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. Four-Day Work Week Spells Hardship for Aid Recipients
(Salt Lake Tribune, August 9, 2008)

This letter to the editor protests Utah's new state government employee four-day work week. Cutting the week to four working days in order to cut expenses will be a problem for those needing to apply for food stamps, as well as health care assistance - especially in this "serious economic time." Those needing "special health care assistance" and other state-run aid programs will have to wait through a three-day weekend each week, as services will not be available on Fridays.

2. Summer Can Spell Weight Gains for Children
(Boston Globe, August 12, 2008)

Children are more likely to gain weight during the summer months, as they spend less time outside and more time indoors. The time is especially bad for children in low-income families who have less access to healthy foods during the summer months, are bombarded by junk food ads on television, and miss out on the school meals they receive during the other months. Recent studies confirm that children can easily put on the pounds during the summer, and find that schools are part of the solution to childhood weight problems and not part of the problem. A study of 5,400 children, reported in the American Journal of Public Health, found that in the months between the end of kindergarten and the start of first grade, the children's body mass indexes (BMI) increased twice as fast as during the school year. African-American children, Hispanic children and children already overweight in the study experienced steeper BMI rises. A report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that the gains middle school students made in their cardiovascular fitness, insulin levels, and body composition during the school year were lost during the summer months. This summer may be worse for children. Weight specialists at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia say that the current high cost of healthy food makes it difficult for poor families to afford fruits and vegetables.

3. Report Commends School Wellness Policies, and Calls on Schools to Promote Healthy Food Options
(MarketWatch, August 8, 2008)

In time for "back to school," a report by the Action for Healthy Kids Coalition calls on schools to continue their wellness policy work mandated by federal legislation and focus on improving nutrition by not just removing vending machines but offering more high quality, nutrient-rich foods. Centers for Disease Control data show that, since the mid-1990s, nutritional content of school meals has improved, but "the key," as stated in the report, is to make those foods appeal to children. Some schools in Pennsylvania have succeeded by placing milk vending machines in schools, and experienced a 39 percent increase in milk consumption the first week the machines were available to students. Other schools have found that alternative breakfast options succeed in getting more kids to eat breakfast. "Breakfast in the classroom" programs, and offering healthy "grab and go" breakfast items from carts in the halls, supply breakfast to those students who haven't had the chance to eat breakfast at home. Some schools are even controlling what children bring from home to consume in school - New Jersey's Hillsborough Middle School recently joined other schools across the country in banning students from bringing energy drinks to school.

4. Some Massachusetts Schools Stop Serving Breakfast
(Boston Globe, August 10, 2008)

The School Committee for Winthrop, Massachusetts' public schools voted unanimously to cancel the breakfast program in order to prevent the School Department's food program from running a deficit as it did in the past school year. The committee cited increased food costs and labor as contributing to the deficit. Rising food prices also forced the school superintendent to suggest raising school meal prices and moving to a "two-tier" price system, where foods like pizza (which is more expensive due to increased cheese costs) will carry a higher price tag. School administrators raised lunch prices last February from $2.25 to $2.50 when they became aware of the deficit.

5. Schools Aim to Improve Student Learning Through Free Breakfast
(The Daily Sentinel, August 7, 2008)

Three Ohio school districts - Eastern, Meigs and Southern - offer free, federally-funded breakfasts to all students in order to improve their attentiveness, attendance and learning skills. The breakfast program results are supported by a study and recommendations from the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians, which found that when children have a healthy breakfast they're able to function better in school, are happier, stay healthier in later years, and succeed in their studies. The Meigs Local School District funnels students directly from the bus to the cafeteria where breakfast is available at no charge, which removes the stigma students may feel at qualifying for free breakfast due to low family income. Middle school students on late buses will, starting this school year, be able to eat breakfast in their classrooms during first period. During the 2007-08 school year, 80 percent of Meigs elementary students ate breakfast at school; 60 percent of middle school students took advantage of the benefit, as did 50 percent of high school students.

6. New York Greenmarkets See Surge in Food Stamp Purchases
(Yournabe.com, August 1, 2008)

Food stamp use doubled at city Greenmarkets, which reported $4,210 in food stamp-related sales in the first two weeks of July versus only $2,121 in purchases for the same time period in 2007. Over 14 city Greenmarkets are equipped with electronic benefits transfer (EBT) stations, which allow the markets to accept food stamps. "This dramatic increase is further proof that New Yorkers are hungry for healthy food options," commented City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Citywide, the use of food stamps at Greenmarkets grew from $1,000 in purchases in 2005, $14,000 in 2006, and topped $40,000 in 2007. Greenmarket Director Michael Hurwitz noted "It's a myth that farmers' markets cannot succeed in low-income communities." The city council has, since 2006, provided funding for Greenmarkets to procure EBT terminals and conduct outreach to help food stamp recipients, who often live in neighborhoods lacking grocery stores, access healthy food.

7. Food Stamps Now Easier for Alabama Seniors to Access
(Birmingham News, August 8, 2008)

Seniors in Alabama's Jefferson, Clay and Calhoun counties now have a simpler food stamp application form to fill out and can bypass the trip to the Food Assistance Office for a food stamp interview. The pilot program, part of a larger outreach plan by the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) to increase food stamp participation, could go statewide later this year. In addition to applying at home, eligible senior households will be able to go three years before re-certification, instead of the usual one year. Food stamps not only benefit recipients; according to the DHR, $9.20 in economic activity is generated by every $5 in food stamps issued. It's estimated that 400,000 Alabama residents are eligible for food stamps, but haven't applied.

8. Inflation Means Possible Extinction for New York's Bodegas
(Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2008)

Over the past five years, one-third of New York City's grocery stores have closed, and many of the bodegas that low-income residents have turned to for food are following suit, the victims of high inflation and rising food costs. Well-off residents can afford to order groceries and pay to have them delivered, but most New Yorkers don't own cars and must walk to stores to stock up on food. Harlem bodega owner Julio Pimentel must juggle increased operating expenses with the fact that most of his clientele, residing in housing projects, shelters and "run-down apartments" can't afford to pay more. Once each month sales are up - when welfare or payday checks are distributed, and customers can make more expensive purchases. Over the past eight years, the rent for the bodega rose from $1,500 a month to $3,300 a month. However, Pimentel won't raise his prices, and still finds his sales are down. If he continues to fall behind in paying rent on the store, "I will have to close," he said. "I have no option. I lose all the money I have." If he closes, he'll be another of the nearly 1,000 bodegas that have shuttered in the past two years.

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