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. Recession-Hit Working Families Turn to SNAP/Food Stamps in New York
(Voanews, April 13, 2010)

In New York City, families who had financial savings have been hard hit by the recession and have turned to SNAP/Food Stamps for help, said Carlos Rodriguez of the New York City Food Bank. “[T]his economic crisis has provided them with the need to come and access services that…many of them never thought that they would be eligible or knew, were there for them.” The numbers of working poor in the city have also increased, said Robert Doar, NYC’s Commissioner of Social Services. “In the old days food stamps was a safety net program for people that were not working. Now it’s very much a work support, a work supplement for people that are working, and that’s a big change,” he noted. Rosalind Block was Ivy League educated and started receiving SNAP/Food Stamps after some professional and personal setbacks, heightened by the recession. “[T]imes are tough,” she said, “I grabbed it.” The benefit is helping her and her son, and she said she doesn’t feel stigmatized receiving the assistance – just relief and gratitude.

2. Southwest Florida Unemployment and SNAP/Food Stamp Numbers Continue Rising
(News-Press, April 14, 2010)

The number of Lee County, Florida residents on SNAP/Food Stamps continued to climb this year, rising two percent from February to March. Since March 2009, the number increased 38 percent, and since March 2008 the increase has been 124 percent. Single mother Alcadia Reyes applied recently for SNAP/Food Stamps after losing her restaurant management job. She and her 11-month-old son had moved in with her sister, whose house then went into foreclosure. “I’ve been looking for another job, but there really aren’t any out there,” she said. “I’m hoping this can at least help me buy food for the baby until I can get back on my feet.” SNAP/Food Stamps now assists 13 percent of Lee County residents. Yaeliz Viera is five months pregnant and plans to apply for the benefit at the end of summer, since her husband’s work hours have been cut back. “We’re getting by now,” she said about her family, which includes her young daughter, “but it won’t be enough once we have the baby.” Welfare participation in the county increased 21 percent since March 2009, but has dropped 10 percent since December.

3. Child Nutrition Reauthorization Has a Few “Very Good Things” Says Nestle
(The Atlantic, April 2010)

The upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization in Congress will provide $1.2 billion for afterschool meals, free meals to students in high-poverty schools, and increased summer meal programs. writes Marion Nestle in this “Q&A” article. This is in addition to $3.2 billion over 10 years “for establishing nutrition standards [and] strengthening wellness policies.” Reimbursement rates will also increase. The nutrition standards will be revised by USDA to conform more with the Institute of Medicine report “School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children,” which recommends food-based instead of nutrition-based standards, increases in amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and limits on calories, saturated fat, and sodium. “All this makes the [Child Nutrition Act] well worth supporting,” writes Nestle. “Is it perfect? Of course not. But it is a good first step to making big improvements eventually. In the meantime, plenty of schools are already doing great …. These deserve all the help we can give them.” School lunch, notes Nestle, “started out as a way to dispose of surplus agricultural commodities by feeding hungry kids.” A series of “wars” - on poverty, hunger, malnutrition, welfare and obesity - added to its complicated history. School lunch and Child Nutrition Act politics “have always reflected the inherent tension in any welfare program, in this case feeding the poor vs. inducing dependency and overspending,” she writes. Recently, as obesity has been the top public health issue, rather than malnutrition, “the politics reflected the tension between commercial interests and those of nutrition reformers.” Janet Poppendieck, in her recently-published book Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, notes that this tension has resulted in “a mess that leaves financially strapped school districts with few choices.” “Lunch ladies” know how to make decent meals, but can’t because they’re working without sufficient funding and with inadequate equipment. Although Child Nutrition Reauthorization addresses inadequate funding, the $4.5 billion over 10 years for school meals is “not nearly enough to solve school districts’ financial problems,” writes Nestle.

4. Op-Ed Explains How SNAP/Food Stamp Startling Statistic is Possible
(St. Louis Today, April 15, 2010)

“[H]alf of all American children will receive [SNAP/Food Stamps] at some point during their childhood,” a “startling statistic” that “appeared several months ago in news headlines across the United States,” writes Mark R. Rank, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work, in this op-ed. Rank is one of the authors of the study containing this statistic and he explains what many have asked – “how can this be possible in the wealthiest country in the world?” The U.S. has done the least, among industrialized nations, to protect its children from poverty, failing to provide “universal access to health care, child care, decent housing, and quality education.” For households teetering into poverty, the “weak and tattered” safety net provides “little economic protection.” Over the past 40 years, jobs have become less stable, less well paying, and less likely to provide benefits, but “[e]conomic volatility has increased,” with the current recession the most recent example of how risky it is to raise a family in the U.S. Many families end up turning to SNAP/Food Stamps for help. “Here in St. Louis we have been at the epicenter of those trends,” writes Rank. The area has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs, helping to rank the city among the top 10 in poverty. The suburban regions have even more people living in poverty than the city itself. Our reaction, concludes Rank, “should be one of outrage at how little we as a community and as a society do to protect the most vulnerable among us.”

5. SNAP/Food Stamp Use Climbs in Georgia While State Plans Staffing Cuts
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 8, 2010)

The number of SNAP/Food Stamp cases in Georgia increased 32 percent between December 2008 and December 2009, rising by 156,777 cases to a total of 650,005 cases. Medicaid cases have also increased over the same time period. However, the state plans to cut 137 employees who process applications for the programs, a move that has advocates alarmed. The increased numbers of applicants already have delayed benefits, caused lost paperwork, and seen cases “falling through the cracks” say advocates. The state’s assistance processing employees have seen their individual caseloads climb 25 percent in number between 2008 and 2009 according to the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS). The federal government put the state on notice for its delays in getting SNAP/Food Stamp applications processed, and Georgia is now operating under a federal “corrective action plan.” Benefit processing time could slow from 30 to 60 days once the layoffs take effect notes B.J. Walker, DHS commissioner. “It leads to more families and children falling through the cracks and not receiving food stamps…and more children going hungry,” said longtime social service activist Linda Lowe. Hungry children “don’t learn…and they don’t stay in school,” said Laura Lester of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. People and families struggling with the recession and its long-term job loss and home foreclosures make up increasing numbers of new assistance cases. But state eligibility workers are almost impossible to contact – Georgia Legal Services attorney Vicky Kimbrell recently resorted to submitting a “state open records request” to get phone numbers of eligibility supervisors.

6. Iowa SNAP/Food Stamp Offices Begin Reduced Hours
(WHO TV, April 13, 2010)

The Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) plans to reduce hours at 23 offices administering SNAP/Food Stamp and other assistance programs, and will consolidate services at those offices. DHS won’t be able to fill vacancies created by employees taking early retirement, and is left with reducing office hours to cope. About one-third of the state’s offices are already open only part-time. “It brought up some huge concerns for me,” said Tricia Rosendahl, principal of Clarion-Goldfield Elementary School, who worries children will suffer as families find it harder to apply for and receive services at reduced-hour offices. “I would like them to reconsider,” she said. “We are a rural area and the farther we get away the harder it does become.” Some offices will be open this summer by appointment only.

7. Illinois SNAP/Food Stamp Processing Time Increasing
(Suburban Chicago News, April 13, 2010)

Department of Human Services clients in Illinois who are re-applying for SNAP/Food Stamps are being told the wait can be up to 45 days, causing stress in those who saw their original applications approved in three days. Klinique Champion relies on the program to help feed her family, supplementing the $150 a month she has left after paying rent and utilities. The increased numbers of people applying for SNAP/Food Stamps in the wake of high unemployment has caused “gridlock” in the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS). “Some of our clients are still expecting the same turnaround, but we just can’t provide that,” said DHS spokesman Marielle Sainvilus. The state’s SNAP/Food Stamp program received a one-time-only increase of $17 million this year, but the Governor’s proposed budget cuts $276 million from the DHS budget, which will impact a number of programs.

8. SNAP/Food Stamp Use High in Recession-Ravaged Mississippi Delta Region
(Cleveland.com, April 11, 2010)

Twenty percent of the Mississippi Delta region’s 650,000 residents receive SNAP/Food Stamps. The area comprises the state’s 2nd Congressional District, and has struggled with high unemployment, with 12 percent of its workforce jobless between 2006 and 2008, compared with 6.4 percent nationwide. According to the Delta Regional Authority, four of the largest Delta counties lost 20 percent of their population since 1970, reducing the tax base as people leave to find work elsewhere. And although much money has been “poured into the Delta,” notes Susan Glissen, director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, “My sense is it goes to experts and consultants, and never actually translates to the community.” Mississippi receives the fourth-largest amount of federal aid dollars per capita, much of which went to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes. The state has the highest poverty rate, with one in five residents living below the poverty line, the lowest household income rate and the highest infant mortality rate. “Those people who are employable, have skills and can move to areas that have jobs are leaving,” said Pete Johnson, co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority. “You could reasonably expect that the unemployment numbers we’re looking at today will get much worse in the next decade.”

9. Minneapolis Corner Stores to Offer More Healthy Foods
(MNdaily.com, April 12, 2010)

The Minneapolis City Council recently approved the Healthy Corner Store Program, which will improve access and visibility of healthy foods in the city’s 10 “corner stores” over the next year. The project will help stores rearrange layouts to make healthy foods easier to find, and will educate the community on the foods available at the stores. Last summer, a convenience store assessment found that a quarter of stores complied with the city’s Staple Foods Ordinance, which requires them to carry at least five types of produce that is perishable. Since many community members use corner stores for their grocery shopping, offering healthy foods is important, said Deequ Aram, who works at the Wadajir Grocery near the University of Minnesota’s West Bank. Success of healthy foods in corner stores is often “just a marketing issue,” said Aram.

10. Wisconsin Revamping Work Assistance Program
(Madison.com, April 13, 2010)

Many Wisconsin families eligible for the state’s welfare-to-work (“Wisconsin Works” or W-2) program are not taking advantage of it, prompting the state to revamp the program, make it easier to understand and make sure those who need it are not turned away. Hundreds of staffers will be retrained to help people find jobs to support their families, as the program’s budget receives a $9 million increase. W-2 offers families up to $673 a month for participating in job training and employment programs. Yet nearly 14,114 families without income are not participating, according to a Department of Children and Families study released in December 2009. Many of these families receive SNAP/Food Stamps as their only form of assistance. Complaints surrounding the program have included one young mother who was told by a state worker that her husband should go out and get a job, although the family was eligible for W-2. Job center employees who didn’t mention the program discouraged another job seeker who had spent months looking for work. The program has seen increasing numbers participating, with 9,649 receiving cash payments in February, up from 6,949 in February 2009. Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, recently introduced legislation to expand W-2’s trial job program and improve other aspects of the program, using millions of unclaimed federal recovery act dollars to pay for the upgrades.

11. Tennessee School System Aims to Boost Breakfast Participation to Help Students Academically
(Herald-Citizen, April 11, 2010)

A campaign in Putnam County Schools aims to increase participation in the School Breakfast Program. In addition to informing parents about the meal, the school has given out bookmarks, invited high school athletes to eat with the kids, and analyzed what students are doing before classes start in order to work toward offering different ways of serving breakfast. “The stakes are high with Tennessee getting the Race to the Top money,” said Karen Dalton, County Director of Food Services. “The curriculum has already gone under a change that became effective last year. And so they’re just putting a whole lot more on a younger child’s plate as far as the learning environment. And if they’re not fed – if they’ve been fasting since the night before and they haven’t had anything to eat, then they’re not prepared to learn with their peers.” Less than 25 percent of the county’s children eat school breakfast.

12. California Launches School Breakfast Initiative
(KPBS, April 19, 2010)

Operating from research that shows the benefits to student achievement, California’s state superintendent of public instruction, Jack O’Connell, last week launched a statewide school breakfast initiative. O’Connell kicked off the initiative in San Diego, calling that school district’s free breakfast in the classroom program a model for the state. Some teachers and principals resist the idea of breakfast in the classroom, thinking of the possible trash and bugs, in addition to lost instruction time. San Diego Unified principals report that classrooms are clean, and there’s been no change in instruction time. Also, schools serving breakfast in the classroom report fewer late children and fewer trips to the nurse’s office.

13. Report Calls for Pregnancy Initiatives to Curb Obesity
(Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2010)

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that while childhood obesity campaigns (like the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” project), home interventions focusing on nutrition and exercise, and improving school meal nutrition are good, obesity “[p]revention must start as early as possible,” according to the paper’s authors Janet Wojcicki and Dr. Melvin B. Heyman of the UC San Francisco’s department of pediatrics. They point out that “school-age children already have an unacceptably high prevalence of obesity and associated medical conditions.” They call for a focus on excessive maternal weight gain, truncated breast feeding, and smoking during pregnancy. “Studies have shown,” write the authors, “that early interventions can potentially prevent the development of obesity in school-age children, along with associated health conditions.” There are currently attempts to fight obesity starting with pregnant women, through the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) strict guidelines on pregnancy weight gain for obese women and stop smoking campaigns. The authors suggest that the Let’s Move campaign “synchronize its efforts more directly with these existing campaigns and try to ensure that the IOM recommendations are more widely known and followed by pregnant women.”

14. USDA Announces State Awards for Breastfeeding Promotion
(USDA, March 31, 2010)

Twenty state agencies recently received performance awards from USDA for doing “an exceptional job” of promoting and supporting breastfeeding to mothers in the WIC program. In announcing the awards, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said “[t]he WIC program is critical to helping low-income mothers get their children off to a healthy start and it is important that we recognize those states that are doing an exceptional job promoting and expanding access. With the WIC program now reaching half of all babies born in the United States we must take this opportunity to enhance the program through reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act and use this critical program to help reduce childhood hunger[.]” Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, noted that “[research] shows that WIC plays an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs associated with premature births and low birth weights.” These first time awards which were authorized through the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2010 (P.L. 111-80). The $5 million in awards were divided among the top 10 states with the highest breastfeeding rate improvement and with the highest rates of breastfed infants.