Foodlinks America - December 21, 2007
Foodlinks America - December 21, 2007
In this issue:
• Taking A Break for the Holidays
• Catch-all Measure Funds Federal Programs for 2008
• Senate Passes Farm Bill; Conference to Follow
• Hunger Emergency Persists as Nation Responds
• Proposed Legislation
• WIC Watch
• School Breakfast Growing but Still Falling Short
• Applications Accepted for Community Food Projects
• 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.
Taking A Break for the Holidays
In keeping with our publication schedule of 24 issues a year, Foodlinks America will be taking a year-end break. Our next issue will be distributed on January 18, 2008. Foodlinks America wishes all of its readers a joyous holiday season!
Catch-all Measure Funds Federal Programs for 2008
Congressional Democrats and the White House ended a months-long impasse on federal spending on December 19, 2007 with passage of an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008. The legislation combines 11 of the 12 spending bills Congress is required to approve each year to determine government outlays. “Given the President’s refusal to compromise and given the inability of the Senate to produce the 60 votes necessary to move legislation forward, this is the best we can do,†commented Representative David Obey (D-WI), chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
With this final action, Congress exited town for the holidays, ending the first session of the 110th Congress. The House will be gone until January 15, 2008 and the Senate is now scheduled to reconvene on January 22, 2008.
The huge $516 billion compromise package included an additional $11 billion over the President’s spending limit, with some of the funds designated as “emergency†needs that were not offset by cuts in other programs or new revenues. The legislation continued most nutrition assistance programs at current levels, though there were some notable exceptions.
The WIC Program, beset by potential shortages from higher food costs, growing caseloads, and declining rebates, was allocated a full $6 billion for fiscal year 2008, an increase of $815.6 million ($400 million of which was designated as emergency spending) over last year. The $6 billion will help WIC maintain a national caseload of 8.55 million participants throughout the year. The omnibus measure also increased funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which the Administration had proposed to eliminate entirely. The CSFP will receive $139.7 million in fiscal 2008, $32.5 million above the fiscal year 2007 appropriation.
Other provisions of the bill: expand, effective immediately, the Simplified Summer Food Service Program to all states, easing paperwork and increasing reimbursements for sponsors; provide an additional $23 million for elderly nutrition programs this year; support a $10 million expansion in the 2008-2009 school year of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, making it available to all states; provide secure funding of $2.475 million annually to the Congressional Hunger Center’s Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowship Programs; and fund a Supper Pilot Program in West Virginia under the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
Though Democrats felt the bill could have been better, they expressed satisfaction with the final outcome. “While the President’s stubborn opposition will deny Americans the full investment they deserve in these priorities, the Democratic budget begins to reverse seven years of neglect and charts a new direction,†concluded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Senate Passes Farm Bill; Conference to Follow
After a six-week impasse, the Senate approved a $286 billion Farm Bill on December 14, 2007, setting agriculture and food policy for the next five years and making significant changes in the nation’s nutrition assistance programs. The Farm Bill authorizes the Food Stamp Program, commodity assistance programs, and marketing efforts targeted to low-income consumers. Passage of the Senate bill sets the stage for a conference with House members during the next month to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
As in the House, the Senate soundly rejected major changes or limits on payments in grain and cotton subsidy programs, actions that could have freed up significantly greater amounts of money to make further improvements in nutrition, conservation, and energy programs. The Bush Administration expressed its disappointment that neither house chose to revamp crop price supports and reiterated its veto threat after the Senate vote. “This legislation is fundamentally flawed. There must be an end to income subsidy payments for the richest people in the country,†said Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner. “This bill has a tough road ahead of it.â€
When negotiators for the two houses meet, they will need to resolve differences between the two bills on food stamps, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and numerous other government programs. Overall, the House bill increases nutrition spending by $4.2 billion over five years while the Senate boosts nutrition programs by $5.3 billion. Conferees will also have to decide how to pay for program changes, since the House bill gets extra revenue from offshore oil royalties and taxes on foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries, while the Senate tightens rules on corporate tax shelters instead.
Though the House and Senate bills are not identical (details of the Senate bill were still being finalized as this issue of Foodlinks America was being written), both include food stamp changes that rename the program, increase the minimum monthly benefit and standard deduction, lift the cap on the child care deduction, and raise household asset limits. Outside of food stamps, key differences include:
- Mandatory TEFAP funding of $250 million annually for food purchases in both bills, though the House bill provides an inflation adjustment that raises that total to $273 million by 2012, while the Senate has no indexing;
- A House provision for $15 million a year in mandatory funds for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, with an allowance for $5 million more on a discretionary basis, while the Senate provides $25 million per year in mandatory funding;
- Reauthorization of the Community Food Projects (CFP) program at $30 million per year in the House, though the funds are discretionary; the Senate bill gives the CFP $10 million a year in mandatory funding; and
- $35 million in mandatory funding over five years for the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program in the House, with $10 million set aside for EBT; the Senate has $30 million in mandatory funds during the five years, with $5 million for EBT.
Although the Farm Bill reauthorization scheduled for 2007 has been delayed (a bill will not be finalized until the end of January 2008 at the earliest and this is the third time in a row that the Farm Bill has not been completed in the targeted year), Senate Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) is confident there will be positive outcomes. “This is a forward-looking Farm Bill. The nutrition title strengthens our commitment to fighting hunger and promoting sound health and nutrition. It updates archaic nutrition program rules, increases Food Stamp benefit levels, and stops the erosion of benefits that has gone unchecked since 1996,†noted Harkin.
Hunger Emergency Persists as Nation Responds
While food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens across the country continue to report food shortages this month, a mix of public and private sector actions to address the crisis are beginning to ameliorate the problem somewhat. Increased industry donations, a mobilization of teen volunteers, and proposed legislation in Congress are all part of the response to an unprecedented demand for help.
America’s Second Harvest, the national food bank network, reported on December 17, 2007, that it had reached 40 percent of its goal of generating 15 million more pounds of food by the end of the calendar year. Second Harvest noted that retail giants Wal-Mart and ConAgra Foods were both providing additional donations and that a food drive being organized by teenagers through the “Do Something†web site had pledged to collect a million cans of food. But “there still is a long way to go to meet the needs of hungry Americans over the holiday and into next year,†commented Second Harvest president Vicki Escarra.
Members of Congress joined in the effort to identify new food collection methods and to upgrade existing programs to help. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) both introduced legislation to encourage federal agencies and their contractors that provide or sell food to increase donations to non-profit groups that feed the hungry.
In addition, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has offered a bill to provide an immediate $40 million boost in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). “We are the wealthiest nation in the world but cannot feed our own people!†exclaimed Senator Brown in a December 7, 2007 speech on the Senate floor. “Additional TEFAP funding is critical to address the current food shortage.â€
Proposed Legislation
Among bills recently introduced in the 110th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:
House Resolution (H.R.) 3976: Introduced by Representative Sander Levin (D-MI) and four co-sponsors, this legislation would amend the Internal Revenue Code to make permanent the deduction for contributions of food inventory by all corporations.
H.R. 3978: Introduced by Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI) and 12 co-sponsors, the School Breakfast Education Improvement Act would establish a program to improve the health and education of children through grants to expand the school breakfast program. This bill is a companion bill to S. 2143.
H.R. 4220: Introduced by Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and seven bipartisan co-sponsors, the Federal Food Donation Act would encourage the donation of excess food to non-profit organizations that provide assistance to food insecure people in the U.S. via contracts entered into by federal agencies (and their contractors) for the provision, service, or sale of food.
H.R. 4788: Introduced by Representative Zachary Space (D-OH) and one co-sponsor, this bill would provide an infusion of $40 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to address emergency shortages in food banks. This bill is a companion bill to S. 2431.
Senate (S.) 2420: Introduced by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), the Federal Food Donation Act would encourage the donation of excess food to non-profit organizations that provide assistance to food insecure people in the U.S. via contracts entered into by federal agencies (and their contractors) for the provision, service, or sale of food. The bill would also establish a Coordinator of Community Food Security and Gleaning within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
S. 2431: Introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and three co-sponsors, this bill would provide an infusion of $40 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to address emergency shortages in food banks. This bill is a companion bill to H.R. 4788.
For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov and enter the bill number.
WIC Watch
New food packages unveiled: The foods available to participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program) are being changed for the first time in 27 years. On December 6, 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued interim final regulations to implement new food packages for WIC over the next 18 months.
The rules are intended to improve the health and nutritional quality of WIC foods, increase participant choice, and expand cultural food options. The revised food package will include fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread (with the option to substitute whole grain tortillas, rice or other grains), and the option of soymilk and tofu. The fruit and vegetable benefits will supplement rather than supplant the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). Farmers’ markets can be allowed as WIC vendors for fruits and vegetables using WIC FMNP procedures or other special vendor rules.
WIC advocates note one shortcoming to the new WIC food packages due to budgetary limitations. Because USDA made the new rule cost-neutral, WIC participants will only receive a portion of the full amount of produce suggested by medical and nutrition experts and will not be allowed to purchase yogurt. Women will receive $8 and children $6 in fruits and vegetables each month, $2 less than recommended. Only the small category of exclusively breastfeeding women will receive the full $10 in fruit and vegetable vouchers.
Nonetheless, program supporters were pleased and excited. “For the eight and a half million women, infants and children served by WIC, these long-awaited improvements in WIC are an important step forward,†stated the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. “The next step is to make sure that these changes work ‘on the ground,’ including in communities where accessing healthy food often raises unique challenges,†said FRAC. Though effective February 4, 2008, USDA has given states until August 5, 2009 to have the new food packages in place. For the full scope of the updated food package rules, see the December 6, 2007 Federal Register at: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-23033.pdf.
Vendor integrity reviewed: The Integrity Profile (TIP) report is an annual analysis of WIC vendor management activities conducted by state agencies, which are responsible for the selection, authorization, and monitoring of program vendors. Annually, state agencies report to USDA information on vendors monitored and investigated and the actions taken against those that violated program requirements. USDA recently released its TIP report for federal fiscal year 2005, discussing the safeguards that exist to prevent vendor fraud and abuse from occurring and providing specific state-by-state data on WIC vendor characteristics, training, compliance activities, and sanctions.
The fiscal 2005 TIP found that out of 49,260 vendors nationwide, 59 percent received routine monitoring visits, 13 percent received one or more compliance investigations, and less than one percent were subjected to inventory audits. For additional details, see: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/TIP/TIPReport2005.htm.
Updated nutrition guidance for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers: USDA’s nutrition guidelines for Americans, known as MyPyramid, have a new subsection: MyPyramid for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding or “MyPyramid for Moms.†Released at the end of October 2007, My Pyramid for Moms offers women advice on nutritional needs, weight gain, dietary supplements, food safety, special health needs, and other information geared to this particular population. To learn more, go to: http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramidmoms/.
School Breakfast Growing but Still Falling Short
More low-income children got breakfast at school last year, but the numbers still lag far behind those receiving subsidized lunches, according to the School Breakfast Scorecard 2007, published on December 11, 2007 by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C. More than 8.1 million children a day participated in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) in the 2006-2007 school year, a five percent increase over the year before, but only 45 percent of those getting a school lunch also ate breakfast.
“We need to further increase participation and reach more children with breakfast. It’s a fast and long-lasting way to improve children’s learning and behavior, foster healthy eating habits, and end hunger,” said FRAC president Jim Weill. “The recent increase in participation we saw in 2006-2007 shows that many states and schools recognize the benefits of making sure that all children have a healthy breakfast to start their day, but we need to go further.â€
New Mexico was the only state where more than 60 percent of eligible children in the lunch program also received breakfast. New Mexico at 61.1 percent was followed by South Carolina (59.2 percent), West Virginia (57.0 percent), Oklahoma (56.9 percent), and Kentucky (56.3 percent). States serving the fewest eligible children last year were: Illinois (32.9 percent); New Hampshire (33.8 percent); Utah (33.8 percent); Alaska (34.0 percent), and Connecticut (34.6 percent). Nationwide, the number of schools offering breakfast increased by 2.5 percent last year. For further information, visit: http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/12.11.07.html.
Applications Accepted for Community Food Projects
Letters of intent to apply for fiscal year 2008 funding under the Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grants Program are now being accepted from private non-profit organizations. A minimum of $4.6 million in funding is available in three program categories – Community Food Projects, Planning Projects, and Training and Technical Assistance. A proposal to double the amount of funding for the CFP is pending in the Farm Bill.
The CFP supports local and regional efforts to: meet the food needs of low-income people; increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs; and promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues. Grant activities may address specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agriculture needs, including infrastructure improvement and development, planning for long-term solutions, or the creation of innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural producers and low-income consumers.
Applicant organizations must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture by January 10, 2008. Applicants whose LOI meets program guidelines will be invited to submit full applications, which are due by February 25, 2008. For details on application requirements, go to the Grants.gov web site at: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;….oppId=16202&flag2006=true&mode=VIEW.
Both general and one-on-one technical assistance on CFP applications is available from the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC). For further information, visit the CFSC web site at: http://www.foodsecurity.org/funding.html.
Reports from the Field
For many Americans, emergency food sources have become the primary means of getting enough to eat this holiday season, and both emergency food providers and the people they serve have been stretched to the limit. The Farm Bill pending in Congress promises to ameliorate the situation, as described in this article from Portland, OR that appeared in The Oregonian on November 21, 2007:
Sheila McSweeney has one son sitting on either side of her, one son off in the Marines and one son in the Army, and she is holding a small laminated card with the number 22. It’s her entry into an increasingly ramshackle emergency food system, coming into the holiday season stretched near the vanishing point. A House-passed Farm Bill that would provide some badly needed assistance is spending Thanksgiving snugly – and so far, immovably – nestled in the Senate.
At FISH Emergency Services, staffers and volunteers struggle to maintain the last strand of the safety net for people like McSweeney, who says she just moved her family to Portland to get out of a domestic violence situation in eastern Oregon; 79-year-old Robert Randle, pushing his 71-year-old wife in her wheelchair; and Vance Fellon, who’s been looking for another construction job and finding – just like Wall Street has – that home building has slowed down considerably.
Two days before Thanksgiving, FISH’s small house on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard is crowded. The emergency food boxes are filled by a variety of contributions – food drives, federal commodities, supermarket donations of bread and meat nearing its sell-by date – and packed by a variety of hands, including strong young men performing community service sentences, who seem quite happy to be helping.
But holiday or not, the food boxes are a little smaller, as some of the streams flowing into the emergency food system – which over a year will feed tens of millions of Americans – are running thin. Meanwhile, energy costs are both cutting into food banks’ budgets and sending in more clients. “We have felt food shortages here for a long time, maybe 12 months,” says Jim Arnold, inventory control manager for food at FISH. “Our allocations for USDA foods are drastically cut.”
Every two weeks, he gets a list of what’s available from the Department of Agriculture surplus commodity foods program, the historic bulwark of food bank supply. But its budget has been chopped from $243 million in 2003 to $67 million last year, and with a booming market for agricultural products, the commodity supply has gotten smaller and smaller. “The list was like this,” Arnold says, holding his hands a loaf of bread apart. “Now it looks like this,” and the hands come close enough together to hold a sandwich.
Early November’s two-week supply consisted of 10 cases of spaghetti sauce, nine of tomato sauce, nine of applesauce, six of beef stew and four of apple-cherry juice. For an agency feeding about 1,750 clients a month, it’s a slim structure to build on.
Sometimes FISH might get a couple of dozen cases of peanut butter – a key protein source, especially since FISH tries to keep any donations of jelly for families with kids – and some weeks maybe one. When that happens, says Arnold, “even if you were to divvy it up with a teaspoon, it wouldn’t be enough.”
The Chicago-based America’s Second Harvest, which supplies food banks across the country, is running an emergency food and funding drive, and local agencies like the Oregon Food Bank are also trying to fill up their pantries. But the most important serving dish is stuck in a Washington, D.C., closet.
This fall, the House passed a five-year Farm Bill that would strengthen the food stamp program, including raising the minimum grant for the first time in 30 years and adjusting the child care calculations. It would also raise the commodities budget back to $250 million and index it for inflation, considerably increasing the jars of peanut butter and cans of chili that are the foundations of an emergency food box.
It would be useful if Washington, D.C., could move with some of the same urgency that FISH gets from its community service helpers, who charge up from the basement carrying three cases of bread like a senator heading into a fundraising dinner. “We need a farm bill this year,” says Maura Daly, America’s Second Harvest vice president of government relations. “Every day that goes by without one is a day that food banks’ shelves get emptier.” That’s not a promising recipe.
Sheila McSweeney is confident, with a little help from FISH, about her Thanksgiving, and she’s looking forward to a Christmas just a bit postponed. She says their Christmas will happen in January, when her Marine son comes back for a two-week leave. His contribution to the occasion will be considerable; it seems he makes a mean cheesecake.
And maybe, by then, the Farm Bill will have gotten leave from the Senate.
[Editor’s note: The Farm Bill, as noted in another article in this issue, is progressing through Congress, but is still far from final passage.]
Small Bites
The spirit of giving: An estimated 68 percent of U.S. households make donations to charity annually.
More than before: Charitable contributions nationwide reached a record $295 billion in 2006.
From many of us (unincorporated): Giving by individuals is the largest source of donations and increased 4.4 percent over 2005, while corporate giving dropped by 7.6 percent last year.
Helping those less fortunate: A full 65 percent of donations to fund soup kitchens, day care, and other services for the needy come from families earning less than $100,000 a year, many of them earning a lot less.
While supporting our faith: Approximately 33 percent of charitable giving goes to religious groups.
And learning: Fourteen percent of all donations go to education.
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