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. Ag Committee Chair Proposes Child Nutrition Increase
(Reuters, March 17, 2010; FRAC, March 17, 2010)

Senator Blanche Lincoln, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, proposed an increase to the federal child nutrition programs. While the $4.5 billion increase over 10 years in the Chairman's Mark for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization is less than half of the $1 billion per year increase proposed by President Obama, Senator Lincoln said she would continue to look for more funds to reach the President's goal. "This is the place to start," she said. Lincoln said the increase would allow schools to offer free meals to all children in high-poverty areas, to automatically approve free meals for children when their families are approved for federal aid and to expand afterschool and summertime meal programs.

In a separate statement, FRAC noted that "the mark takes several steps forward to ensure that low-income children can participate in child nutrition programs and receive the meals they need, including an expansion of the Afterschool Meal Program to all 50 states and improvements in processes for certification for school meals. A strong Child Nutrition bill is a key step in reaching the President's goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015 and in reducing childhood obesity. FRAC is committed to working with Senator Lincoln and members of the House and Senate to move forward on key priorities, and to find additional funds, and the right mix of funds, to reach these goals and add more improvements in the programs."

2. USDA Official Remarks on SNAP/Food Stamp Boost in Recovery Act
(Cache Valley Daily, March 4, 2010)

Stopping in Salt Lake City, Utah, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan promoted the SNAP/Food Stamp benefit boost in the economic recovery package. She noted that the recovery act increased SNAP/Food Stamp benefits “by $80 more a month for a family of four.” Merrigan said she’s seen great things on her travels and visits to ARRA projects. “It’s been a little over a year since this act was signed by Congress and we’re getting around the country to see how we are doing in creating jobs,” said Merrigan. “It’s about jobs and I’m here in Utah to put on a hard hat and see how we’re doing.”

3. Illinois Hits Record Number of SNAP/Food Stamp Recipients
(Medill Reports Chicago, March 4, 2010)

More than 1.6 million people in Illinois receive SNAP/Food Stamps, a record number noted Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition. “These programs are working as they’re designed to do,” said Ed Cooney, executive director of the Congressional Hunger Center. SNAP/Food Stamps and school lunch programs are there to help families struggling with unemployment, noted Cooney. “That’s why they were established, in order to help people. They’re doing their job,” he said. President Obama has restated his goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015, and advocates say he’s serious. Cooney noted that some organizations, including the Food Research and Action Center and Feeding America, are serious about getting a childhood hunger bill passed, which would increase access to federal nutrition programs as well as improve the quality of school meals.

4. SNAP/Food Stamp Participation Doubles in One Virginia City
(Virginia Gazette, March 11, 2010)

Since 2008, the number of SNAP/Food Stamp recipients in Williamsburg, Va., has doubled from 200 to more than 400. To the city’s human services director, [Peter] Walentisch, the SNAP/Food Stamp Program is “the canary in the coal mine” when assessing the recession’s impact on the city. He told the city council of the program’s participation increase, and said his department hasn’t seen its budget double since 2008. “In fact,” he said, “there have been some cuts in state funding.” The department has been able to handle the increase through teamwork and cross-training employees in multiple programs.

5. SNAP/Food Stamp Applications Experience Delays in Colorado
(Marketplace, March 9, 2010)

Colorado’s computer system had been blamed for delaying SNAP/Food Stamp benefits and losing applications for the benefit, but according to William Browning, who is in charge of the state’s computer system for determining SNAP/Food Stamp eligibility, the problems are now caused by a lack of personnel. The state is overwhelmed and there aren’t enough caseworkers. Three years ago, Colorado agreed to process applications on time after a lawsuit was brought against the state. “The failure to comply means [Colorado] could wind up back in court as early as next month.” Recipients have to re-apply periodically to prove they’re still eligible, and some recipients have been incorrectly cut out of the program. “Clients are returning [SNAP/Food Stamp] documents timely and they’re falling into a black hole, and they disappear and [the] county departments are saying ‘We’ve never gotten them,’” said Dorothy Hurvey at Colorado Legal Services. The state violates federal law if SNAP/Food Stamp applications are not processed in 30 days.

6. Recipient Describes Life on SNAP/Food Stamps
(Sojourners, February 26, 2010)

A single mother with a three-year-old son, Jennifer Wheeler never thought she would be on SNAP/Food Stamps. In this posting on Sojourners’ blog, she writes that “due to events in the last two years, I am the holder of an EBT card.” Fresh fruits and meats are expensive, she notes, so she relies on cheese and tuna. On a recent trip, Wheeler recounts that she “picked out some organic cereal bars for my son, who occasionally is a picky eater, and wanted them for him to eat on his way to daycare.” The cashier asked her to pay cash for them since the product wasn’t in the store’s computer system. “I asked to talk to the manager and he told me that he couldn’t sell them to me for payment with the EBT card, and of course there were four people in line behind me.” Although it was the store’s error, Wheeler had the item taken off her bill “to avoid the stares of the other customers.” When people see customers using SNAP/Food Stamps, Wheeler hopes they don’t draw conclusions about the benefit recipient. “I do not want a handout, but need to use them to climb out of the situation I am in,” she concludes.

7. Connecticut Groups Organize SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge
(Hartford Courant, February 17, 2010)

In March, the Charter Oak Cultural Center, Hands on Hartford, Foodshare, and End Hunger Connecticut sponsored the “SNAP Into Action Against Hunger Project.” This is the third year of the event, formerly titled the Food Stamp Project, which invites community members to try living on the average SNAP/Food Stamp benefit during March. Participants in this challenge “do this to experience, in their bodies, what it means to have so little,” said Rabbi Donna Berman, executive director of the Charter Oak Cultural Center. “[T]hey will do this to raise consciousness about hunger in Hartford; they will do this to help their fellow citizens see the realities of poverty and hunger and to inspire our community to work together to bring healing and solve these problems.”

8. Idaho Official Supports Waiving SNAP/Food Stamp Asset Test for Another Year
(Fox 12 Idaho, March 4, 2010)

Dick Armstrong, Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare director, supports waiving the state’s SNAP/Food Stamp asset test for another year since the state’s unemployment rate is 9.2 percent and the economic recovery seems uncertain. Lawmakers extended the waiver to the end of May. The asset test requires SNAP/Food Stamp recipients have less than $2,000 in assets in order to receive the benefit. The waiver was put in place last year to keep newly unemployed people from having to unload assets at unfavorable rates in order to qualify for the program.

9. Louisiana Moving to Automate SNAP/Food Stamp Applications
(Forbes, March 11, 2010)

A proposed overhaul to the Louisiana Department of Social Services includes plans to put SNAP/Food Stamp applications online and allow people to apply for the program by phone. “We’re very focused on automating our systems,” said Social Services Secretary Kristy Nichols. “We can’t afford the system that we have today. The growth that we see in the need for public assistance, if we don’t do business differently, we’re not going to be able to absorb the need.” SNAP/Food Stamp participation grew 19 percent over the past year, with more than 332,000 families now enrolled in the program. The welfare system changes will also consolidate offices and eliminate about 200 jobs. Other programs will also be affected by the change, including foster care services and welfare payments across the state. Four program offices will become one office, and some lawmakers are concerned that rural clients without transportation will have to travel further via public transportation to access benefits. They have urged Nichols to proceed cautiously with these closures.

10. Federal Food Programs Fight Childhood Obesity, Study Finds
(Houston Chronicle, March 4, 2010)

A recently-published study in the national policy journal Health Affairs found that federal nutrition programs are part of the solution to the nation’s childhood obesity problem. In this editorial, the study’s authors explain that they “found that young, low-income children who participate in the National School Lunch or Child and Adult Care Food programs have a reduced risk of obesity at age 5.” Weight problems in early childhood are a “key predictor” of obesity in later life. It may seem “counterintuitive,” note the authors, “that increasing access to school food is a way to prevent obesity.” In Texas, USDA and the state Legislature “have taken significant steps to promote access to healthy meals for our young children,” and in Houston, the school district will offer, beginning this fall, free, in-classroom breakfast to all elementary and middle school students. “We commend the state of Texas and [the Houston Independent School District] for their work promoting greater access to healthy meals, which we suspect, based on our research, will help prevent child obesity while also addressing hunger and food insecurity in these hard economic times,” write the authors Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, assistant professor of sociology and Rice Scholar at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, and Elizabeth Rigby, assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston. Their study in Health Affairs is titled “Federal Food Policy and Childhood Obesity: A Solution or Part of the Problem?”

11. Minnesota School District Boosts Nutrition Level of Breakfast Program
(ABC Newspapers, March 4, 2010)

Minnesota’s School District 16 is improving the nutritional quality of breakfasts served to students, cutting back on sugar, salt and trans fats, and is encouraging students to eat healthier. It’s been slow going – five years of requests finally culminated in whole grain breads offered on the menu. Fifteen years ago, however, breakfast options were cold cereal, milk, toast and peanut butter, and only one student showed up for breakfast. Now there’s a group involving parents, school staff, food service staff, and administration looking into healthier eating, and focusing on boosting the nutritional quality of snacks available at school. About 45 percent of the district’s 4,600 students eat breakfast at school, and 74 percent participate in the school lunch program.

12. Rochester Schools Want Healthier Snacks for Students
(Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, March 6, 2010)

Under new food service provider Aramark, school lunches have gotten healthier in New York’s Rochester School District. But, there’s still a prevalence of obese children in the area and a committee is now looking at what students eat for lunch and at the snacks offered in schools. Sodium levels may still be a problem in some meals, particularly those served in Rochester elementary schools, which don’t have kitchens. Sodium is used as a preservative in prepackaged foods. But what students are eating in the district’s cafeterias is most likely healthier than what they can get at home or to and from school, said district officials. “We don’t have control over school vending machines right now,” said Jerome Underwood, Rochester School District operations director. “I’ve got to get on the principal’s meeting agenda to talk about what we have in the vending machines.” Principals govern what’s served in vending machines, not Aramark or the district, so there are no universal rules for what’s offered in them. In a recent speech at the National Press Club, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack noted that “[f]oods served in vending machines and the á la carte line shouldn’t undermine our efforts to enhance the health of the school environment.”