the Republican budget leftovers by passing a year-long joint resolution. While the result will be far from ideal, this path provides the best way to dispose of unfinished business quickly and allow governors, state and local officials, and families to finally plan for the coming year with the knowledge of what the federal government is funding.”

Plans are to freeze funding at fiscal year 2006 amounts, which in some cases will allow programs to operate at higher levels than the current CR, which provides for spending at the lowest of the House-passed, Senate-passed, or fiscal year 2006 level. The current CR expires February 15, 2007.

In a final appropriations note, Representative Henry Bonilla (R-TX), chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, was defeated in a run-off election on December 12, 2006, in the last Congressional race to be decided in the 2006 election cycle. Bonilla’s impending departure means that Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) is slated to become the ranking Republican on the subcommittee. Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, who defeated Bonilla, has reportedly been promised a spot on the Appropriations Committee, but it is not known if he will seek a position on the Agriculture Subcommittee.

Mayors Report Hunger Growing in American Cities

Requests for emergency food assistance rose an average of seven percent in 2006, with three-fourths of American cities reporting an increase, according to the annual survey of hunger and homelessness released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) on December 14, 2006. All of the 23 cities in the survey reported that families and individuals are relying on emergency food sources not just in emergencies but as a regular source of food over long periods of time.

“This survey represents real people with real needs in cities across our nation,” said Trenton, NJ Mayor Douglas Palmer, president of the USCM. “As mayors of cities in the richest and most powerful nation in the world, we cannot simply stand by as our residents – families with children – continue to suffer. We have a responsibility to work together with our federal partners, as well as the private sector to turn the tide of those most in need in America.”

Among the survey findings:

- 23 percent of the demand for emergency food went unmet;

- in 26 percent of cities, emergency food facilities turned people away due to lack of resources;

- the number of families with children asking for emergency food increased in 70 percent of the cities;

- 63 percent of cities’ emergency food assistance providers had to decrease the number of bags of food provided and/or the number of times people could receive food; and

- homelessness increased an average of nine percent in two-thirds of the cities surveyed.

USCM members called for action to alleviate hunger and homelessness, as 2006 was the 16th consecutive year that an increase in hunger was reported and 2007 looks no better, as 72 percent of cities believe hunger will increase next year. “The results of this report shed light on a very real challenge facing this nation,” said Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, IA. “To attack this problem in a coordinated manner, we cannot ignore the fact that additional funding is needed. If we are to truly change the condition of those who are chronically hungry and homeless, we must act now.”

Besides Des Moines and Trenton, cities participating in the survey were: Boston, MA; Charleston, SC; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Miami, FL; Nashville, TN; Norfolk, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; San Francisco, CA; Santa Monica, CA; Seattle, WA; and St. Paul, MN.

To read the USCM news release and access the survey results, go to: http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/hhsurvey_121406.pdf.

Food Stamp Facts

Participation still rising: In September 2006, nationwide food stamp participation stood at 26,195,449 persons, and increase of 62,551 people over August 2006. Though the overall caseload for September 2006 was more than 1.2 million persons lower than the prior September, when many Hurricane Katrina victims received disaster food stamp benefits, it was more than 8.3 million persons higher than it was five years earlier, in September 2001.

More outreach grants announced: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded an additional $1 million to 14 faith-based and community organizations around the country to conduct food stamp outreach projects. Grantees include the Arizona Community Action Association in Phoenix, AZ, the Center for Pan Asian Community Service in Doraville, GA, and Toledo Area Ministries in Toledo, OH.

“The Administration is committed to ensuring that people who are eligible for food stamps can access benefits with dignity and respect,” said USDA Secretary Mike Johanns. “Faith-based and community organizations are uniquely positioned to help us reach those in need with information about this critical nutrition safety net.” Outreach strategies supported by the grants include information dissemination, pre-screening, application assistance, community events and education programs, and train-the-trainer programs.

For more details, see: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cga/PressReleases/2006/PR-0465.htm.

Revised Food Stamp Guide Available: The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. has announced the availability of its recently-updated Guide to the Food Stamp Program. The Guide, provided in a three-ring binder to facilitate program changes, can be obtained for $40.

To order, go to: http://www.frac.org/pdf/flyerfsp.pdf.

School Food News and Notes

School breakfast momentum continues: More low-income children got breakfast at school in the 2005-2006 school year as the School Breakfast Program posted another increase in participation. A total of 7.7 million free and reduced price breakfasts were served daily that year, an increase of 243,000 over 2004-2005, according to the annual School Breakfast Scorecard, released by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. on December 7, 2006.

“Reaching a lot more children with breakfast in schools is probably the most cost-effective and fastest way to improve children’s learning and health, improve attendance and, of course, reduce hunger,” said FRAC president Jim Weill. “It’s essential that more schools serve breakfast, adopt steps like breakfast in the classroom and reach out to more children.”

School participation in the breakfast program reached 83 percent of schools with a school lunch program last year, a two percent increase from the previous year. For every 100 low-income children eating lunch at school, there are now 44.6 receiving breakfast. West Virginia topped the state rankings, serving 58.5 percent of its low-income students, followed by New Mexico, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Oregon. Wisconsin ranked last among the states, providing breakfast to only 29.3 percent of its poor children. Illinois, Utah, Alaska, and New Hampshire rounded out the bottom five.

For more details, see:

http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/12.07.06.html.

Soda sales offer slim profit margins: School beverage contracts deliver only about $18 annually per student to schools, according to a multi-state review of 120 contracts. The analysis, which was conducted by the Public Health Advocacy Institute and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and announced on December 6, 2006, found that the majority of the revenues collected – 67 percent – goes to beverage companies, not to schools.

“Selling sugary drinks in vending machines and elsewhere in schools doesn’t pump money into the community, it drains it,” said Margo Wootan of CSPI. Some schools are clearly getting better deals than others, even with the same companies, according to the report, which found annual revenue to schools ranged from $0.60 to $93 per student per year. “It’s not philanthropic behavior on the part of soft drink companies,” claimed Wootan, “It’s predatory. When a kid puts a dollar in a soft drink vending machine, the school is lucky to keep 33 cents.”

Voluntary guidelines on school beverage sales, negotiated by former President Clinton and the American Heart Association with beverage companies and announced last May, may change sales patterns in the next few years, but schools are not part of that agreement.

For more information, go to:

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200612061.html.

Funding offered to abet direct certification: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of $5.2 million for competitive awards to state agencies to implement direct certification and verification systems for school nutrition eligibility. Under direct certification, children in households receiving benefits under the Food Stamp Program or Medicaid can be automatically qualified for school meal programs without submitting a separate application.

Funding applications are due to USDA by January 31, 2007. For further information, see:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/government/pdf/direct_certification.pdf.

Changes Made in Senior Farmers’ Market Program

Final regulations for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), altering program operations and making it a permanent program rather than a competitive grant, were issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on December 12, 2006 in the Federal Register. Changes in the rules affect benefit levels and income eligibility for participants, among other provisions.

The SFMNP provides fresh, nutritious, unprepared, locally grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs to low-income seniors through farmers’ markets, roadside stands, and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. The program currently operates in 46 jurisdictions, including 38 states, six Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs), the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Entitlement funding of $15 million a year is provided through the Farm Bill.

The most significant and controversial change was in the benefit allotment. Currently, benefit levels range from $10 per year in Massachusetts to $165 in Hawaii. USDA opted to impose a minimum annual benefit level of $20 per participant and a maximum of $50. That change will potentially affect 17 jurisdictions – 11 with benefits under $20 and six that provide over $50 a year.

However, USDA decided to grandfather in states outside of that range. Those under $20 may continue their fiscal year 2006 benefit levels without penalty; those above $50 may retain their current benefit structure, but will be ineligible to receive expansion funds (should any become available) until a $50 cap is implemented. New jurisdictions joining the SFMNP must adhere to the $20-$50 range. Allowing benefit levels above $50 will help states maintain CSA delivery models, which tend to provide higher benefits.

Persons 60 years of age and older will be categorically eligible for the SFMNP, with states allowed to establish a higher age limit and ITOs permitted to offer eligibility at 55 years of age. In all cases, participants must have income below 185 percent of federal poverty guidelines. The new rules are effective on January 11, 2007. For additional information, see the Federal Register notice at:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/

2006/pdf/06-9569.pdf.

Wealth Disparities Growing Worldwide

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. As income inequality reaches record levels in most countries, including the U.S., the distribution of wealth – such as stocks, bonds, and land – is becoming even more concentrated, according to a new report from the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University released on December 5, 2006.

In 2000, just 37 million people, the top one percent of the world’s population, controlled about 40 percent of the world’s net worth and the top 10 percent held 85 percent of the world’s assets. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the population owned a mere 1.1 percent of global wealth and the gap is widening. Americans have more than their share. In 2000, the United States accounted for 4.7 percent of the world’s population but 32.6 percent of the world’s wealth.

“We use the term [wealth] in its long-established sense of net worth: the value of physical and financial assets less debts,” said James Davies, a professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario and one of the report’s authors. “In this respect wealth represents the ownership of capital. Although capital is only one part of personal resources, it is widely believed to have a disproportionate impact on household well-being and economic success, and more broadly on economic development and growth.”

For additional details, go to:

http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/2006-2007/2006-2007-1/wider-wdhw-launch-5-12-2006/

wider-wdhw-press-release-5-12-2006.pdf.

Having a Very Cherry New Year

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on December 15, 2006 that it plans to purchase up to 12.2 million pounds of tart cherry products as a bonus item for child nutrition and domestic food assistance programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). USDA will survey potential recipient agencies to determine how much product is desired and can be used before seeking bids from producers for delivery of cherry products next year.

Community Food Project Profile: An Island Food System Reborn Out of Disaster

Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of articles celebrating the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Food Projects program and featuring some of the more successful projects.

On September 11, 1992, one of the most powerful storms ever to strike an American shoreline, Hurricane Iniki, roared out of the Central Pacific and pounded the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The Category 4 hurricane devastated the small island, leaving one-third of the population homeless and severely damaging the homes of another third. The hurricane also revealed the fragility of Kauai’s food system, which was centered around mono-crop sugar and pineapple plantations.

“In a blink, we learned from that hurricane that our island maintained only a three-day supply of food in the grocery stores,” said Judy Lenthall, executive director of the Kauai Food Bank, an organization that was formed to provide disaster relief. “We imported about 90 percent of all our food,” she added, noting that, “Never again could anyone be so naïve or complacent about local food security.”

In the months following the hurricane, the Food Bank distributed over five million pounds of food to approximately 20 percent of the island’s 60,000 residents. With the plantations wiped out and the tourist industry brought to a standstill with the destruction of most hotels and resorts, recovery would take years and unemployment hovered well above the 20 percent range.

The Food Bank applied for Community Food Projects (CFP) funds in 1996, the first year of the program, and won a $79,000 award to help teach recipients of emergency food to grow their own food at a Food Bank farm on donated land that was a former plantation. In 1998, following intensive composting, restoration, and irrigation, the two-acre Anahola Farm began producing an abundant array of fruits and vegetables, including taro, eggplant, green onions, papayas, bananas, soybeans, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, and cabbage.

Because an estimated 15 percent of the island population still needed Food Bank assistance, all of the farm’s 12,000 pounds of production that first year was distributed to hungry and food insecure island residents. But to help the other growers it was now cultivating, the Food Bank initiated a wholesale produce brokerage operation. Under a new Hui Mea’ai (translated from Hawaiian as “a group of people growing things to eat”) program, the Food Bank bought fruits and vegetables from local farmers and began selling them to restaurants, hotels, and grocers.

“Our very first transaction was 100 pounds of taro grown by the Kapaa High School Alternative Learning Center, which was sold to Big Save Supermarkets, the largest chain of grocers on Kauai,” Ms. Lenthall reported. Within a year, the program was averaging about 1,200 pounds sold each month, and increasing rapidly. Using the motto “Think Global – Eat Local,” the Hui Mea’ai was featured at some of the finest restaurants on Kauai. By 2000, the effort was helping 57 local growers sell produce to 63 outlets, including major hotels (Marriott and Sheraton), many restaurants, five grocery stores, and the only hospital on the island.

The Hui Mea’ai project has been renamed “Kauai Fresh,” and the Food Bank began developing a new business plan in 2006. “Kauai Fresh has put a total of almost $2 million into the pockets of local growers and provided millions of pounds of produce for the community,” Ms. Lenthall said. “Kauai Fresh enables the smallest backyard grower to get a foothold in the local produce market and provides him or her with an income stream that through the multiplier effect contributes to the local economy in numerous ways.”

The project had begun to meet the CFP goal of becoming self-sustaining, making substantial progress toward improving the island’s food security until a weather disaster intervened again. Downpours exceeding biblical proportions battered Kauai during the spring of 2006. “It rained for 47 consecutive days and nights,” Ms. Lenthall told Foodlinks America. Some parts of the island received more than 90 inches of rain in March alone. Growers have been wiped out and discouraged, and the Kauai Fresh program has been temporarily suspended. But the Food Bank has a plan to revitalize the effort. “It’s just going to be a matter of time,” Ms. Lenthall said.

Small Bites

Guzzling bottled water: Americans drank 23.2 gallons of bottled water per person in 2004, nearly ten times as much as in 1980.

The geometry of corn: The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows, and corn always has an even number of rows on each ear.

Corny societies: Mexicans consume nearly 400 pounds of corn per capita each year, compared to about 160 pounds in the U.S. and just 15 pounds per person in India.

Where eggplant is king: Asia produces about 78 percent of the world’s eggplant.

Women and vegetables: Approximately 70 percent of vegetarians in the U.S. are women.

America is virtually fruitless: The only major fruits native to North America are blueberries, cranberries, and concord grapes.

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