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. SNAP/Food Stamps are Only Income for Millions During Recession
(The New York Times, January 3, 2009)

A The New York Times analysis of data reveals that six million Americans receiving SNAP/Food Stamps report they have no other income. According to state-verified and government-audited declarations, they describe themselves as unemployed and do not receive welfare, unemployment insurance, pensions, child support or disability pay. One in 50 Americans now have no other income besides SNAP/Food Stamps. Florida, ravaged by the housing crisis, has seen the number of people living solely on SNAP/Food Stamps double in two years. The number “attests to the growing role of food stamps within the safety net.” Across the country, one in eight adults, and one in four children, receive the benefit. In Florida, data shows this population evenly split between households with children and those with just adults (the fastest growing segment during the recession). “The program is doing what it was designed to do: help very needy people get through a very difficult time,” said Don Winstead, deputy secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Tougher welfare laws before the recession made it more difficult for poor people to receive cash aid; across the country, the number of people reporting SNAP/Food Stamps as their only income increased 50 percent over the past two years. In Nevada over the past two years, the number has almost tripled; in New York, the number has doubled; and has grown nearly 90 percent in Minnesota and Utah. One out of every 25 Wayne County, Mich. residents (including Detroit) reports living on SNAP/Food Stamps, and one in 17 are doing so in Yakima County, Washington. Others note the lack of any cash support shows the safety net is torn. “The food-stamp program is being asked to do too much,” said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. “People need income support.” Although the numbers are estimates, the condition has been overlooked and there is little data on how long these households go without cash and what resources they are calling upon to cope. While SNAP/Food Stamps have become the “safety net of last resort,” the main cash welfare program – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families – has scarcely expanded, with numbers still down from the 1990s peak by 75 percent, due to the tougher welfare laws. Unemployment insurance only helps out half the unemployed.
State-by-state table: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/02/us/foodstamps-table.html

SNAP/Food Stamps and Poverty: FRAC has prepared a chart comparing The New York Times' estimates of SNAP/Food Stamp participation by county with poverty data by county. For details, contact evollinger@frac.org.

2. WIC Includes More for Fruits and Vegetables
(The Washington Post, January 7, 2010)

Women in WIC will soon start receiving a 25 percent increase in their monthly vouchers for fruits and vegetables. The increase brings the total monthly amount for fruits and vegetables to $10; the previous amount was $8. “The WIC folks really wanted this change,” said Geri Henchy, policy analyst at the Food Research and Action Center.”This is record time for a regulation.” The increase brings the benefit level up to amount orginally recommended by the Institute of Medicine, and states have until April 30 to begin instituting the change. Visit the WIC section of FRAC’s Web site for more information.

3. Congress Should Make SNAP/Food Stamp Boost Permanent
(Pottstown Mercury, December 29, 2009)

In order to fight hunger and stimulate the economy at the same time, Congress should make permanent the temporary boost in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits in last spring’s recovery bill, notes this editorial. The stimulus package provided an additional $80 in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits for a family of four. The program is the most efficient way of generating economic activity, returning $1.73 for every $1 paid out in the program, according to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com. “Poor families spend food stamps immediately, and the dollars ripple quickly through other local businesses,” notes the editorial. Only two other strategies approach the economic benefit of the SNAP/Food Stamp program – extending unemployment benefits return $1.64 and repairing state infrastructure returns $1.59. In addition, the editorial asks Congress to expand child nutrition programs through the legislation set for reauthorization in 2010, echoing President Obama’s call for a $10 billion increase in the programs that include school lunch and WIC. “[E]ven at a time of rising benefits, that’s a bargain.” Child hunger causes a series of problems, including lowered academic performance and more depression, reports Children’s HealthWatch. Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at USDA, spoke of the intense need recently, telling The New York Times “[t]his is the most urgent time for our feeding programs in our lifetime, with the exception of the Depression. It’s time for us to face up to the fact that in this country of plenty, there are hungry people.”

4. Big Solutions Needed for America’s Huge Unemployment Problem
(The New York Times, January 5, 2010)

America “is a society in deep, deep trouble,” writes Bob Herbert in this column, “and the fixes currently in the works are in no way adequate to the enormous challenges we’re facing.” Six million Americans count SNAP/Food Stamps as their only source of income, part of the one in eight in this country (one in four of whom are children) currently receiving the benefit. There has been no net job creation between December 1999 and now. According to a Washington Post article, “No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent.” Adjusted for inflation, middle class families in 2008 made less than they made in 1999, and they’ve most likely made even less in 2009. Huge numbers are unemployed and nearly a quarter of homeowners owe more on their homes than they’re worth. Yet “[o]ur collective consciousness tends to obsess indiscriminately over one or two issues… while enormous problems that should be engaged get short shrift.” In order to get us back to our December 2007 employment level, we need to create 10 million new jobs. But even that’s not enough. “What’s needed are big new innovative efforts to fashion an economy that creates jobs for all who want and need to work.” Herbert concludes that “[y]ou can’t have a healthy economy with so many millions out of work, and there is no plan now that would result in the creation of millions of new jobs any time soon.”

5. Number Needing Federal Energy Assistance Soars
(The New York Times, December 20, 2009)

Americans struggling through the recession are also struggling to pay their heating bills, and more households are having their utilities getting shut off. As unemployment increases and fuel prices more than doubled, many people found themselves in “energy debt.” Last winter, Congress nearly doubled funding – to $5.1 billion - for the LIHEAP program, which provides one-time grants to households which helps them pay their energy bills. In 2009, a record 8.1 million applications for assistance were filed, up from 6.1 million in 2008. Eligible applicants received an average one-time grant of $500, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. Congress kept the funding level steady, but applications increased an additional 20 percent last fall. The increase in applications means recipients will get less grant money or people will be turned down. According to Connecticut’s Public Utilities Commission, the number of utility shutoffs in the state, for all incomes, increased from 86,074 in 2008 to 105,300 in just the first nine months of 2009. California’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates reported that low-income household utility shutoffs increased by one-fifth in the year ending in August 2009, as the state’s unemployment rate rose past 12 percent. In Rhode Island last year, 31,000 households had their utilities shut off (although utilities cannot shut off poor customers in the winter). The state requires utilities charge lower electrical rates for low-income households, and Rhode Island advocates are pushing for alternative assistance, like programs in New Jersey and Illinois which set bills as a share of income.

6. Some States Should Make SNAP/Food Stamps Easier to Access
(Reuters, December 18, 2009)

While New Mexico, Oregon and Washington are working hard at getting eligible residents to sign up for SNAP/Food Stamps, states such as Florida, Texas and California need to do more, said Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at USDA. “If you live in California,” said Concannon, “you ought to be as eligible for those benefits as if you lived across the line in Oregon.” The federal government has helped states boost enrollment by giving them the option of interviewing elderly and disabled applicants over the phone, and removing the asset test for families, allowing them to keep more money in the bank for emergencies. Many unemployed are not aware they are eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps, and Concannon has called on states to do more outreach to the jobless and legal immigrants. “There are economic benefits for everyone, for the entire state, if we increase participation,” said Tia Shimada, nutrition policy advocate at California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA). According to USDA, nearly $2 in economic activity is generated for every $1 in SNAP/Food Stamps spent. California would receive an estimated additional $3.7 billion a year in federal benefits if the state signed up the additional 2.9 million eligible residents for SNAP/Food Stamps. That would generate an additional $6.9 billion in economic activity for the state, noted Shimada in a report titled “Lost Dollars, Empty Plates.” In the report, CFPA also urged the state to eliminate the “pricey” fingerprinting requirement that keeps many eligible people from applying for the program.

7. Stimulus Funding Keeps Thousands from Poverty in Connecticut
(Hartford Courant, December 22, 2009)

Unemployment extensions and increases in both SNAP/Food Stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit have helped more than 50,000 Connecticut residents stay above the poverty line, note researchers at the Center for Budget Priorities. The organization used a broad measure of income that includes sources like SNAP/Food Stamps, which is usually excluded from data. “It’s terrific that it worked,” said Jamey Bell, executive director of Connecticut Voices for Children. SNAP/Food Stamps and unemployment benefits “help the whole community,” said Bell, since recipients are “spending those benefits in the stores.”

8. More Could Take Advantage of SNAP/Food Stamps in Florida’s Alachua County
(The Gainesville Sun, December 17, 2009)

More than 28,000 Alachua County, Fla. residents currently receive SNAP/Food Stamps, although only 37 percent of those eligible in the county have signed up for the program. Many who aren’t receiving the assistance are using local food pantries to keep food on the table. Senior citizens who could apply find the online application confusing or don’t have transportation to the SNAP/Food Stamp office. Language is another barrier keeping many from the benefit. Officials estimate that county residents are missing out on millions of dollars in unused SNAP/Food Stamps. Although the United Way provides backpacks filled with food to needy children to help them from going hungry over the weekends, project manager Edwin Goutier said this solution is unsustainable. He’s helping families in the backpack program access SNAP/Food Stamps, since the Weekend Backpack Program is unable to feed children during school breaks in the winter, spring and summer. “What we do is figure out why the children are in the situation, to try and get families off the backpacks,” said Goutier.

9. Ex-Felons Cannot Receive SNAP/Food Stamps
(Black Star News New York, December 17, 2009)

Ex-felons are banned from receiving SNAP/Food Stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). These restrictions stem from the 1996 welfare reform legislation, “which was adopted at a time when politicians in Washington were maneuvering to be perceived as tough on crime,” notes this op-ed. “This is public policy at its worst,” writes Dr. Henrie M. Treadwell, director of Community Voices of Morehouse School of Medicine and Elisabeth Kingsbury, J.D., an attorney and senior researcher for Community Voices. “With ex-convicts already facing monumental hurdles to overcome, ranging from dealing with health concerns to trying to find jobs to readjusting to their families and communities, this policy makes successfully doing any of those even more difficult.” The policies also have a huge impact on children and women. Thirty states have changed the ban and allow ex-felons to receive the benefit if they are participating in substance abuse treatment sessions, passing drug tests, or staying out of trouble for a specified time. Nine states have eliminated the ban. The ban is still in effect in eleven states. Lawmakers in some states aren’t even aware of the federal ban. In West Virginia, the ban is hidden in legislation, “tucked into…mundane ‘rules,’” and was not voted on separately. State legislator and Health and Human Services Resources Chairman Don Perdue researched the ban, and is now considering legislation to address it. “It’s time to change the laws,” concludes the op-ed.

10. New York Farmers are Eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps
(Westfair Online, December 30, 2009)

New York has removed the asset test for SNAP/Food Stamps, making farmers in the state eligible for the benefit, which can help many who are still dealing with the disastrous cold and rainy growing season of 2009, as well as low prices and ongoing farm policies that can add to their financial struggles. Farming isn’t sustainable anymore, said Chris Pawelski of Pawelski’s Farm in Goshen, as farmers receive only 20 cents for every dollar consumers spend on produce in supermarkets. SNAP/Food Stamps can keep farmers from having to sell off valuable farm equipment, which they need in order to run their farms.

11. Resources Connect Needy New Yorkers to SNAP/Food Stamps and Other Assistance
(Press Connects, December 22, 2009; NY Daily News, December 22, 2009; NY State OTDA News, December 16, 2009)

Needy New York residents can check a Web site - http://www.mybenefits.ny.gov -- run by the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (ODTA) -- to find out if they are eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps, school lunch, heating assistance, tax credits, Medicaid, and other forms of assistance. In 27 counties, residents can apply for SNAP/Food Stamps through the site with the assistance of “designated community organizations”. In 12 counties, residents can apply for SNAP/Food Stamps from any computer with Internet access, and there are plans to expand this access statewide in the coming year. “We recognize that many of those hard-hit by the downturn have never sought help before and we’re working to make it easy as possible for those who are eligible to obtain benefits,” said Elizabeth Berlin, ODTA’s executive deputy commissioner. In the NYC borough of the Bronx, residents can visit a Center for Urban Community Services office at 1510 Southern Blvd. at E. 172nd St. in Crotona Park, which can help them determine their assistance eligibility. “It’s like a light at the end of a tunnel,” said single mother of three Biriam Ortiz, a nursing student by day who works nights as a hospital housekeeper. Ortiz did not consider public assistance until she was referred to the office, where she found she was eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps, housing assistance, child care subsidy and legal aid. “I didn’t think I qualified…because I work,” said Ortiz. Recent federal changes have made more working families eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps, and people with higher incomes eligible for child care subsidy, said assistant program director Megan Sergi.

12. NYC Public Advocate Defined Office Through Food Assistance
(City Hall News, December 15, 2009)

New York City’s public advocate Betsy Gotbaum announced that she will not seek a third term. In an interview with City Hall News, she reflected on her achievements in the office. Gotbaum saw the office as a place “for the most vulnerable New Yorkers who have no place else to turn.” Starting in 2002 with SNAP/Food Stamps, “which raised almost $1 million in private money to increase the accessibility to food stamps, all the way through getting Costco to provide food stamps for customers in New York. That’s been a theme … helping New Yorkers who have nowhere else to turn,” said Gotbaum.

13. Wiley Center Head Suffers Stroke but Food Advocacy Goes On
(Providence Journal, December 31, 2009)

Henry Shelton, coordinator of the George Wiley Center, an advocacy group in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, recently suffered a stroke, but continued to organize a rally calling on Governor Carcieri to help the state’s poor and jobless residents. “He was quite frustrated at not being able to be there,” said Jack Colby, a volunteer with the Center. “He was leading the charge and setting up expectations and telling people where his notes were.” Volunteers urged the Governor to:

expand the SNAP/Food Stamp program, hire more workers, open offices on Saturday and adopt a shorter application form;
provide more in-classroom school breakfasts, an investment that will help students perform better;
switch to EBT cards in the WIC program to remove “cumbersome coupons” for the 35,000 participants in the state.

Trained by a Chicago community organizer and others, Shelton is credited with starting or joining almost every anti-poverty and social justice group in the state, including the Coalition for Consumer Justice, People Acting through Community Effort, Parents for Progress, and the Campaign to End Childhood Poverty.

14. Detroit Area Faces Vast, Complicated Hunger Problem
(Detroit Free Press, December 20, 2009)

The United Way reports that 700,000 southeast Michigan residents struggle with food insecurity, as families are forced to miss rent and other bill payments, and forgo medical treatments, in order to feed their children. It also estimates that one-quarter of people in need receive help from friends and family, while only six percent of those struggling with hunger are using food pantries and shelters. In one school district, 28 percent of students qualified for free and reduced-price lunch in 1999; now 53.5 percent of its 8,500 students qualify. The unemployment rate in the Detroit area has climbed along with the need for food, and according to a Gleaners report, 21.5 percent of part-time workers in the state say they would rather be working full time. A kindergarten teacher at Eisenhower Elementary School asked one five-year-old student “Is there something you want for Christmas?” The student replied: “I want my mom to have food.”

15. Ann Arbor’s Hungry Depend on Scattered Safety Net
(AnnArbor.com, December 20, 2009)

The number of Ann Arbor, Michigan residents struggling with hunger has grown over the past 18 months, to the point where “you might be living next door to someone who’s not eating,” said Yolanda Whiten, executive director of the Ann Arbor Community Center. Lines form at food distribution sites hours before the doors open, and Community Center volunteers hand out lists of agency food distribution dates in the area. Residents can determine their SNAP/Food Stamp eligibility by visiting the Department of Human Services office in Ypsilanti, or through the department’s Web site. In addition, the site http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/mars lets users determine their eligibility online, and on the site http://www.michigan.gov/mibridges residents can download a SNAP/Food Stamp application, which takes about two hours to complete. Caseworkers are now dealing with caseloads that have more than doubled – from an average of 320 in 2002 to 680 in September 2009. While many say the Ann Arbor safety net works better than assistance in other Michigan communities, it can still be hard to access services. “Many organizations have guidelines like you can come once a month,” said Eileen Spring, executive director of Food Gatherers. “But at the same time, if you’re really in a food crisis, it’s really a scattered process…It requires a car, it requires time, it requires knowing what you can get and where. It’s a lot of effort and if you’re relying on that system, it can be difficult. If you’re using that as a supplement once a week or once a month, it’s not as bad. But really, it’s inadequate.”

16. Ohio, Missouri Schools Boost Breakfast Participation
(Bucyrus Telegraph, December 30, 2009; Public News Service, December 23, 2009)

According to FRAC’s recently-released School Breakfast Scorecard, low-income breakfast participation in Ohio increased 10 percent in 2009, higher than national average increase of 6.2 percent. In Ohio, 104 new schools began offering breakfast. Lorie Pennington, food services director for Bucyrus City Schools, noted “(When) we started universal breakfast this year…the free and reduced percentage increased 70 percent.” Since starting universal breakfast in the primary and intermediate grades this year, Galion City School District increased participation and doubled high school participation, according to food services director Jacki Corona. Missouri saw a six percent increase in low-income students participating in school breakfast according to FRAC’s Scorecard. In Missouri, schools where 35 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch are required to serve breakfast, and hardship grants are available from the state to help schools with breakfast costs. No one service option works for all schools, notes Park Hill School District food service director Rhonda McCullick, so “districts need to be flexible with breakfast programs.” Elementary school students in the district can take advantage of “grab and go” breakfast and eat in their classrooms. “There are so many different avenues that you can pursue and still contain costs,” said McCullick. “It’s really important that all of our school districts introduce these options to our students and offer them healthy food choices throughout the school day.”

17. States, School Districts Use CACFP to Feed Students and Adults
(Asheville Citizen-Times, December 23, 2009; Statesman-Journal.com, December 21, 2009)

More than 5,000 child care centers, family child care homes, afterschool programs, Head Start programs, shelters and adult day care centers in North Carolina are using the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to help provide thousands of children and adults with free, nutritious meals and snacks. Each day in September 2009, approximately 120,000 of the state’s children and adults received more than six million breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks over the month. The federal government provides the funding for CACFP through USDA, and in North Carolina the program is administered through the state’s Department of Health and Human Services; children and adults at the participating facilities are not charged for the food. “Children in CACFP usually receive more nutritious meals than the children in child care settings that do not participate in CACFP,” said Alice Lenihan, who heads the state’s Nutrition Services Branch. “Those children get more nutrients and fewer servings of fats and sweets than the children in non-participating care. In fact, participation in CACFP has been shown to be a major factor in quality care – 87 percent of the family child care homes providing quality child care participate in CACFP.” During the winter school break in Oregon, five middle schools in Salem-Kelzer School District provided free breakfast and lunch to children ages 1-18 with funding from CACFP.

18. Colorado’s Minimum Wage is Now at the Federal Minimum
(Huffington Post, December 31, 2009)

Colorado lowered its minimum wage slightly in the new year, from $7.28 to the federal minimum of $7.25. The first state to decrease their minimum wage since 1938 (when the federal minimum was adopted), Colorado is one of ten states that ties its rate to inflation, in order to protect workers from the rising cost of living. However, the state’s consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, and Colorado’s provision allows for declines in the minimum wage. No state can reduce the wage below the federal minimum, which kept Colorado’s rate from falling 4 cents because of the falling consumer price index (attributed to lower fuel prices). Most other states with adjustable minimum wage have no provisions for lowering the amount. Approximately 48,000 Colorado residents will be affected by the drop, which will amount to about $62 a year for someone who works 40-hours a week and takes no time off. Tipped workers, who make less than the federal minimum, are not affected. Labor officials in the state doubt that any employers will drop their workers’ wages. According to the U.S. Labor Department, thirteen other states and D.C. have a minimum wage higher than $7.25; Alaska raised their minimum wage in the new year by 50 cents, to $7.75.

19. Recession Sees Rise in Domestic Violence while States Reduce Services
(The New York Times, December 31, 2009)

According to a study released last May by the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, 75 percent of domestic violence shelters reported an increase in women seeking help since September 2008, and 73 percent of the shelters attribute this rise to financial issues. “Domestic violence is up, and while the poor economy that helps drive the violence is still not rebounded, states are drastically slashing funding for domestic violence services,” said Sheryl Cates, chief executive of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Data had been showing that domestic violence rates were falling in the 15 years before the recession. Philadelphia saw 35 domestic homicides in 2009, a 67 percent rise from the year before. California cut $2 million in financing for the 94 domestic violence shelters and centers; the state accounts for 13 percent of emergency calls, the highest of any state. The Illinois legislature reduced domestic violence spending 75 percent, forcing shelters, sexual assault and other related social services programs to cut hours, staff and services.