The Weekly Food Research and Action Center News Digest highlights what's new on hunger, nutrition and poverty issues at FRAC, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, around the network of national, state and local anti-poverty and anti-hunger organizations, and in the media. The Digest will alert you to trends, reports, news items and resources and, when available, link you directly to them.
1. Record Number of Americans Receiving SNAP/Food Stamps
(Reuters, March 5, 2009; WalletPop.com, March 6, 2009)
With the U.S. in a recession, December 2008 saw a record 31.8 million Americans receiving SNAP/Food Stamps, up 2.2 percent from November 2008, an increase of 700,000 people; the number surpassed the September 2008 record total of 31.6 million that included disaster benefits to victims of hurricanes and floods. All but three states saw increases, with Ohio posting the largest rise among large states - 3.4 percent – with the benefit going to 1.26 million residents. Texas has the largest enrollment – 3.05 million (a 1.8 percent increase from the month before). The cost for SNAP/Food Stamps is estimated to be $51 billion this fiscal year, an increase of $10 billion from FY 2008. “A weakened economy means that many more individuals are turning to SNAP/Food Stamps,” according to the Food Research and Action Center. Zac Bissonnette notes how relatively inexpensive the SNAP/Food Stamp program is – “less than a tenth of what we’re spending on TARP [Troubled Assets Relief Program].” In April benefits will increase 13 percent, and “100 percent of that money will be pumped into the economy,” said Bissonnette.
2. Economic Recovery Act Will Help Millions of Rural SNAP/Food Stamp Recipients
(Farm Futures, March 9, 2009)
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told media recently that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help the “roughly 7 million” rural Americans receiving SNAP/Food Stamps, part of the one out of ten Americans receiving the benefit who will also be helped by the increased funding. “For every $5 that is spent in this program,” said Vilsack, “$9.20 of economic activity occurs.” Vilsack also noted that “Congress and the President encouraged USDA to be actively involved in the reinvestment and recovery effort by allocating $28 billion to the department,” $20 billion of which will go to SNAP/Food Stamps.
3. States Expand SNAP/Food Stamp as Benefits Set to Increase
Texas
(Austin American-Statesman, March 8, 2009)
Texas families participating in SNAP/Food Stamps currently receive an average of $276 a month; beginning in April, their benefit will increase by an average of $38 when the economic stimulus act takes effect. The 13.6 percent increase will be phased out in conjunction with regular annual increases that raise the benefit, so recipients “won’t feel the decrease,” according to Celia Hagert, senior policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Austin mother of three and SNAP/Food Stamp recipient Rosa Moreno said the increase will be “great, because right now there aren’t any jobs.”
Hawaii
(Hawaii Reporter, March 9, 2009)
Hawaii’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is working to connect more needy residents to SNAP/Food Stamps at the same time the benefit amount is slated to increase in April. “During these challenging economic times, we urge everyone who is eligible for SNAP to take advantage of this valuable nutrition benefit,” said DHS Director Lillian Koller. DHS also plans to raise the income limit for SNAP/Food Stamps to 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and eliminate the asset test, as well as provide individuals successfully exiting welfare with five months of transitional SNAP/Food Stamp benefits. Those changes will take a few months, as they require rewrites of administrative rules and procedures and public hearings. Food banks in Kaua’i and Maui will also be involved in SNAP/Food Stamp outreach. USDA has mandated that states suspend the three-month/three-year SNAP/Food Stamp limitation policy for jobless, able-bodied adults without dependents.
Idaho
(Forbes, March 9, 2009)
Idaho is looking at ways to help residents struggling with the construction industry collapse to benefit from SNAP/Food Stamps, including a plan to waive or raise minimum asset requirements which force families to get rid of belongings at a loss in order to eat. In January, 128,000 residents received SNAP/Food Stamp benefits. The federal government will have to sign off on the plan to limit asset requirements.
District of Columbia
(WTOP News, March 11, 2009)
The D.C. City Council is proposing legislation to raise the SNAP/Food Stamp income eligibility limit to 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level; the current limit is 130 percent. Council member Michael Brown said that more residents could receive the benefit through this legislation.
Vermont
(Burlington Free Press, March 13, 2009)
Vermont is expected to receive $34 million for the SNAP/Food Stamp program, known as 3SquaresVT in the state, through the economic recovery act which will raise benefits starting April 1. The money will help recipients like Kim Rheaume, who struggles to feed her family of four on her tight budget and finds that her 3SquaresVt benefit comes short by $75 each month. “The last week is a huge stretch for families,” said Louise Brunelle, nutrition educator with UVM Extension. “By the third week, they’re eating anything that’s left over, and by the last week they’re going to the food shelf.” Rheaume wants to spend the increased benefit money – from $40 to $80 depending on the family - on more fresh fruits and vegetables. The 3SquaresVT program brought $110 million in economic activity to the state in 2008 for the $60 million the federal government provided in nutrition assistance. The economic benefit is felt immediately, said Dorigen Keeney of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, as recipients use their 3SquaresVT EBT cards in local stores. The economic recovery act is expected to generate $63 million for Vermont over the next four years, benefitting not only 3SquaresVT families but grocers and farmers too. 3SquaresVT will receive $600,000 over the next two years for administrative support of the program, which should help with a backlog of benefit applications. 3SquaresVT saw its highest participation numbers ever at the end of January, when 68,000 residents received the benefit; in two months, the program added 5,000 new participants.
4. Rhode Island Hires Staff in Response to SNAP/Food Stamp Application Surge
(ramcigar.com, March 6, 2009)
The Rhode Island Department of Human Services plans to hire additional staff to process SNAP/Food Stamp applications as demand increases in the state for the benefit. “The loss of employees and the increasing number of people seeking assistance have combined to overburden the program staff,” said Kathleen Gorman, director of the Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America at the University of Rhode Island. The nine new workers are “nowhere near enough, but it’s a start,” said Gorman, who also directs the Food Stamp Outreach Project. Applications in some offices have taken longer than the 30-day federal deadline for response due to the upswing in applications. Further increases are likely, noted Gorman, as more families and individuals apply for aid when savings and unemployment benefits run out. “People are losing their jobs, they’re losing other benefits that they had, so they’re needing help, and I think the staff that are there are doing a heroic job, they’re working a lot, but they just can’t meet the need,” said Gorman, after returning from the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. She noted that many states are facing the challenges of increased demand and limited staff.
5. New York County Meets Increased SNAP/Food Stamp Demand with Increased Welfare Office Hours
(News 10 Now, March 13, 2009)
St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services (DSS) has expanded its office hours to meet the demand for social services such as SNAP/Food Stamps. “We’re really seeing the effects of the global economic crisis right here in St. Lawrence County. We have had a huge increase in demand from a year ago,” said DSS Commissioner Chris Rediehs. In February 2009, SNAP/Food Stamp participation was up 18 percent over February 2008; TANF saw a 16 percent increase, Home Energy Assistance increased 12 percent, and Medicaid five percent. The new office schedule, in its third week, has generated positive results, with one worker noting “I don’t think we’re seeing as many people being disgruntled or upset because they’re told they can’t be seen that day, so I think we really are getting to see the people as they come.
6. Pennsylvania Governor Sees SNAP Food Stamps as Economic Stimulus
(Pittsburgh Live, March 12, 2009)
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell wants needy residents to apply for SNAP/Food Stamps, if not for themselves, then for their country. “Think of it this way,” said Gov. Rendell. “If you avail yourself of these sources of government relief, you’ll have money to spend in the economy, and that’s exactly what we need to reboot the economy.” His remarks were broadcast live to audiences in six cities. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com, every SNAP/Food Stamp dollar generates $1.73 in the economy. Rendell noted that individual SNAP/Food Stamp benefits will increase $32 monthly through the economic recovery package; 1.3 million Pennsylvanians receive SNAP/Food Stamp benefits, which translates to $500 million pumped into the economy annually. Also benefitting from the program are “[m]om-and-pop grocery stores, grocery chains, food distributors, food processors, farmers,” said Rendell, who recently announced that the state will expand aid to the growing numbers of jobless residents and those who lack health insurance. The region’s January unemployment rate jumped to 6.5 percent. “Don’t be ashamed to ask for help,” noted Rendell. “This is a time when you and your families come first.”
7. Advocate Critical of New York City’s ABAWD SNAP/Food Stamp Policy
(Huffington Post, March 9, 2009)
“Mayor Bloomberg refuses to extend federally funded benefits to hungry, out-of-work New Yorkers while they look for jobs,” writes Betsy Gotbaum, public advocate for the City of New York. The economic recovery act includes a provision that suspends the time limit on how long ABAWDs can receive SNAP/Food Stamp benefit. Mayor Bloomberg, however, has refused to accept the provision without conditions, which would cost the city millions in federal funds that could stimulate the local economy. The city has previously been eligible for this waiver in order to battle high unemployment, “but despite the urging of myself, other elected officials, and hunger advocates – and even the advice of his own appointees – the mayor has never accepted the ABAWD waiver,” notes Gotbaum. With every SNAP/Food Stamp dollar creating $1.73 in economic stimulus, “New York City could lose the opportunity to bring roughly $155 million in federal funds into the city because of its refusal to accept this provision without conditions.”
8. New Mexico College Students Seek Out SNAP/Food Stamps
(New Mexico Daily Lobo, March 12, 2009)
Each day, between one and six students enter the University of New Mexico’s Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) office and ask for SNAP/Food Stamp information, according to PIRG president Sean DeBuck. The program supports students in need, notes DeBuck. “Obviously, we’re not exactly the richest demographic, and I think it provides them with the opportunity to help them get through college.” Students can apply for the benefit at the PIRG office, but must take completed applications to the Income Support Division for northeast Bernalillo County. Other students have inquired about SNAP/Food Stamps at the campus Welcome Center; one student who visited the center didn’t want to give her personal details, but returned a few weeks later to thank the staff for giving her information on how to apply for SNAP/Food Stamps. Overall, Bernalillo County’s northeast quadrant has seen a 60 percent increase in SNAP/Food Stamp recipients over the past year. In Albuquerque, participation increased 28.7 percent, and the state has seen an 18.5 percent increase.
9. Experts Urge Schools to Improve Food Available at Schools
(US News and World Report, March 4, 2009; RWJ Policy Brief, February 2009)
Despite improvements, the school food environment may contribute to surging obesity rates in U.S. children, nutrition experts say in a series of articles in the February issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Obesity rates among children age 6 to 11 have more than quadrupled, and among adolescents aged 12 to 19 have more than tripled. At the same time, competitive foods – those sold in competition to the federal meal programs – were widely available in schools. Most competitive foods were energy-dense and low in nutrients, such as desserts, candy, and sugar-sweetened beverages. “[W]e do find at least some evidence that in some of the schools that restrict the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages, you don’t see the kids going and drinking more sugar-sweetened at other times of the day. It really does decrease intake, and that’s encouraging,” said Anne R. Gordon, senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research and co-author of a paper on school lunches in the journal. Foods available by choice to students should include “only fruits, vegetables, whole grains and non-fat and low-fat dairy products,” writes the author of the journal’s editorial, Mary Ford, a registered dietician and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Although school meals have room for improvement, school meal participation did not increase obesity risk. In fact, school breakfast participants were less likely to be overweight or obese than non-participants.
10. Wisconsin Schools Working to Increase School Breakfast Participation
(Baraboo News Republic, February 28, 2009)
Milwaukee Public Schools offers free breakfast to all students in 75 of its 125 elementary schools; 77 percent of the district’s 85,000 students qualify for free and reduced-price breakfast. But in Baraboo, only 27 percent of students participate in school breakfast, although schools have served the meal for 15 years. Baraboo’s food services director, Mary Loveless, wants to increase participation by offering free and reduced-price meals to older students by replacing their a la carte breakfast with a “full tray” of breakfast food, a move that was successful at Jack Young Middle School; Loveless does not think the district will begin offering universal breakfast as Milwaukee has done. Across the country, 8.5 million children participated in the School Breakfast Program on an average day during the 2007-08 school year, but this number is less than the 18.4 million children reached by the National School Lunch Program, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). “The dramatic changes in the economy make it even more important for schools to try to break down any barriers preventing qualifying children from participating,” said Rachel Cooper, senior policy analyst at FRAC.
11. Cheese Sandwich Policy Causes Controversy in Albuquerque
(Associated Press/MSNBC, February 25, 2009)
Albuquerque, New Mexico’s school district, the state’s largest, began replacing student lunches with cheese sandwiches for those students whose parents have not paid their meal bills. The “cheese sandwich policy” is designed to help the district balance its school budget, and the policy has been repeated in California’s Chula Vista School District, Florida’s Hillsborough County and in Lynnwood, Wash. Critics see the meals as punishment. “We’ve heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich,” said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. “One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school.” Parents have pleaded with Albuquerque school board members “to stop singling out their children because their poor,” and radio talk shows have covered the controversy. One student was given the sandwich because her mother couldn’t afford to give her lunch money during the time her application for free lunch was being processed. “What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well,” said Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research and Action Center. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque’s food and nutrition services, said that these cheese sandwich “courtesy meals” number about 80 among the 46,000 meals served daily. Some school districts don’t serve children without money any food at all, she noted. Albuquerque Public Schools “has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what’s best...for the child and I think this is just another example,” she said.
12. Doctor Says Students Need More Time to Eat Lunch at School
(The New York Times, February 20, 2009)
Dr. Arthur Agatston, cardiologist and creator of the South Beach Diet, believes that turning school lunch into a “real sit-down meal” instead of a “minutes-long eating frenzy” would help improve the health and eating habits of the nation’s children. “The lunchroom culture is fast food,” he noted in a recent interview. “The teacher should be sitting at the table with a tablecloth for a civilized meal. I think it’s a huge learning opportunity for kids.” Schools eliminated exercise and have taken time from lunch – some students may have as little as seven minutes to eat their meal. Agatston feels that “kids will be happier and do better if they can have a somewhat leisurely meal in a positive atmosphere.” His Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren research found that kids accept healthy food, although cafeteria workers have said “No, they won’t.”
13. CACFP Provides Healthy Foods to Children in Day Care
(KPTH, March 10, 2009)
Child care providers can take advantage of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), a “financial lifeline” which reimburses providers a portion (from 50 cents to two dollars) of children’s food expenses. Child care provider Cheryl Prather in Iowa sees the program as vital to her operations; “it’s really gotten us through, economic times,” she noted. In Woodbury County, approximately half of the child care providers take advantage of the program, administered by USDA to provide “nutritious and balanced meals” to children in care. CACFP program director Tammy Herbert says “in some instances it’s actually the most nutritious meal that the child may have.” Former child care provider Sherry Junck, who works with Herbert, said the program frees up cash for providers too. “Because I wasn’t spending all my money on food, I was able to take my kids on outings,” she said.
14. WIC Partners with Sesame Street to Improve Child Nutrition
(The Packer, March 6, 2009)
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently announced a new partnership between Sesame Workshop and the National WIC Association which will help families make Sesame Workshop’s Healthy Habits program a part of their daily lives. The Sesame Street characters will help promote fresh fruits and vegetables through the WIC program. “We’ve always been about good eating habits, getting rest and good exercise,” said Maura Regan, vice president and general manager of global consumer products for Sesame Workshop, Sesame Street’s nonprofit organization. Sesame Workshop’s Web site – www.sesamestreet.org – contains a video spotlighting the program, featuring Cookie Monster and captioned with “Cookie is a sometime food.” (Article available through subscription to Packer Web site.)
15. Recession May Narrow Inequality Gap
(The New York Times, March 4, 2009)
More than any other ethnic group, Latinos are hurting more due to recession job losses. Last year, Latinos held more jobs than whites. Now, they are feeling the full force of the recession as the majority of layoffs have been construction, hotel and retail workers, along with others lacking a four-year college degree. Other groups feeling the brunt include men more than women, homeowners over renters, investors over retirees (renters and retirees relying more on Social Security checks.) The previous two recessions (early 2000’s and early 1990s) caused more layoffs for people with college degrees as mass white collar layoffs were the rule. Inequality is increasing in this recession because lower-income workers are concentrated in “boom or bust” industries - in the past, agriculture, and this year, construction. However, this column by David Leonhardt argues that this recession will “end up compressing the rungs on the nation’s economic ladder.” One reason: President Obama plans on raising taxes on the affluent, while cutting them for everyone else. Another reason – during the Great Depression there was a surge in school enrollment, as teenagers who would have dropped out to work in factory jobs stayed in school, according to economist Claudia Goldin. “There’s some evidence that it’s starting to happen,” notes this column. “In El Centro, enrollment at Imperial Valley Community College jumped 11 percent this semester.”
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