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. USDA Announces SNAP/Food Stamp Outreach Grant Program
(USDA, March 25, 2010)

Organizations can download grant applications (at www.grants.gov or www.fns.usda.gov/snap) to apply for up to $5 million in grant awards to improve SNAP/Food Stamp access and increase program participation. USDA is interested in funding projects through this grant which improve SNAP/Food Stamp efficiency and effectiveness by applying a “process improvement process” to application, certification and recertification procedures. The agency is also interested in funding programs that involve partnerships between State agencies and one or more nonprofit organizations. “The health of our nation – of our economy, our national security, and our communities – depends on the health of our families,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in announcing the grants. “Breaking down barriers to [SNAP/Food Stamp] participation will help this Administration deliver on its goal of reducing hunger and improving nutrition across the country.” The deadline to submit proposals is June 23.

2. SNAP/Food Stamps and LIHEAP Require Minimal Cost from Counties
(Times Herald-Record, March 4, 2010)

While Medicaid benefits require a 25 percent “local share” of expenditures, which can impose on counties a financial burden, SNAP/Food Stamps and the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are 100 percent federally-funded, writes Gene Doyle of New York in this op-ed. “Neither of these programs represent ‘unfunded mandates.’ No county funds are expended for either program.” Doyle, a journalist, refers to a February 23, 2010 article which reported the increase in applications for food and energy assistance in Sullivan County. SNAP/Food Stamps also boost local economies, writes Doyle. He mentions the January 2008 analysis by Moody’s Economy.com, which found that $1 in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits yields close to $2 in economic benefit [www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/assissing-the-impact-of-the-fiscal-stimulus.pdf]. “Local elected officials weaken their case for greater financial and state aid when they criticize federally funded programs that are locally administered,” concludes Doyle. “I hope that [the Herald-Record] will hold local officials accountable when they exaggerate claims about unfunded mandates.”

3. More Californians Should Be Receiving SNAP/Food Stamps
(Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2010; mydesert.com, March 16, 2010; KPCC, March 19, 2010; Santa Barbara Independent, March 16, 2010)

While the national average SNAP/Food Stamp participation rate is 66 percent of those eligible, California’s rate – 48 percent of eligible recipients – ranks the state second-to-last, with Wyoming the only state behind. California is also going through a devastating budget crisis. The state had 3 million people (1 in 11 residents) on SNAP/Food Stamps as of December 2009, 46 percent more than in December 2007. This large percentage increase can be attributed to the recession, and it’s unclear whether or not the actual participation rate has increased. In Coachella Valley there has been a 38 percent increase in the number of people receiving the benefit over the past year; since 2007, the county has seen a 138 percent increase. “We are seeing a staggering spike,” said Sayori Baldwin, the county’s deputy director of social services. Welfare offices across the state are swamped, and applicants have complained that they can’t reach anyone in those offices by phone and are forced to wait for hours, in lines stretching “out the door” or “around the block” to see a social services worker. Others are told to come back with a slew of documents they need to apply. Making things worse: the state has restricted the amount of money it gives counties to administer the program (the federal government requires state and county governments to share half of program administrative costs, while it pays the SNAP/Food Stamp benefit in full). The state misses out on millions – Lou Cannon, Los Angeles Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, recently said “if all the 70,000 or so people in Santa Barbara County who are eligible for food stamps actually received them, they’d be receiving $58 million more than they actually do and the effect on the county’s economy would be $108 million.” Keeping many eligible persons from applying are various barriers. Immigrants don’t apply – many don’t know about the program (and the state has the nation’s largest foreign-born population). One woman didn’t apply because she thought it would make her family a “public charge” which would prevent family members from obtaining green cards. Others think that if they apply, their children could be drafted or the money would be docked from social security benefits, neither of which are true. Many unemployed people don’t know they’re eligible. California is also one of four states that fingerprints recipients to guard against SNAP/Food Stamp fraud, which drives more away. “They shouldn’t make you feel like a criminal if you need to apply for food stamps,” said Frank Tamborello of Hunger Action Los Angeles. California is the only state to require recipients to report their income every three months. Although the federal government asked the state to adopt semiannual reporting, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would make the change because it also eliminated fingerprinting. The state has taken a few actions to ease the application process and make more people eligible by eliminating the asset limit for households with children, allowing counties to do eligibility interviews by phone, and permitting recipients without kitchens to use their benefits at restaurants.

In the meantime, the state struggles to feed increasing numbers of hungry people, according to California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at USC, which has interviewed county, state and food bank officials and many residents facing food shortages. A Web site – Hunger in the Golden State - in conjunction with the USC/Annenberg partnership investigates the state’s hunger problem in depth.

4. Oklahoma’s Record SNAP/Food Stamp Participation Boosts Economy
(Tulsa World, March 22, 2010)

The number of SNAP/Food Stamp recipients in Oklahoma has increased every month since March 2008, and since February 2009 the state set records each month for SNAP/Food Stamp participation; the state now receives about $73.2 million a month in SNAP/Food Stamps. Oklahoma County has the most recipients – 118,637; 13 percent of Tulsa County residents (79,055 people) receive the benefit; and 62 percent of McCurtain County residents are on SNAP/Food Stamps. Store owner Kent Stromski has been able to hire two full-time workers thanks to SNAP/Food Stamps. “I cannot state how important food stamps are here,” he said. “I remember the times of government commodities just handing out free stuff. But that didn’t create jobs like food stamps do.” SNAP/Food Stamp purchases make up about 20 percent of the store’s business. At the first day of each month – when clients get their benefits – the store sells $1,600 in food, mostly items for meals: roasts, cheeses, canned food, and pasta.

5. SNAP/Food Stamp Recipients Can Use EBT Cards at Rite Aid
(Marketwatch.com, March 18, 2010)

Rite Aid stores nationwide now accept SNAP/Food Stamp EBT cards. “One in eight Americans are receiving food assistance through SNAP according to the USDA,” said Brian Fiala, Rite Aid Executive Vice President, Store Operations. “With nearly 4,800 Rite Aid stores nationwide offering assorted groceries, accepting EBT cards is just another convenience we can offer to our customers and help make their lives a little easier.”

6. SNAP/Food Stamps May Be Reducing Strain on Some Food Pantries in Utah
(Salt Lake Tribune, March 11, 2010)

Some food pantries in Utah are reporting lower demand, although a record number of Utah families – 98,574 – were receiving SNAP/Food Stamps in February. Over the past few months, up to 120 families a day visited the Community Action Pantry. Now that number has reduced to around 80. “What I think starts making a difference is the incredible effort to get people on food stamps,” said Rachel Fischbein, head of emergency services at Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City. But not all pantries are seeing the same trend. Carbon County Food Bank reports that their numbers have climbed 20 to 30 percent. Utah residents are still dealing with job losses and the end of unemployment benefits.

7. Colorado Document Aims to Increase SNAP/Food Stamp Participation
(Grand Junction Sentinel, March 15, 2010)

The Food Policy Blueprint, a document recently released by Livewell Colorado, aims to reduce obesity in the state by improving the health and nutrition of the state’s residents and increasing participation in the SNAP/Food Stamp program. The blueprint identifies the most urgent food policy needs in the state and offers suggestions on how to connect people to healthier food. The suggestions include: making it more cost-effective for all food stores to carry healthy foods; increasing the amount of “farm-fresh foods” in schools; increasing student access to healthy foods at schools; and making it easier for cities to have urban agriculture. “Food is in every single environment,” said Lonna Lindsay, vice president of policy for Livewell Colorado. “It’s a workplace issue, a school issue, a leisure time issue. We’re attempting to impact how people move their bodies and how they get access to healthy food. That means a different thing for you and me, and it’s different for people in an urban environment than a rural environment.”

8. New Mexico Residents Apply for SNAP/Food Stamps, Learn About Medicaid
(Albuquerque Business Journal, March 26, 2010)

According to Betina Gonzales McCracken of the New Mexico Human Services Department, many residents are learning about the state’s Medicaid program when they apply for SNAP/Food Stamps. “More people are coming into offices looking for [food stamp] help. We started seeing a jump in that program, actually, a 33 percent increase. When they’re in the offices, they learn about our Insure New Mexico! program and sign up.” From February 2008 to February 2010, SNAP/Food Stamp participation jumped 28 percent, said McCracken, with 113,330 families receiving the benefit in 2009 and 146,081 in 2010. In March 2010, 541,639 of the state’s 1.9 million residents were on some form of publicly-funded medical assistance, 10 percent more than the previous year. Sixty-seven percent – 323,939 – were children. Publicly-funded insurance programs are a safeguard for people who are suddenly unemployed and have lost insurance, said Human Services Secretary Katie Falls. “America’s uninsured crisis means that hard-working people with average incomes are being squeezed,” said Robert Wood Johnson President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey.

9. Education Program Helps Alaskans on SNAP/Food Stamps
(Juneau Empire, March 21, 2010)

Individuals and families eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps in Alaska can also take advantage of the Alaska Nutrition Education Program, which helps them maximize their benefits and eat healthy at the same time by offering basic nutrition and food-budgeting classes and workshops. Several hundred people benefitted from the program last year. Jennifer Nu, nutrition educator for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, is one of six part-time educators in the state who tailors the nutrition program to a community’s needs and delivers the workshops. “I take research-based nutrition and food budgeting information and make it relevant to Juneau residents,” she said. “We want to equip clients with basic nutritional knowledge in combination with basic financial literacy so that they are able to make healthy food choices within a limited budget.”

10. Exhibit Documents Hunger in America
(NPR, March 30, 2010)

A new exhibit on display at San Antonio’s Witte Museum documents the faces and voices of hunger. Titled “About Hunger,” the multimedia work combines interviews and photographs by artist Michael Nye to communicate the stories of our neighbors and the hard times that led them to being hungry. Nye spent almost five years travelling the U.S., spending up to four days with each subject, taking down their stories and photographing them. For the exhibit, he distilled each subject to one photograph and five minutes of sound. Stories of children going hungry are also included. “How do you explain to a 2-year-old or a 4-year-old there’s nothing to eat?” said Kathy, one of the individuals represented in the exhibit. “All they know is that they’re hungry and the pain in their stomach. And you try to sit there and say, honey, I’m sorry. I don’t have anything to cook you. And they don’t stop.” Nye equates the problem of hunger to an iceberg. “The mass of it is underwater, invisible I think nine-tenths of it. And I’ve heard so many people talk about the experience like a glass wall disconnecting them from the rest of the world.” Nye hopes the exhibit will help create change, “making things better, to see hunger as it is without any illusion. And I think it’s easier then to take it on and look for solutions.”

11. Child Nutrition Act Will Ensure School Food Safety
(USA Today, March 24, 2010)

The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 not only improves the nutrition of school meals, it also requires extra training and certification for cafeteria staff. “Schools aren’t getting all the information they need from the federal government to keep our kids safe from tainted products,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Gillibrand’s language in the bill directs USDA to warn schools in advance when a product is recalled. A USA Today series found that 23,000 children got sick from school food from 1998 to 2007. The series also found that schools had “unwittingly” served food that had been recalled. In addition, 26,000 school cafeterias didn’t have their mandatory, twice-yearly inspections, and norovirus (usually from improper food handling) is the most common food-borne illness in schools.

12. Economy, Outreach Drive Up Number of Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Students in One Wisconsin County
(Sheboygan Press, March 21, 2010)

Outreach has been successful in increasing the number of free or reduced-price school lunches served in Wisconsin’s Sheboygan County. According to data from the state’s Department of Public Instruction, each of the county’s school districts saw their percentage of subsidized lunches increase last year. The economy is one reason for the increase, but outreach is another. “We took a more proactive approach to the application process,” said Howards Grove Administrator Chris Peterson. “In the past, people had to ask to apply. This year we advertised the program a little and we helped people fill out the forms.” Fifty percent or more students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch in 72 of the state’s 425 school districts. More than 80 percent of students are eligible in Lac du Flambeau, Menominee Indian and Milwaukee school districts. Only 12 school districts do not participate in the National School Lunch Program

13. Grab and Go Breakfast a Success in Connecticut School
(Hartford Courant, March 17, 2010)

Carmen Arace School in Bloomfield, Conn. saw the number of students eating school breakfast soar from 99 to 313 since starting a “grab and go” breakfast program. Intermediate and middle school students at the school pick up portable breakfasts in the wings where they have their first classes of the day. The number of participating students continues to grow, said Dana Tice, food services director. The school’s success is rare in the state, however. For the past five years, Connecticut has scored last for the number of schools participating in the School Breakfast Program, according to Dawn Crayco with End Hunger CT!

14. Memphis Schools Awarded Breakfast Grant
(PR Newswire, March 22, 2010)

Memphis City Schools in Tennessee were one of eight “Silent Hero” grant recipients. Sponsored by the got breakfast Foundation, the grant for $10,000 “will allow us to market to other schools, including secondary school administrators,” said Dr. Vista Suarez, the school district’s director of child nutrition. “It’s important to reach secondary students who often do not eat breakfast, so marketing materials that promote breakfast will be developed.” Hawkins Mill Elementary already allows students to eat breakfast in the classroom, and saw school breakfast participation increase 35 percent. “We have noticed a decrease in the number of students who are tardy on a daily basis and our children are more attentive while the teachers are instructing because they have had an opportunity to socialize during breakfast,” said the school’s principal, Carla Franklin. The School Breakfast Scorecard for 2008-2009, published by the Food Research and Action Center, reported that school districts with breakfast in the classroom programs have the highest participation rates. School districts from 33 states applied for the grants, and each winner received a grant ranging between $2,500 and $10,000. The Foundation also recently announced a Summer Meals Grant program to support breakfast while school is out during the summer.

15. More Rhode Island Schools Offer Breakfast in the Classroom
(Rhode Island Nutrition 4 Kids, March 9, 2010)

ARAMARK Education is working with its school district partners to increase the number of schools offering breakfast in the classroom as part of the company’s commitment to support the First Lady’s childhood obesity campaign. “Several school administrators report seeing an increase in student attendance, behavior and classroom performance after they started offering breakfast at school,” said Dennis Gomez, district manager for ARAMARK Education in Rhode Island. FRAC has reported on studies finding that children who skip breakfast are more likely to overeat later in the day, choose less healthy food, and store more fat. And according to a study by Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, children have fewer absences, get higher math grades, and have less depression, anxiety and hyperactivity if they eat breakfast at school.

16. Illinois Schools Recognize Importance of School Meals
(Northwest Herald, March 14, 2010)

The Food Research and Action Center has reported that hungry children are more likely to experience anxiety, hostility, less brain power and productivity, and have more cognitive problems. Illinois schools are taking this data seriously, and making sure students are fed in order to learn. In District 300, some schools serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Child and Adult Food Care Program funds the dinners. “We do have an aggressive approach,” said Eric Knutson, the district’s grant specialist. “We understand the importance of feeding kids.” Patricia Jones, principal at Washington School, notes that “Even the social interactions [are affected]. If a kid’s hungry, he can’t have those social relationships.” Hunger can have detrimental effects on all students, said Joe Williams, McHenry County’s assistant regional superintendent of schools who sat on the Wellness Task Force. “The younger a child is, the more vulnerable they are because the less self-sufficient they are,” he said. “[But] we’ve run across athletes who were in that situation.” In 2008, 14.6 percent of McHenry County students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch; in 2010, that number rose to 20.3 percent of children, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. District 300 combats the underlying stigma associated with free food, by offering dinner to all students regardless of income level, and providing lunch cards to students, which makes it impossible for anyone to know how a student pays for a meal. Applying for the programs is easier too, since anyone with an Illinois Link card is enrolled in the free and reduced price lunch programs.

17. More Nevada Kids Could Participate in Summer Meals
(Las Vegas Sun, March 6, 2010)

“We’re really not feeding that many kids a day in the summertime,” said Karen Vogel, director of the summer meal program in Nevada. “The summer food service program is the most under-utilized program of all the child nutrition programs from the USDA.” Vogel said that the state needs more sponsors and locations for the program. Last year, the Area Health Education Center of Southern Nevada began getting support from USDA and the state to feed children in the summer day camp program for minority and low-income families. Before that, staff members were spending a lot of time and money feeding the kids. The Summer Food Service Program “saved us a lot of time and it saves a lot of money,” said program coordinator Tenesha McCulloch. “The kids really enjoyed the food and we had more time to spend with the kids instead of making food.” To sign up more sponsors and sites, the Culinary Training Academy in North Las Vegas and Three Square, the local food bank, are collaborating in an initiative titled “Neighbors for Nutrition: Feeding our Future.” “Ensuring that all our children receive the nutritious meals they need to thrive and are able to return to school ready to learn is a basic necessity for building an equitable and prosperous society,” said state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford. “For many of the children and youth we feed, the meal provided is the only one that some of them will get in a day.” Horsford is CEO of the Culinary Training Academy.

18. USDA Under Secretary Joins Maryland Students for Breakfast in the Classroom
(ABC 2 News, March 16, 2010)

Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recently shared breakfast in the classroom with students at Jessup Elementary School in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County. Coinciding with National School Breakfast Week, Concannon’s visit also showcased the school’s breakfast in the classroom program. Students pick up their meals in the cafeteria and eat in their classrooms. According to teachers, the program has increased school breakfast participation.

19. Baltimore Launches Grocery Ordering Program
(Baltimore Sun, March 17, 2010)

Baltimore residents in some neighborhoods lacking grocery stores can now order groceries online from Santoni’s Super Market through laptops at the Orleans Street library, where they can pick up their groceries the next day. A second location – Washington Village Library in West Baltimore – also offers the grocery program. The Virtual Supermarket Project brings fresh produce and other healthy supermarket foods to residents, free of delivery charge. “We know in communities around this library and in Washington Village resident[s] must choose between shopping at corner stores that lack fresh produce or pay a premium for a ride outside their neighborhood and we know this is not a fair choice,” said Olivia D. Farrow, Baltimore’s interim health commissioner.

20. High Fast Food Prices = Lower Weight Gains
(Medical News Today, March 9, 2010)

People who live in communities where fast food prices increase may have lower weight and less risk for diabetes, according to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Published in the March 8, 2010 Archives of Internal Medicine, the study followed participants for 20 years, and found that weight and diabetes risk rose when fast food prices dropped. “These results indicate that increasing the price of fast foods and sodas can affect adult behavior, and steer them toward healthier diets, lower weight and less risk of diabetes,” said senior author Barry Popkin, Ph.D., the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at UNC’s Gillings School of Public Health. The study analyzed data from more than 5,000 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.

21. Health Bill Addresses Wealth Inequality
(The New York Times, March 23, 2010)

Median real household income has only risen 15 percent in the U.S. since 1980, with the mid and late 1990s the only time of strong middle-class income growth, notes this column. During that same time, market forces and government policy have both been increasing inequality, and “pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970’s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.” The health care bill signed by President Obama “is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality” in thirty years. Lifting payroll taxes on households above $250,000 will pay for a large portion of the bill, and the bill’s benefits will go to households making $88,200 (less than four times the poverty level) for a family of four.” Uninsured people will receive subsidies to pay for insurance or become eligible for Medicaid, which already covers many poor people. “Nearly every major aspect of the health bill” reduces wealth inequality. This marks “a new season in America,” said the President at the bill-signing ceremony. “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”