TEFAP Alliance Blog

Foodlinks America - October 26, 2007

In this issue:

• Continuing Resolution Likely to be Continued
• Senate Committee Passes Farm Bill
• Food Stamp Facts
• WIC Watch
• Proposed Legislation
• Revisions Proposed for TEFAP Allocation Formula
• 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.

Continuing Resolution Likely to be Continued

Although congressional committees are working to try to finalize fiscal year 2008 funding for individual Departments, it appears likely that an omnibus continuing resolution (CR) will be enacted for the remainder of the fiscal year, keeping most federal programs stuck at fiscal year 2007 levels. Currently, a CR is keeping government operations solvent through November 16, 2007.

The main reason for the lack of movement on appropriations is a stalemate between the White House and the Democratic majority in Congress. President Bush has vowed to veto most appropriations bills as too costly and Democrats do not have sufficient votes to override any vetoes.

Consequently, several food assistance programs face an uncertain future. Adequate funds for increased costs in food stamps and school meals must be provided by law, since they are entitlement programs. But programs in the discretionary spending category, in particular the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children or WIC Program, will need a boost in appropriations to get through fiscal year 2008.

The WIC Program faces a potential shortfall due to food price inflation, especially in the dairy product category. “WIC costs have gone through the roof and will eat up all available funds” for discretionary agriculture programs, a congressional staffer told Foodlinks America on October 19. WIC costs for fiscal year 2008 are already projected to be $300 million above Senate-approved levels. Without the approval of supplemental funding, WIC may face potential caseload cuts next year.

Congress is expected to pass at least one more omnibus CR before adjourning in late November or early December.

Senate Committee Passes Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved its version of the 2007 Farm Bill on October 25, 2007, leaving crop subsidy programs intact but squeezing out $4.3 billion in new money for improvements in nutrition assistance programs, principally food stamps and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). The legislation could be considered by the full Senate as early as the week of October 29.

Efforts in committee to amend price support payments for key crops such as cotton, wheat, rice, soybeans, and sugar were soundly defeated. The bill “really equates to no reform at all,” said Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner, though he stopped short of saying the President would veto the bill, a threat made after passage of a House bill with similar provisions in July.

Key nutrition sections of the Senate Committee bill would:

- Rename the Food Stamp Program as the “Food and Nutrition Program;”

- Increase the food stamp standard deduction from $134 to $140 and index it for inflation;

- Eliminate the cap on the dependent care deduction in food stamps;

- Increase the food stamp minimum benefit from $10 to $12 in fiscal year 2009 and adjust it for inflation in later years;

- Exempt certain retirement and education savings accounts from food stamp asset limits;

- Increase mandatory spending on TEFAP commodities from $140 million to $240 million annually;

- Raise annual spending on the free fresh fruits and vegetables program in schools from $9 million to $225 million and expand the program to all 50 states and the District of Columbia; and

- Increase annual funding for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program from $15 million to $25 million.

The Committee bill will face significant challenges on the Senate floor, where further attempts will be made to reduce crop subsidies. As Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) noted, “The Committee is one thing, but the floor is another, and we’re all able to do our own thing on the floor.” If and when the Farm Bill passes the Senate, it must still be reconciled with the House bill prior to final enactment.

Food Stamp Facts

Updated caseload characteristics detailed: The majority of food stamp recipients last year were either children or elderly and were very poor, according to Characteristics of Food Stamp Households: Fiscal Year 2006 Summary recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Nearly half (49 percent) of those receiving benefits were children and nine percent were over age 60. Thirty-nine percent of households had incomes at, or below, half the poverty line and one-seventh had no cash income of any kind.

Long-term caseload trends have become even more pronounced: There are more working families – almost 30 percent of food stamp households had earnings in 2006, compared to 19 percent in 1990; fewer are receiving cash welfare benefits – 13 percent last year compared to 42 percent in 1990; and households with zero gross income doubled from seven percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2006.

The average household size was 2.3 persons and the average monthly benefit per household was $208. Outside of food stamps, households had few resources to draw on. The average food stamp household possessed only $137 in countable resources, including checking and savings accounts. Seventy percent had no resources at all. For additional information, go to: http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/menu/Published/FSP/FILES/Participation/2006CharacteristicsSummary.pdf.

Benefits untapped in urban areas: Low food stamp participation rates left more that $2.27 billion in food stamp benefits unclaimed in 24 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2005, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a Washington, D.C. advocacy group. On average, the program reached only 65 percent of eligible people in those cities, noted FRAC in its Food Stamp Access in Urban America report, released on October 11, 2007.

Among cities surveyed, food stamp participation was the lowest in San Diego, CA, with only 31 percent availing themselves of the program. Las Vegas, NV had a 44 percent participation rate, with Houston, TX and Denver, CO also having less than half of eligible people participating. The highest participation rates were in the Detroit, MI area (98 percent) and Indianapolis, IN (86 percent).

“Far too many people in U.S. cities face a constant struggle against hunger. And, far too many miss out on food stamps because of outdated rules, unnecessary red tape, concerns about stigma, or simply not knowing about the program,” said Jim Weill, FRAC’s president. FRAC called on state and city officials to make food stamps more accessible, cut red tape, conduct more outreach, and take other steps to reach eligible but unserved families. FRAC also urged Congress to improve food stamp access while considering food stamp reauthorization in the Farm Bill this fall. For additional details, view the report at: http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/10.11.07.html.

WIC Watch

New food package rules expected soon: In August 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a proposed rule that would revise the WIC food package for the first time in more than 25 years and potentially allow the purchase of fruits and vegetables for women and children in the program outside of farmers’ markets and farmstands. A final rule is reportedly being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget and USDA officials are still hopeful that it will be issued by the end of the calendar year. The regulations would be issued as an interim final rule, allowing for further public comment.

Alternatives for Produce in WIC Examined: However, it appears there will be no easy way to include fruits and vegetables in the food packages of women and children served in the WIC Program. A study conducted for USDA reviewed various methods for structuring a cash value voucher (CVV) system, but came up with no solid consensus or recommendation for the best way to do it.

After conducting a literature review, interviews with stakeholders, and focus groups with panels of experts familiar with the program, the USDA contractor, State Information Technology Consortium (SITC) of Herndon, VA, was able to provide a list of key findings and considerations that showed there is a lot more work to do. SITC’s report, Analysis of Alternatives for Implementing a Cash Value Voucher Program, looked at more than half a dozen alternatives, including electronic benefits transfer (EBT) using a magnetic stripe, online card, an EBT offline smart card, store gift and loyalty cards, stored value cards, electronic coupons, Internet orders, and paper checks or vouchers.

The study concluded that regardless of the CVV option ultimately chosen, states and WIC retailers will need to make time and invest money to develop the appropriate infrastructure. Use of a paper CVV instrument would be the easiest and quickest method to implement, but would offer no process for restricting what foods are purchased and would not allow states to vary the types of produce offered – a flexibility that states feel strongly about maintaining, according to focus group input.

SITC also noted that “participants prefer card technology … because it allows them to carry forward a balance, reduces stigma, and simplifies their transaction.” However, such systems would be more expensive and would require universally-accepted produce codes currently lacking at the retail level, and enforcing restrictions on purchases would be “administratively difficult and costly.” For more details, access the report at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/EBT/cvvreport.htm.

Proposed Legislation

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

House Resolution (H.R.) 3717: Introduced by Representatives Tom Udall (D-NM) and Mary Bono (R-CA), this bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide a tax credit to employers for the cost of implementing wellness programs that offer behavioral change components relating to obesity, nutrition, and physical fitness and a supportive work environment, including more nutritious foods at worksite cafeterias and in vending machines.

H.R. 3760: Introduced by Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) and two co-sponsors, this bill would amend elementary and secondary education laws to enable local education agencies to use funds for innovative programs to increase learning in nutrition and exercise.

H.R. 3805: Introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), the Food Stamp Equality Act would provide states an option to provide food assistance that would foster community integration.

H.R. 3895: Introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and 12 co-sponsors, the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act would extend food labeling requirements to enable customers to make informed choices about the nutritional content of standard menu items in large chain restaurants.

Senate (S.) 1753: Introduced by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR), this is a companion bill to H.R. 3717 (above) providing a tax credit to employers for the cost of implementing wellness programs.

S. 2143: Introduced by Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and eight co-sponsors, this bill would revise education laws to establish a program to improve the health and education of children through grants to expand school breakfast programs.

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

Revisions Proposed for TEFAP Allocation Formula

Modifications in the data sources used to calculate the formula for allocating commodities and administrative funds under The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) have been proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). By law, TEFAP funds are divided among states based on a formula that weights poverty statistics at 60 percent based on poverty statistics and unemployment figures at 40 percent.

For the past number of years, USDA has used poverty information from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) numbers for unemployment data. However, USDA contends that “more accurate, reliable, and up-to-date sources for gauging poverty and unemployment … are now available.”

The shortcomings CPS relies on a three-year rolling average of poverty numbers and BLS statistics are based on only a three-month average from the most recent year. USDA proposes instead to use data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey (ACS) for the poverty portion of the formula and a 10-month average of BLS statistics, rather than three months. In a test run of the numbers, USDA reported that the results “are very similar to those that actually occurred.”

A notice detailing the proposed changes was published in the October 24, 2007 Federal Register, and may be viewed at: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-20963.pdf. Comments on the changes will be accepted through November 23, 2007.

Reports from the Field

The following article from The New York Times of October 18, 2007 illustrates the crisis that is diminishing emergency food supplies nationwide: fewer public sector resources – due to the reduced buying power in the entitlement portion of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and a drastic decline in bonus commodities – and flat or decreasing donations from the private sector. But in the country’s largest city, where some 1.3 million people rely on food pantries and soup kitchens on a regular basis, the impacts are tremendous.

On a recent weekday at the BedStuy Campaign Against Hunger, one of Brooklyn’s largest food pantries, shelves that are usually piled high with staples like rice and canned meats were empty, a stark illustration of the crisis facing emergency food providers across the city. The Brooklyn organization is among about 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens supplied by the Food Bank for New York City, the largest distributor of free food in the city, whose mission has been crippled by what officials describe as its worst food shortage in years.

At its sprawling warehouse in Hunts Point, in the Bronx, the Food Bank is storing about half what it housed in recent years. Instead of distributing 5.5 million pounds of food a month to food banks and soup kitchens, the Food Bank now offers 3 million pounds. So rather than having 10 trucks on the road at any given time, there are now only 3 or 4. “It’s the first time in a few years that I could walk into the warehouse and see empty shelves,” said Lucy Cabrera, the president and chief executive of the Food Bank, which helps feed about 1.3 million people a year.

Officials at the Food Bank say the bare shelves stem from a steady decline in federal emergency food aid, though a farm bill stalled in the United States Senate could increase that aid. According to a study to be released today by the Food Bank and Cornell University, New York City receives a little more than half the amount of emergency food annually from the federal government that it did three years ago. The shortfall is occurring as the number of families and individuals relying on soup kitchens and food pantries in New York City has risen to 1.3 million from 1 million since 2004.

As a result, food pantry workers say, people in need are getting fewer provisions and less variety, and some pantries have been forced to open less frequently. And the demand for emergency food will most likely rise as families spend more of their incomes on school and holiday expenses, Food Bank officials said.

Rethea Bruno, 63, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and is a regular at several local food pantries, described the supply she found at the Campaign Against Hunger pantry as “pitiful.” “You’re getting less food,” she said. “You get the bags home and you’re stunned.”

The problem besetting the citywide Food Bank is also affecting providers of emergency food nationwide who are supplied by America’s Second Harvest, the country’s largest hunger relief organization, which assists 50,000 providers. Federal food donations to food banks have been stagnant since 2002. But organizations have been hit hardest by declines in a separate federal program that buys excess crops like peaches and potatoes from farmers and then donates them to food banks. Those donations have shrunk to 89 million pounds last year from 251 million pounds in 2003.

Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, says he is optimistic that the farm bill will pass within the next month. He said the delay involved sections of the bill unrelated to the nutrition portion. Separately, the House of Representatives voted in July to increase the budget for food stamps and other nutrition programs by $4 billion, which would include an increase in emergency food assistance to $250 million from $140 million. It also would require an automatic increase in food assistance based on the rate of inflation, addressing one of the reasons food banks are now struggling.

At the Campaign Against Hunger pantry in Brooklyn, which is usually a hub of activity as visitors catch up with one another on the latest gossip, fewer people are showing up since word got out that the cupboards were running bare. On one day, the middle aisle held 13 cans of corned beef, a single jar of peanut butter and a few hundred cans of spaghetti in sauce. The canned and fresh fruit were gone.

“It’s devastating,” said the Rev. Melony Samuels, a minister at the Full Gospel Tabernacle of Faith who oversees the food pantry. “It has gotten so bad.”
A storage room the pantry uses was filled with mostly empty wooden pallets. “It’s not that we have the stuff and we’re not putting it out,” Ms. Samuels said. “It’s out.”
In better times, the pantry might get 190 cases of assorted foods every week; now the shipments are much smaller. One recent week, all it got was six cases of peanut butter and pasta. “In order to keep food on our shelves, we need to roll in $5,000 per month easily, and you’re looking at half or less of that coming in,” Ms. Samuels said, adding that she might not be able to stock her pantry with turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Penny Flood, 48, who manages the kitchen at Neighbors Together, a soup kitchen near the Campaign Against Hunger pantry, says she is also getting less food and less variety. In the basement storeroom, Ms. Flood pointed out that the shelves for vegetables were depleted but that those used to store cans of tuna were full. Ms. Samuels, who has the task of turning away hungry customers from the Campaign Against Hunger pantry, worries that if the shortage continues she may have to close her doors. “If that farm bill does not pass, I honestly don’t know what we’re going to do,” she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to say to people.”

Small Bites

Sweet profits: Halloween is the number one day for candy sales in America, followed by Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day.

Sweet & low-fat: People will eat 28.4 percent more candy if it’s labeled “low fat.”

Candy corner: Forty percent of the world’s almonds, 20 percent of all peanuts, and eight percent of the world’s sugar end up in candy bars.

Chocolate dogs?: When children were asked what they would like on their hot dogs if their parents aren’t watching, 25 percent said they prefer chocolate sauce.

Bread and water: It takes two tons of water to grow the wheat needed to produce a one-pound loaf of bread.

Bread and diet: The average American eats about 60 pounds of bread a year.

mvauthier :: Oct.26.2007 :: Foodlinks America :: No Comments »:: Print This Post

Trackback this post | Feed on Comments to this post