TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - February 16, 2007

In this issue:

· Support Sought for TEFAP Increases
· Bush Budget for 2008 Cuts Food Programs
· Continuing Resolution Keeps Programs Funded
· Senate Agriculture Subcommittee Named
· Proposed Legislation
· Obesity Round-Up
· 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@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.

Support Sought for TEFAP Increases

Help the hungry! The TEFAP Alliance is continuing to press Congress for sizeable increases in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) through the Farm Bill this year. Organizations willing to endorse the “Transforming TEFAP – A Call for Action” statement, which calls for $500 million annually in TEFAP food purchases accompanied by $175 million annually in storage and distribution funding, are requested to email Barbara Vauthier at bvauthier@tefapalliance.org to pledge their support. The Transforming TEFAP statement may be viewed at: http://www.tefapalliance.org/CallToActionStatment.html.

Bush Budget for 2008 Cuts Food Programs

President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 would compromise nutrition assistance for hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans while failing to make the investments required to meet the needs of vulnerable families, according to anti-hunger activists. Administration proposals, released on February 5, 2007, would completely eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), reduce participation in the Food Stamp Program, weaken administrative services in the WIC Program, repeal legislation that authorizes the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP), and make unspecified cuts in other discretionary programs, such as meals on wheels.

“The President’s budget does little to reflect what should be our nation’s priorities,” said the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. “Any modest improvements are overshadowed by cost-cutting measures that shortchange the 35 million Americans struggling against hunger, but make room for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest,” FRAC noted.

Elimination of the CSFP would affect some 485,000 low-income people – over 91 percent of them elderly – in 32 states, the District of Columbia, and two Indian Nations, who receive a monthly box of food worth around $50 that includes canned tuna fish, peanut butter, cereal, and cheese. The Administration’s proposal includes temporary transitional food stamp benefits for CSFP seniors, only about $20 worth, however.

Congress has rebuffed previous attempts to kill the CSFP, a move even some Republicans oppose. “Eliminating the CSFP will leave many of our poor and elderly Americans out in the cold without access to a nutritious food source,” said Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Nutrition of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “I will once again defend CSFP during this year’s budget debate and make certain this valuable program has the resources to assist the poor and elderly in Minnesota and across America,” he added.

Some positive food stamp changes in the budget would exclude retirement accounts, college savings plans, and military combat pay from being counted as resources and eliminate the cap on the dependent care deduction. However, food stamp eligibility for certain households receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services in 40 states would be eliminated, removing an estimated 329,000 people from the rolls. There are no provisions for expanded eligibility for legal immigrants and “also missing are meaningful raises in food stamp allotment levels from the $1 dollar per person per meal average and the decades-old $10 monthly minimum benefit,” commented FRAC.

In the WIC Program, although the national caseload would be maintained at 8.3 million recipients, the Administration would freeze funding for nutrition education and administration at fiscal year 2006 levels, limiting access to the program and lowering the quality of services to low-income and nutritionally at-risk women, infants, and children.

Finally, the budget proposal would eliminate the Community Services Block Grant and the CFNP, which is authorized in the same legislation. Although the CFNP has not received appropriations during the last two years, this small, $7 million a year program has, for more than 30 years, provided critical seed money for a wide range of local and statewide projects to address hunger and food insecurity.

Congress will now begin working on a budget outline for fiscal year 2008. The Budget Committees are expected to deliver an overall spending plan for next year by mid-March. Appropriations Committees will then provide program allocations within the budget categories, but it is unlikely Democratic spending plans will follow the President’s priorities. “I am extremely disappointed that the President has chosen to present us a budget that is so unrealistic and, frankly, deceptive,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who will chair the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee this session. Representative David Obey (D-WI), chair of the full House Appropriations Committee, referred to the President’s budget request as, “Good ideas, bad ideas, and the usual phony baloney.”

Continuing Resolution Keeps Programs Funded

Congress has enacted a $463 billion appropriations bill to keep federal programs funded through the remainder of fiscal year 2007. Rather than passing separate appropriations bills for various agencies, all spending was combined into a continuing resolution to maintain most programs, including food and nutrition services, at fiscal year 2006 levels until September 30 of this year.

Before passage, Democrats “cut over 60 programs below fiscal year 2006 levels, providing roughly $10 billion in savings that were used to address critical investment needs,” according to a House Appropriations Committee news release. Additional funds were allocated for veterans’ health care, Head Start, community health centers, housing vouchers, and grants to college students.

With fiscal year 2007 spending action completed, Congress is now set to begin working on a budget and appropriations for fiscal year 2008. Hearings on these matters have begun and the Democratic leadership is predicting that a budget resolution to outline a spending framework for next year will be completed by the middle of March.

Senate Agriculture Subcommittee Named

Another key congressional committee in the food and nutrition arena has been selected. The Subcommittee on Nutrition and Food Assistance, Sustainable and Organic Agriculture, and General Legislation of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry was named earlier this week. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was chosen to chair the subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over food stamps, commodity programs, and other nutrition-related aspects of the Farm Bill.

Other Democrats named to the subcommittee are: Blanche Lincoln (AR); Debbie Stabenow (MI); Sherrod Brown (OH); Robert Casey, Jr. (PA); and Amy Klobuchar (MN). Republicans on the subcommittee are: Norm Coleman (MN), Ranking Member; Richard Lugar (IN); Thad Cochran (MS); Mitch McConnell (KY); and Mike Crapo (ID).

Proposed Legislation

Among bills recently introduced in the 110th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:
House Resolution (H.R.) 398: Introduced by Representative Hilda Solis (D-CA), this bill proposes the Healthy Places Act focusing on environmental health assessments of communities and the funding of environmental health promotion activities, including determining access to nutritional food.

Senate (S.) 100: Introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Healthy Students Act includes provisions for the establishment of a Commission to Improve School Meals under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the Dietary Guidelines, evaluate nutritional and dietary needs of school-age children, and recommend new standards for child nutrition programs. The legislation also includes a School Nutrition Pilot Program for school districts and non-profit organizations to provide organic food alternatives, promote healthy food education in school curricula, and carry out garden to kitchen or seed to table programs as well as a Healthy Hour Pilot Program in which schools would devote an hour exclusively to physical activity.

For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov and enter the bill number.

Obesity Round-Up

• States rated on tackling obesity: States are increasingly taking the initiative to address obesity through legislation and public policy. The University of Baltimore’s annual Obesity Report Card for 2006 for the first time gave six states – California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee – an “A” for their work in addressing childhood obesity. Twenty-one states earned a B, 15 got a C, five received a D, and three – Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming – got a failing grade of F for doing nothing.

University researchers based their grades on eight types of legislation: nutrition standards; vending machine usage; body mass index (BMI) measured in school; recess and physical education; obesity programs and education; obesity research; obesity treatment in health insurance; and obesity commissions. “Were seeing more of these laws coming out of the states, and some of them are quite effective,” said Zoltan Acs, co-founder of the University’s Obesity Initiative. “A federal solution would be much more difficult. Every state has a different mix of populations, a different outlook on diet and nutrition, and so a one-size-fits-all approach would not be feasible,” he added. For more details, see: http://www.ubalt.edu/experts/obesity/.

• Americans eating better? Maybe: Recent analysis of dietary trends in the U.S. produced some good news and some not so good news. Based on longitudinal data collected for the Minnesota Heart Survey, University of Minnesota researchers found that between 1980 and 2002, Americans consumed more healthy stuff (fruits, vegetables, total grain, and whole grain), and reduced their intake of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. They also drank less alcohol. These improvements were reflected in declining rates of heart disease and death. Results were reported in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

However, little improvement was noted in energy balance (calories intake vs. calorie expenditure), sodium intake, and amount of fish consumed. Another “worrisome finding for our study is that overall improvements in the diet appear to have plateaued and leveled off during the last five years of the period we studied, after consistent progress between 1980-1982 and 1995-1997,” said Dr. Lisa Harnack of the University of Minnesota. “Indeed, reversal of some favorable trends was observed … in the latest survey period.”

To learn more, see: http://www.adajournal.org/article/PIIS0002822306024916/abstract.

Reports from the Field

·                    Urban residents of Minnesota’s Twin Cities region face severe challenges in accessing fresh, reasonably-priced food, as excerpts from an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on December 28, 2006 describe:

Leon Davis is out of milk.  The ordeal begins.  Grab a coat. Trudge to a bus stop.  Catch one bus downtown, then wait for another.  Get on, then off at the Aldi store.  Carry as much as his bad back will allow – milk, apple juice, bread.  Then take two buses home.   Total time: 2½ hours.   “It’s a hassle for real,” said Davis, a beefy 54-year-old student at St. Paul College, where he’s learning to be a receptionist.  “I’d call it a real headache.”

Much of St. Paul has the same headache.  An analysis by the Pioneer Press shows that Davis lives in what health experts have called a ‘food desert’ – an urban area with few supermarkets and, therefore, limited access to cheap, healthful food.  It may be common knowledge that urban areas don’t have the quality or quantity of food stores enjoyed by suburbs.  But the grocery gap has become a chasm that is alarming experts and shoppers alike – food deserts now engulf one-third of St. Paul and more than half of Minneapolis neighborhoods.

“It’s almost scandalous,” said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.  “I believe there is a direct connection between lack of healthy food and poor health.  This is a huge issue for us.”  In the Twin Cities, several suburbs have more than 20 times the food stores per capita as in the food deserts.  And the shortage of food stores is made worse by a shortage of cars – nearly one out of five households in Minneapolis and St. Paul food deserts don’t own vehicles.

In these urban areas, people rely on convenience stores, with higher prices and a limited selection of fruits and vegetables.  Some experts say that could be a factor in why inner-city populations have higher rates of food-related illnesses, including heart disease, obesity and diabetes, than do suburbanites.  “This certainly is a social justice issue,” said Dianne Blaydes, a researcher who studied access to healthful food in Hennepin County in 2002.

A Pioneer Press analysis found that] there are one-third fewer convenience stores per capita in urban areas than in suburbs, but urban shoppers depend on them because the lack of supermarkets is even more severe.  St. Paul’s food desert includes the neighborhoods of Greater East Side, Payne-Phalen, North End, Dayton’s Bluff, Hamline-Midway, and Thomas-Dale – 130,000 people with 41 convenience stores.  The single supermarket is the Rainbow Foods store on Arcade Street, although three stores – Aldi, a Rainbow and a Cub Foods – sit on University Avenue, which forms Hamline-Midway’s southern border.

The grocery gap is compounded by a transportation gap.  The proportion of households without vehicles in food-desert areas is nearly four times as high as it is in Twin Cities suburbs.  People who shop via taxis and buses find it tougher to eat healthfully – because they have to carry bags of food greater distances.  “It isn’t fair to me or to senior citizens,” said St. Paul shopper Davis, after lugging his groceries home on a bus.

Blaydes’ 2002 study found that the core region of Hennepin County had one-fifth as many supermarkets or warehouse stores as the county’s suburban areas.  She developed a “marketbasket score” to measure quality, variety and price of food – literally comparing apples to apples.  “We wanted to know: Has that orange been around for five days or five months?” she said.  Her conclusion?  Bigger is better.  And cities are a poor place to be hungry.  On a 40-point scale, convenience stores had an average of 6 points on her marketbasket score; small grocery stores pegged 8; larger grocery stores, 21.  Suburban-style supercenter and warehouse stores were given a 29.

“They don’t have good stores around here. It’s downtown living,” said Tom Van Slyke, a 50-year-old St. Paul house painter, as he carried his two boxes of cookies out of a store near Mears Park.  “They are always out of bread.  They are overpriced.  It’s convenience, and that’s all it is.”  On Monday, that Mears Park store closed.

Compared with urban food deserts, the suburbs are grocery nirvana.  The stores are plentiful.  Of the 126 locations of Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, Wal-Mart, SuperTarget, and Costco, nine out of 10 are in the suburbs.  They sell food more cheaply, on average, thanks to membership clubs such as Sam’s Club and Costco that offer prices an average of up to 25 percent lower than those in traditional grocery stores – and all 12 metro locations of the membership clubs are in suburbs.  Suburban stores are often newer, with expanded produce sections.  They are bigger – about 70 percent larger than the average urban store.  The quality and especially quantity of food is better.

Why are suburbs magnets for supermarkets?  Land – like food – is cheaper in the ‘burbs.  The standard suburban supermarket requires seven to 10 acres.  Such a site can cost as much as $150 million.  As high as that is, city lots of that size are almost entirely unavailable at any price.  That is especially true for the most desirable sites – on busy streets or freeways with easy access and good visibility.  Retail food stores seek growing neighborhoods with money to spend.  Once again, that favors the suburbs.  Affluent areas such as Stillwater or Lakeville are the darlings of retail.  Add to that the perception of lower crime rates and more business-friendly policies and the suburban advantages are overwhelming.

As a result, grocers avoid the cities and cram store after competing store into the suburbs.  For example, in 53,000-population Woodbury, shoppers are swamped with choices including Rainbow Foods, Kowalski’s, Target, Cub Foods, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club – and a Trader Joe’s on the way.  In St. Paul, a single supermarket serves one-third of the city.

Despite some progress, food-desert shoppers find “shop ’til you drop” to be more than a flip slogan.  One fall afternoon, 26-year-old Hamline University law student Kelli Baxter finished shopping at the Rainbow store on University Avenue in St. Paul. She peered through the pouring rain, waiting for a taxi.  After half an hour, she gave up.  With three bags on her right arm, two on her left, she staggered across a parking lot to a bus stop.  She had to rest, and put down one paper bag.  Big mistake.  The bottom got wet, the bag tore open and food tumbled onto the pavement.  She crammed some items into her backpack, some into other bags.  But as she climbed onto the bus, the handle of one overloaded bag ripped.  How would she get her food home?  “It’s just willpower,” she said grimly.

·                    How do you get junior high school students to try new foods?  Professional chefs in Madison, Wisconsin have found a way, as detailed in the following article from the December 5, 2006 edition of The Capital Times:

In what kind of parallel universe do seventh-graders happily much raw kohlrabi, carrot and apple salad, commenting that it tastes “vibrant” and “zingy”?  Led by L’Etoile chefs Tory Miller and Eva Ringstrom two Mondays each month, approximately 175 students at Sherman Middle School are developing a hunger for fresh, healthy food while they learn eating habits that supporters of improved nutrition for school kids hope will last a lifetime.

Meanwhile, thanks to a federal agriculture department grant that is bringing a weekly delivery of fresh vegetables to their east side school, the Sherman kids have access to healthy food for snacking on a regular basis.  To begin to change the high-calorie eating patterns that are creating an epidemic of childhood obesity, several things are necessary, said Doug Wubben, program coordinator for the Madison-based non-profit Research, Education, Action and Policy on Food group.

“First, we need healthy options to be available for kids.  Then they need some experience with them,” Wubben noted.  “You can’t teach kids good nutrition without putting it in front of them.”  Sherman seventh-grader Airiell Browning says the class with Miller and Ringstrom is a favorite.  “We’ve learned about vegetables from all over the world.  I liked them all,” she said.

For Jessi Havens, also a Sherman seventh-grader, the class provides a chance to “Wake up your taste buds.  And, it’s fun,” she said.  Adrian Abeyta appreciates what he’s learning about diet and nutrition.  “I’m a football player,” he explained. “I’m bigger, and I love that.  But I’ve lost about 5 pounds from eating healthier and I’m stronger, too.  “My mom and I started jogging together.  I think I have more energy now.  I used to get out of breath, but now I can jog forever,” he added.

Wubben’s group, which oversees the Homegrown Lunch program, advocates for fresh, nutritious and sustainably produced food.  The group has worked with a number of schools in the Madison school district for the last several years, developing special programs and projects that encourage students to learn where their food comes from as well as the impact that good nutrition has on their lives.

The project at Sherman is part of an effort to develop a curriculum that teachers can use – supplemented by food producers from farmers to chefs – to help teach good nutrition to kids who are surrounded by empty-calorie snacks and barraged by advertising for heavily processed foods.  Students at Sherman were a rapt audience as Miller and Ringstrom talked to them about how they were creating a dressing for the freshly grated kohlrabi, carrots and apples.

“Like, how is it going to taste?” asked one skeptical 12-year-old.  “You’ll have to see. But I promise, it won’t be scary,” Ringstrom laughed while Miller whisked together apple cider, honey and olive oil for the salad.  “When we bring something to you, we are really bringing it to you from the farmers who grew it,” Miller said.  Then he asked if anyone in the room had lived on a farm, or knew someone who did.  A scattering of hands went up.

Miller and Ringstrom are proud participants in a project called Cooking Healthy Options in Wisconsin, or CHOW, that works with the Homegrown Lunch program to introduce fresh, nutritious, locally grown food to children.  There are similar “farm-to-school” programs around the country. Their goals include improving nutrition while helping kids reconnect with the natural world, and providing a stable market for local farmers and food processors.

“Snacks need to be ready to serve,” Wubben said.  He said that carrot coins, sweet pepper strips, sweet potato sticks and cherry tomatoes have all been served to the kids with generally positive results.  He said they are served “straight up,” meaning that they aren’t offered with dipping sauces or condiments.  Not every fresh food is a hit, he admitted.  It’s a process of getting kids used to new things, and it takes some time and exposure.  But concerns that kids will not even try fresh vegetables have proved unfounded.

“Elementary students are most open to trying new things.  Middle school is a tougher sell, generally, but once they’ve bought into something, they are really interested,” he added.  “Part of that may be that they’re at an age where they can do some of the preparation themselves,” he said.  “Students have had farmers come in to talk with them about their produce, and they’ve brought in things for the kids to try,” Wubben explained.  “Those kids are now pretty adventurous” with what they eat, Wubben said, “because they’ve seen it before.”

Wubben said that his group believes it is important for students to see the links between farm and food and table.  “We were so blessed to have Tory and Eva approach us.  They knew about Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch and they were interested in doing classroom work.  It was their initiative, but we were set up to help support it,” he said.

Small Bites

Dollars and sense I:  Americans do not want to change their monetary system.  Three-fourths of Americans oppose replacing the dollar bill, even though a dollar coin would be more durable and save the government millions of dollars a year in printing costs.

Dollars and cents II:  Americans also love the penny, even though it costs the government more to produce than it is worth.  Eliminating the penny and rounding up prices – say from $1.99 to $2.00 – would cost consumers an estimated $600 million a year.

Busy as a bee:  It takes about two million trips to flowers by honeybees to produce one pound of honey.

Busy as a beekeeper:  There are over 200,000 beekeepers in the U.S. and some 2.6 million colonies of bees.

Important as a bee:  Three-fourths of all plants, including food crops, require pollination to be fertilized and bees, along with birds and other insects, are important pollinators.

This could bee a big problem:  A new disease – called colony collapse disorder – reported this month is killing thousands of honeybee colonies in 22 states.

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