TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - May 25, 2007

In this issue:

• Budget Completion Triggers Appropriations, Farm Bill Action
• Proposed Legislation
• Food Stamp Facts
• Hunger Awareness Promoted
• Obesity Round-Up
• Apple Buy May Ease Bonus Drought
• 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.

Budget Completion Triggers Appropriations, Farm Bill Action

Congress came within two days of meeting its deadline for a budget resolution, endorsing a spending plan for fiscal year 2008 and beyond on May 17, 2007. The finalization of the budget resolution allows spending decisions on next year’s appropriations, along with action on other substantive legislation, such as the Farm Bill, to move forward.

Democratic majorities in the House, on a 214-209 vote, and in the Senate, by 52-40, agreed on the provisions of a $2.9 trillion outline for government operations in fiscal year 2008. The budget resolution, a self-imposed, non-binding document that “provides a crucial blueprint to guide the nation’s fiscal course,” was completed near the May 15 deadline. Democrats claim that their budget is balanced, provides middle-class tax relief, and allocates more money for important national priorities, including $50 billion more for children’s health care, an additional $43 billion for veterans’ programs, including medical care, and $9.5 billion more for education.

Budget passage has sparked action in the Appropriations Committees on fiscal 2008 spending decisions. House appropriators will begin mark-ups this week and hope to pass all 12 appropriations bills out of subcommittee before the Fourth of July recess. Final spending decisions could be made as early as July.

For fiscal 2008, anti-hunger advocates are pushing appropriations of $140 million for food purchases and full funding of $60 million for distribution under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), increased funding for the WIC Program to maintain caseload, a rejection of the Administration’s proposal to eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), expanded summer food programs, and more money for farmers’ market programs.

Decisions in the budget resolution also set parameters for the Farm Bill, with inclusion of a $20 billion reserve fund. But the fund comes at a price. As Senate Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) noted, “The budget resolution provides up to $20 billion in a deficit neutral reserve fund for the Farm Bill. This will give us considerable new funding provided we find offsets in the budget. That is a challenge given the tight budget situation,” said Harkin. “Nevertheless,” Harkin stated, “I can justify additional spending to address our farm, food and energy needs and will continue working to secure additional funding as we move forward.”

Farm Bill nutrition components, including the Food Stamp Program, TEFAP and other commodity distribution efforts, along with the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, are all due for renewal this year through the legislation. Food security and direct marketing programs, also covered in the Farm Bill, will also be considered.

There is no lack of proposals to amend Farm Bill programs. Among the more recent entries are H.R. 2129, from Representatives James McGovern (D-MA) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), that would invest $20 billion in improving food stamp benefits, and the Local Food and Farm Support Act, or H.R. 2364, from Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), which expands farmers’ market and school programs to promote local and regional products.

“Right now, processing and distribution systems are unequal,” said Blumenauer. “There are limited choices for farmers, and we want to see if there are ways to enhance them.”  Consequently, his bill would boost funding for value-added processing, community food projects, and farm-to-school programs. “At a time of skyrocketing energy costs, when there are health concerns, when there are things coming in from foreign countries that have not been inspected, … I think it’s entirely appropriate to have a modest local preference.”

Blumenauer introduced his legislation as a stand-alone bill, but it is likely to get folded into other proposals in the formulation of a final Farm Bill, which began on May 22 with House Agriculture Subcommittee mark-ups. But he is confident consumer-oriented proposals will carry the day this time. “Given the forces that are at work here, I think there’s some real potential for people to line up behind specific pieces that will help shape what’s going on,” Blumenauer said.

Proposed Legislation

Among bills recently introduced in the 110th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:

House Resolution (H.R.) 2144:Â Introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and 29 bipartisan co-sponsors, the bill reportedly (text not available yet) will address market and economic development programs, conservation, plus nutrition and healthy diets, including food stamp improvements, expansion of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, Community Food Projects growth, and farm-to-school support.

H.R. 2346: Introduced by Representative Earl Blumenauer, the Local Food and Farm Support Act would increase funding for value-added agricultural products, boost support for farmers’ market nutrition programs, expand farm-to-school efforts, and augment community food projects.

Senate (S.) 1432: Introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and four co-sponsors, the Food Outreach and Opportunity Development (FOOD) for a Healthy America Act, the bill is similar to H.R. 2364 (above) that would increase funding for farmers’ market programs, expand farm-to-school efforts, and augment community food projects.

For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov and enter the bill number. For a consolidated list of pending legislation featured in this newsletter, see: www.tefapalliance.org/TakeAction.htm.

Food Stamp Facts

Congresspeople challenged: Four members of the House of Representatives accepted the Food Stamp Challenge and recently spent a week living on $21 for food – about a dollar per meal – the amount of government benefits received by an average food stamp participant. Voluntarily limiting their diet were Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), James McGovern (D-MA), Tim Ryan (D-OH), and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). McGovern noted that, “It’s almost impossible to make healthy choices on a food stamp diet. No organic foods, no fresh vegetables, we were looking for the cheapest of everything.”

“I’m glad I decided to participate in this challenge,” said Ms. Schakowsky. “I learned a lot just going to the grocery store. It’s not easy to eat on $3 a day. I can only imagine what shopping would have been like with small children, who like all kids want special treats. It’s especially expensive to buy nutritious fruits and vegetables.” She empathized with food stamp participants: “It is clear to me that the current food stamp benefit is totally inadequate. I have managed to stay within the budget, but I only have to do this for one week. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to live like this every day of your life.”

“We need to do more to eliminate hunger and poverty in this country,” concluded McGovern who, along with Emerson, has introduced legislation to raise food stamp benefits levels. “The point of this [challenge] is, a lot of people are struggling.” The Farm Bill is coming and we can do something about it.”

It’s really a child nutrition program: The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is centered around children and helps provide an adequate diet to families that contain 13 million of them. Nearly one in five children in the U.S. benefits from food stamps. Overall, half of all FSP recipients are children and more than half of the rest (27 percent) are adults who live with those children.

About 80 percent of food stamp benefits go to families with children – $23 billion in 2006, according to an analysis of program data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) of Washington, D.C. Food stamp families with children barely have income above half the poverty line (53 percent) and the program protects 1.1 million children from living in extreme poverty (income below half the poverty line).

For more details, see:Â http://www.cbpp.org/4-26-07fa-fact.htm.

Scratching out a diet from scratch: When the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the basis for food stamp benefits, was first devised in 1975, most families had a non-working adult in the home to make meals from scratch. Consequently, the TFP is predicated on participants spending a significant amount of time preparing meals. A new government study finds that changing food stamp characteristics such as income, employment status, gender, and family composition are affecting food preparation decisions.

“Regardless of income and marital status, women spend more time preparing food than men do,” notes the May 2007 report, “Who Has Time to Cook” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Research found that nonworking women spent over 70 minutes a day preparing food versus 38-46 minutes for full-time working women. ERS notes that, “Recent efforts have been made to incorporate more convenient and commercially prepared foods into the TFP market basket.”

To learn more, go to:Â http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ERR40/.

Hunger Awareness Promoted

“The Face of Hunger Will Surprise You,” according to America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank network, sponsor of Hunger Awareness Day on June 5, 2007. The event is planned to draw attention to the more than 35 million Americans suffering from hunger or food insecurity. Food drives, hunger walks, and “empty bowls” meals will encourage people to get active and involved, while generating increased donations to local food banks and food pantries.
Special activities to help raise the visibility of the hunger problem will also be held, such as a “Canstruction” site in Chicago where structures made entirely out of canned foods and designed by teams of architects and engineers will be on display and a “Garden in a Bucket” giveaway in East Syracuse, NY to help low-income people grow their own food.

For more information about Hunger Awareness Day events in your local area, connect with:Â http://www.hungerday.org/content/index.php.

Obesity Round-Up

Obesity affects workers’ compensation costs: Obese workers filed double the number of workers’ compensation claims, which result in medical expenses seven times higher than those for non-obese workers, according to a new analysis coming out of Duke University in North Carolina and published in the April 23, 2007 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Obese workers also lost 13 times the number of days of work due to injury or illness than those not obese. Workers with higher risk jobs had both higher economic and medical costs.

Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center examined the records of more than 11,700 University employees – from professors to groundskeepers – from 1997 to 2004 for their study. “We all know obesity is bad for the individual, but it isn’t solely a medical problem – it spills over into the workplace and has concrete economic costs,” said Dr. Truis Ostbye, a professor of family medicine. The study found that the body parts most prone to injury were the wrist, hand, and back. The most common causes of injuries were falls or slips, and lifting.

“Given the strong link between obesity and workers’ compensation costs, maintaining healthy weight is not only important to workers but should also be a high priority for employers,” noted Ostbye. “Work-based programs designed to target healthful eating and physical activity should be developed and then evaluated as part of a strategy to make all workplaces healthier and safer.”

For more detailed results of the study, go to:Â http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/167/8/766.

It takes a village: Weight reduction is a municipal priority in Somerville, Massachusetts. Specialists from the nearby Tufts University School of Nutrition have designed a city-wide anti-obesity program for this town of 78,000 just outside Boston. The success of the program relies on taking small steps to accomplish civic goals. To encourage more physical activity, the city re-painted crosswalks, employed school crossing guards, installed bike racks, held health fairs, gave away pedometers, and paid for gym memberships for city employees.

In the school lunchrooms, the fare is healthier – whole grain flour being used, baking instead of frying – and more fresh produce is available to school children. The results are small so far, but notable. Somerville children gained less weight than children in two neighboring communities that served as control groups. The results of the first year testing of such “community-based environmental change intervention” strategies is reported in the May 2007 issue of the journal Obesity, at: http://www.obesityresearch.org/cgi/content/…..=0&volume=15&issue=5&resourcetype=HWCIT.

Apple Buy May Ease Bonus Drought

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on May 10, 2007 that it would purchase nearly 54 million pounds of apple products for distribution to commodity programs serving households and institutions. The purchases, if completed, will represent one of the few extra federal products available this year through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and other commodity distribution efforts.

USDA hopes to buy applesauce, apple juice, and cherry/apple juice for needy households and applesauce, and canned and frozen apple slices for institutions.  Products would be shipped in the fall of 2007.

Reports from the Field

Emergency food supplies have been so low all around the nation that the Wall Street Journal is sporting headlines like that of May 22, 2007, stating that not only are people in need but that “Food Banks Go Hungry,” too:

Three years ago, the Food Bank for Monterey County would receive a truckload filled with as much as 40,000 pounds of dented soup cans, mislabeled cereal boxes and other salvage products every three weeks, says Leslie Sunny, the bank’s executive director. Now the bank receives one truckload every three to four months “if we’re lucky,” she says.

Nationwide, food banks – clearinghouses that distribute food donations to local charitable pantries and emergency shelters – report receiving fewer donations in the form of imperfectly packaged canned and boxed edibles. It is the down side of a drive in recent years by manufacturers and retailers for greater supply-chain efficiency. Toward that end, many food manufacturers began producing food in quantities more closely tailored to individual retail customers’ needs. That in turn has reduced the amount of food that gets sold to retailers and ultimately returned to the manufacturers.

At the same time, new technology has helped eliminate production errors such as processing canned food without labels or producing an entire order of cereal boxes using upside-down text.  To make up for the product loss, food banks are seeking ways to raise money to buy more food. They are also looking for new types of food, including perishables. Some food banks are hiring trucks to pick up food directly from farms.

The food-bank shortages are nationwide. The Community Food Banks of South Dakota in Sioux Falls, S.D., received 35 percent fewer donations from grocery stores last year. The Greater Chicago Food Depository, the nation’s fourth-largest food bank in terms of the amount of food distributed, has 12 percent fewer donations this year than last.

“For years, food just landed in our lap,” says Kate Maehr, executive director of the Chicago Depository. Now, she says, “we have to work twice as hard to get half the amount of food.”

Many food banks have made up for the loss of salvage products by buying food through donation drives, but others are giving out less food overall. Faye Gilliam, 64 years old, volunteers at the Monterey food bank in exchange for a “thank-you box” filled with food, like canned tuna, bread, fresh vegetables and canned soup. Ms. Gilliam is disabled and relies on the box to help put food on the table for herself and her husband. She says that the box’s contents have grown leaner over the past few years. “The donations just seem to be less,” she says, noting that the box contains fewer cans of tuna and vegetables, but more beans.

In the sun-filled food pantry at St. James Catholic Church in Chicago’s inner city, pantry coordinator Cathy Moore works amid a bustle of volunteers handing out brown paper bags of food to the needy. The bags are filled with an eclectic mix: uncooked red beans, Kraft Pasta Salad “Gourmet Favorites,” Skippy peanut butter, Campbell’s tomato soup, Manischewitz Matzos, a chocolate Easter bunny, some Swiss Miss hot cocoa.

Like most pantries, St. James relies on food banks to sell them groceries at deeply discounted rates. This year, Ms. Moore says the menu of food choices from the Greater Chicago Food Depository is smaller. “They don’t offer as much as they used to,” she says.
But, she says, “we’ve been blessed” because the pantry received a $33,000 grant from
Kraft Foods Inc. last year, which has enabled it to buy more food directly from the local grocery store. That means the families, the homeless, and the elderly haven’t noticed a big change. Still, the grant is almost depleted, and if they don’t get a renewal, says Ms. Moore, “they will see a change.”

In Phoenix, St. Mary’s Food Bank is seeing about 15 percent fewer donations over the past year, says Executive Director Terry Shannon. St. Mary’s, which bills itself as the world’s first food bank, was established in 1967 by the late John van Hengel after talking with a poor woman who scavenged for dented canned food in grocery-store dumpsters. A creative character who dabbled in everything from advertising to driving beer trucks, he came up with the idea of having a central location for food-industry waste.

The concept is workable as long as the waste proliferates. But retailers are finding new avenues to sell damaged goods. Some grocery stores are putting dented cans in discount bins rather than sending them to the local food bank. Others are selling product into the so-called gray market where brokers sell unsalable groceries to discount stores, flea markets or “banana box” grocery stores, shops that sell salvage food packaged in old banana boxes. Grocery stores are also increasingly using sophisticated technology that allows them to closely monitor their inventory, thereby stocking only the products that are selling.

“We understand exactly what we’re ordering, what’s being scanned out,” says Jeff Norkiewicz, a board member of the Northern Illinois Food Bank and vice president at Dominick’s Finer Foods, a Chicago-based grocery store owned by Safeway Inc., the Pleasanton, Calif., supermarket chain. Today, an estimated 1.2 percent of the total goods that move through the food industry supply chain are considered unsalable, according to Patrick Walsh at the Food Marketing Institute, a trade association that represents food retailers. These products were valued at about $2 billion in 2005, down from about $2.5 billion the year before.

Retailers say they have found new – and some say better – ways to contribute to food banks. For example, many grocery stores will donate money so a food bank can purchase its own food. Safeway says its donations of cash and food to food banks amounted to $110 million last year, up from $109 million the year before. And supermarket chain Supervalu Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minn., says that contributions to food banks “have remained steady or continued to increase in many areas of the country.”

Food manufacturers point out that they are still major donors to food banks, even though industry dynamics may be shifting the ways they give. Tim Knowlton, vice president of corporate and social responsibility at Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich., says Kellogg donated more than $24 million of food last year to America’s Second Harvest – a national network of food banks – up 5 percent from 2005.

The food banks themselves are innovating as spare cans of beans and boxes of pasta become less plentiful. Some are acquiring more perishable products like bruised bananas and meat just past its sell-by date. Although often more nutritious than canned goods, perishables can be difficult and expensive to handle and carry a measure of risk. But food banks say the sell-by date is usually much earlier than the true expiration date and that they take pains to ensure nothing is spoiled. Some food banks, like the one in Salinas, are buying refrigerators and refrigerated trucks.

Dennis Smith, executive director of the Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles, Ill., says the bank has actually increased its donations by ramping up its recovery of perishable products directly from retailers. At the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano in California, nonperishable food donations are down to less than 15 percent of total donations from 25 percent a few years ago.

But overall donations are up because of a program where the food bank hires trucks to deliver food from vegetable farms and orange groves from as far as 250 miles away. Larry Sly, executive director of the Contra Costa food bank, pays two cents a pound for oranges – and $400 to have a load shipped. “All of a sudden,” he says, “that free food has a cost.”

Small Bites

For a special palate:  The latest, most outrageous food – Kool Aid pickles.  Popular first in the South, dill pickles turn colors like red or purple and acquire a unique sweet sour flavor when left to marinate in Kool Aid for up to a week.

Outdoor corollary of the five-second rule:Â Thirty-eight percent of grill chefs say they put food back on the grill after it has been dropped on the ground.

Organic efficiencies:Â An organic farming system uses 30 percent less energy than a conventional farm and emits 50 to 67 percent less carbon dioxide.

Pasta packing:Â Americans eat about 20 pounds of pasta each per year.

California gone nuts: California produces nearly two-thirds of the world’s walnuts.

Liquid diets:Â Due to the presence of high-fructose corn syrup, Americans consume more calories from soft drinks than any other single food.

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