FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Adach, 202.986.2200 x3018

Washington, D.C. – December 7, 2010 – In the wake of the recent election, 80 percent of Americans believe that hunger is a serious problem for the country that must be addressed, according to new poll data released today by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). Those polled also believe overwhelmingly that the SNAP (food stamp) program must be protected in its key role of reducing hunger.

The poll of 802 registered voters was conducted by Hart Research Associates from November 5 – 8. Support for ending hunger and protecting SNAP from budget cuts was high across party lines, age, race, gender, income, and geographical areas.

The central findings of the poll were:

• 80 percent of Americans believe that low-income children and families not being able to afford enough to eat is a very or fairly serious problem for the country. Only six percent said it was not a serious problem;
• 81 percent believe the President’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015 is a very or fairly important goal for Congress and the President;
• 82 percent said it was important for Congress and the President also to set a goal of ending senior hunger by 2015;
• 74 percent say that SNAP is a program that is very or fairly important for the country;
• 71 percent say that cutting SNAP would be the wrong way for Congress to reduce spending next year; and
• 73 percent say that Congress should reduce other kinds of spending – not cut SNAP – to pay for increased funding for school lunches.

“Last week, Congress passed The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a bill that includes important measures to improve participation and nutrition quality in the child nutrition programs, but that cuts future SNAP benefits to pay for the improvements. Congressional leaders and the President have committed to restoring that cut. Voters agree. Congress took one important step forward by passing this bill, but it’s time for them to take the second step and immediately fix the cut to SNAP benefits,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “Americans want to ensure that low-income children and families have the food and nutrition they need, both at school and at home.”

Support for the SNAP program and for addressing hunger was strong across all demographic and party groups. Some of the particular findings included:

• 94 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of Independents, and 63 percent of strong Republicans believe that low-income children and families not being able to afford enough to eat is a very or fairly serious problem for the country;
• 80 percent of voters age 18 – 34 feel the federal government has a responsibility to make sure that low-income families and children have the food and nutrition they need;
• 98 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Independents, and 63 percent of Republicans believe the President’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015 is a very or fairly important goal for Congress and the President;
• 84 percent of urban, 80 percent of suburban and 82 percent of rural voters believe it is also important for the President and Congress to set a goal of ending senior hunger by 2015;
• 91 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of Independents, and 56 percent of strong Republicans believe that SNAP is an important program for the country; and
• 86 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents, and 63 percent of strong Republicans oppose cutting SNAP benefits to pay for an increase in school lunch funding.

“Americans want to see an end to hunger, and they believe that the federal government must play a pivotal role in accomplishing that task,” continued Weill. “These findings demonstrate that Americans want Congress to make fighting hunger a priority and they want Congress and the President to recognize the absolutely essential role of SNAP.”

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This is wrong for several reasons.

• It points a spotlight on children whose parents are behind on payments. Under federal law, schools cannot identify children who receive free and reduced-price meals. This policy violates the spirit, if not the letter of the law. The goal should be promoting participation in the school meals programs, not creating an environment that stigmatizes children. Much has been done over the past several years to ensure that children have access to healthy food at school. To take a lunch away from a child erases much of that progress.

• It falls under the guise of using food as punishment. Children, especially very young children, will feel that they are being punished when their school meal is taken away from them. Health and nutrition professionals agree that using food as a reward or punishment does not promote healthy eating habits in childhood. Such practices can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food later in life and contribute to eating disorders, including overeating and obesity. In fact, one specific recommendation in the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents is to “avoid withholding food as punishment.”

• It ignores the impact the recession is having on vulnerable families. Parents may have recently lost jobs or have had a cutback in hours. They may not realize their child could be eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Instead of cheese sandwiches, schools should engage in better outreach to make sure that parents are aware of these programs.

“It’s quite simple. The solution to any challenge should never be taking food away from a child,” said Jim Weill, President of the Food Research and Action Center. “It creates a hostile environment in the cafeteria for children and ignores the challenges facing struggling families. Schools should engage in better outreach to make sure families newly eligible for free and reduced-price meals are getting them. Children should not feel as though they are being punished for their parents’ financial difficulties.”

For more information, contact: Jennifer Adach, 202.986.2200 x3018.

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The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is the leading national nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States.

In his speech, Secretary Vilsack spoke forcefully about the Administration’s commitment to achieving the President’s goal to end childhood hunger by 2015 and about the First Lady’s initiative to reduce obesity among children. The Secretary stated, “[i]t is vitally important that we focus our energies and resources on solving both of these challenges.”  He spoke about the links between stronger child nutrition programs and better education and health for children and stronger national security.

He outlined USDA priorities for reauthorization, many of which echoed priorities in the anti-hunger community. He specifically proposed reducing stigma and expanding participation in the School Breakfast Program, expanding the Afterschool Meal Program from 14 states to all states, working to encourage more sites to provide summer meals, improving the quality of food offered in schools, regulating competitive foods, strengthening school wellness policies, supporting efforts to move away from paper applications and to expand the use of direct certification, and competitive grants to states to advance successful strategies, and to states and nonprofits for systems to streamline application processes.

He concluded by saying: “In his first year in office, President Obama pulled us back from the brink of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and worked to lay a new foundation for economic growth.  He identified three key strategies to building that lasting prosperity: innovation, investment, and education.  All three strategies require the next generation to be the healthiest and best educated in our history. We will not succeed if of our children aren’t learning as they should because they are hungry, and cannot achieve because they aren’t healthy.

“After World War II, when our future was on the line, our leaders understood that the health of our nation – of our economy, our national security, and our communities – depends on the health of our children.  We would do well to remember that lesson today, and to act on it once again.”

For a full list of the Secretary’s priorities, click here to read the text of the remarks and here to read the press release.

FRAC remains committed to working with the Administration and with Congress to pass a strong reauthorization bill. To learn more about Child Nutrition Reauthorization and actions you can take, visit FRAC’s Legislative Action Center.

These troubling statistics are all part of today’s release of the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) new report, “Food Hardship: A Closer Look at Hunger.” For the first time, recent data on food hardship – the inability to afford enough food – are available for every state, all 436 Congressional Districts and for 100 of the country’s largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA).  This is the first report based on a sample size adequate to analyze food hardship data at the MSA and congressional district level. And no report before this has been able to look at food hardship data so close in time to publication.

The report analyzes survey data that were collected by Gallup and provided to us at FRAC. The ability to provide such localized data and such up-to-date data comes from Gallup’s partnership with Healthways. As part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which asks a series of questions on a range of topics including emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and access to basic services, more than 530,000 people have been asked since early 2008: “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

Anyone who follows the news knows that hunger has been on the rise in recent years, but we now know the extent of hunger in cities and Congressional districts.  This data provides each Member of Congress with the most accurate snapshot of their district and their constituents’ struggles with hunger that has ever been available.

Now that we have these data, it’s time to put them to use. These findings give local, state and federal lawmakers, as well as private and nonprofit organizations, the tools they need to put a broad anti-hunger plan in place.

The President has called for an end to childhood hunger by 2015. FRAC applauds this mission and stands behind this goal. Earlier this year, we laid out a multi-step anti-hunger plan. With today’s report, the need to take action has become more urgent.

Among our recommendations on ways to end childhood hunger – and hunger in general:

• Assure that federal and state governments continue to focus their efforts on boosting the economy and employing tools that especially help low-income workers, such as refundable tax credits and a higher minimum wage.
• Improve the SNAP/ Food Stamp by making benefits more adequate and expanding eligibility.
• Strengthen Child Nutrition Programs, including the school meal programs, child care food, afterschool meals and snacks, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which are due to be renewed by Congress this year.
• Ensure all families have access to reasonably priced nutritious foods.  This is an especially urgent need in low-income areas in large cities where good supermarkets often don’t exist.
• Combine and streamline anti-hunger efforts among governments, the private sector and nonprofit organizations at the local, state and federal level.

These are among the most essential strategies we must use to bring down the rates of hunger across the nation.  Click here for the full FRAC plan.

The Gallup-Healthways findings tell a sobering story about how many people, families and communities are struggling to afford enough food to stay healthy.  In a country as powerful and well-off as ours – even in today’s economy – we cannot continue to allow this level of hunger to continue.  Today’s findings are an alarm bell that must not be ignored.

Click here for a list of upcoming roundtables, event details, and state contact information.

The roundtables are good venues to explain how important federal nutrition programs are for rural America: they help needy rural school children and adults be ready to learn and work; they provide markets for famers and ranchers who produce food; and they boost sales for rural retailers who redeem program benefits.

To learn more, click here for USDA’s news release on the forums. Contact Ellen Vollinger (evollinger@frac.org) or Jen Adach (jadach@frac.org) if you have any questions.

The Obama Administration is beginning to put some effort behind this pledge. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is holding a series of listening sessions around the country on ways to achieve the 2015 goal. One of those sessions was recently held here in Oakland, Calif.

Groups and individuals from various sectors, including state agencies, industry and advocacy groups, and service providers showed up and shared ideas on how to end childhood hunger over the next six years. We at the Alameda County Community Food Bank were there to represent the hundreds of thousands of county residents who live with hunger – numbers that are escalating on a monthly basis.

We’ve laid out a number of  that will lead our country down the right path toward ending hunger. The administration and Congress can take a number of steps:

Click here for more on the Calitics Web site.

AA: It was a good crowd, about 60 people in the room and 23 giving testimony. Most of them were delighted that President Obama set a goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.

KC: And, a lot of people had worked through the FRAC 2015 proposal and mentioned it during their testimony.

AA: And many of them focused on the federal nutrition programs, how important they are to achieving the 2015 goal. For me, it drove home the point that the 2015 goal is achievable, and, together, we can make this happen.

KC: People also expressed some real concerns about the federal nutrition programs – that they need to be strengthened.

AA: That’s definitely true. The programs need to be strengthened so they reach more low-income people. That could be by serving breakfast in the classroom so more low-income children can participate or expanding afterschool meals to all states. Access needs to be front and center.

KC: And, it was important that the session included people who had actually participated in SNAP and other programs.

AA: Mariana Chilton – she’s responsible for the Witnesses to Hunger project – brought Tangela Federick to the hearing. Tangela’s a Witness to Hunger participant and said that we need to remember that there are human faces behind the numbers and that the strategies we’re discussing impact real people.

KC: I agree with Tangela that we shouldn’t forget the faces behind the statistics. Right now, USDA reports 12.4 million children living in households that struggle against hunger. John Cook pointed out that there are an additional 8.8 million children that are in households with “marginal food security,” and they are facing the same health consequences that food insecure children face.

AA: A lot of the discussion did focus on the implications of hunger on children’s health. And, the session raised interactions in another way also: a number of people said we need to look beyond the federal nutrition programs to truly end hunger. We need to look at things like better wages, affordable health insurance, refundable tax credits, and other ways to address poverty. There was definitely recognition among the speakers that achieving President Obama’s goal is not just in the hands of USDA, but other agencies too. Kimberley shared a great analogy about Duncan and Sebelius.

KC: Just look at H1N1 – Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are out there together talking about the virus and how to prevent it. Federal agencies can work together. Ending hunger should rise to this level.

More than 100 people attended the Utah “End Child Hunger by 2015” listening session, which was held on September 29 in Salt Lake City.

The Utah listening session was part of “The Face of Hunger in Utah” conference, which was sponsored by Utah Food Bank Services and Utahns Against Hunger. Pamela Atkinson, a longtime community advocate in the state, was the opening keynote speaker; she highlighted the President’s commitment to ending childhood hunger and endorsed FRAC’s seven strategies.

In her comments during the listening session, Gina Cornia with Utahns Against Hunger pointed out that “to reduce hunger you have to reduce poverty – they are intertwined. The whole U.S. government must be engaged – income supports, EITC, afterschool program funding should all be a part of the solution.”

“Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work, now,” was the message from Matt Anderson of the Utah State Office on Education. He suggested that Utah form a Hunger Task Force – like the one in Oregon – so that the anti-hunger community in the state could strengthen existing partnerships and find new ways to collaborate and problem-solve together. He also spoke about the challenges facing summer programs, especially those in rural communities, and mentioned that he’d like to see the rural transportation grants come back.

Other ideas at the listening session included:

• Strengthening income supports and expanding the earned income tax credit for low-income working families;
• Raising the minimum wage to reflect the cost of living;
• Providing affordable health insurance for low-income Americans;
• Continuing the improvements made by the economic recovery act which temporarily boosted SNAP/Food Stamp benefits and eliminated SNAP time limits imposed on able-bodied adults without dependents; and
• Increasing nutrition program funding.

Other session attendees included Mountain Plains Regional Administrator Darlene Barnes, representatives from Senator Hatch’s office, Senator Bennett’s office, the Utah State Office on Education, the Utah Department of Health, and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

One of the first USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) regional listening sessions to solicit feedback on ways to achieve President Barack Obama’s goal of ending childhood hunger in the U.S. by 2015 was held September 29th in Chicago. Julie Paradis, FNS Administrator, opened the session. She asked participants for proposals to address ways to end child hunger among all food insecure children, who number more than 12 million.

Participants at the session included Diane Doherty with the Illinois Hunger Coalition, Frank Kubik with Focus Hope of Michigan, Jon Janowski with the Milwaukee Hunger Task Force, Mora Nees with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks, and Mary Lou Langenhop with the Children’s Hunger Alliance of Ohio.

Participants discussed a range of ideas, including:

• Making additional investments in child nutrition programs;
• Increasing the minimum wage;
• Improving refundable tax credits for working families;
• Retaining and building on recent economic stimulus improvements;
• Simplifying paperwork for the federal nutrition programs, perhaps with a single application;
• Convening a White House Conference on Hunger and Nutrition;
• Increasing funding for afterschool suppers, school breakfast expansion, and summer program outreach and expansion (which can be accomplished through the upcoming Congressional reauthorization); and
• Involving multiple federal agencies in the 2015 effort – especially the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services as well as USDA.

People who were unable to attend any of the listening sessions can submit written comments to USDA at ech2015@fns.usda.gov.

There are more than 12 million children in our country in families struggling with hunger, and we need an ambitious set of strategies to help them. Many of those strategies involve the federal nutrition programs, but we need to think beyond the nutrition programs as well. As Melody Barnes, director of the President’s Domestic Policy Council, has said, we need to tackle hunger “from many different directions.” The President’s initial position paper on the 2015 goal mentioned SNAP, school meals, summer food and WIC, but also food banks and tackling poverty through tax relief, raising the minimum wage and providing affordable, accessible health insurance.

That’s why this effort will involve not only USDA, but the Treasury Department, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and others. And it will involve nonprofits, cities and states, and other stakeholders, as well as the federal government.

If you have thoughts about how we should go about ending childhood hunger in this country, I encourage you to send them to the e-mail address we have set up for this: ECH2015@fns.usda.gov.

Together we can reach this goal.

Julie Paradis is Administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.