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. Latest SNAP/Food Stamp Participation Numbers Reveal Nearly 39.7 Million Americans Received SNAP/Food Stamps in February 2010
(Reuters, May 7, 2010; FRAC, May 2, 2010)

SNAP/Food Stamps reached one in eight persons in February 2010 as the program continued to experience record enrollment due to economic conditions, outreach and program improvements. Participation rose to 39,693,919 people, an increase of 262,929 individuals from January 2010, the prior record level, and an increase of more than 7.1 million people compared with the prior February. According to FRAC, this is the highest share of the U.S. population on SNAP/Food Stamps, although research suggests that one in three eligible people are not receiving ... benefits. USDA estimates that by September 30, SNAP/Food Stamps will go to an average of 40.5 million people, and that in FY 2011 average enrollment will be 43.3 million.

2. FRAC Releases SNAP/Food Stamps Outreach and Access Toolkit
(FRAC, May 3, 2010)

Declining wages and widespread unemployment and underemployment have driven an unprecedented need for SNAP/Food Stamps. The SNAP/Food Stamps Outreach and Access Toolkit, a new resource guide by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), outlines policy, outreach, application assistance, and local office initiatives to help states, local agencies, and communities respond to this increased need for food assistance. Download the toolkit at http://frac.org/snap_outreach_access_toolkit_2010.htm.

3. Asheville, N.C. Sees Increased SNAP/Food Stamp Use
(Mountain Express, May 5, 2010)

SNAP/Food Stamps currently assist 29,500 Buncombe County, N.C. residents, up from 18,021 in 2007. The current number is expected “to grow much higher than that,” said Tim Rhodes, economic-services program administrator for the county’s Department of Social Services (DSS). “We were seeing some pretty significant increases before, but the beginning of 2008 is when we really saw the impact start to hit us.” The Asheville area (which comprises part of the county) has an unemployment rate – 9.4 percent – that’s lower than the 11.1 percent state average. The area’s high cost of living and shortage of well-paying jobs have forced many who have never sought assistance to apply for SNAP/Food Stamps and other benefits. Many households were already struggling, and the recession pushed them over the edge. “Clients who used to be making a good living, lived in a nice house…are going through foreclosure, lost their jobs, now applying for food stamps,” said Pisgah Legal Services staff attorney Mae Creadick. “They’re immediately thrown into needing all these safety nets and not knowing how to navigate them.” Twenty percent of Asheville residents lived below the poverty line in 2007; food assistance currently goes to 28 percent of residents with full-time jobs, and 69 percent of people with some kind of earned income. “We see more foreclosures, more homelessness as a result of the housing crisis,” said Creadick. “Shelters are full, more than we’ve seen before.” Christopher Head has been bouncing from the couches of friends to group housing situations since becoming marginally employed. “I’ve never had food stamps,” he said, “even though I’ve been thinking lately that it would be a good idea.” Single mother Alice Martinez lost her job at Mission Hospitals and now struggles to provide for her special-needs son. She’s searched for change “to shop at the dollar store, even though you know the food’s not as healthy, because it’s better than an empty tummy.” Even with the skyrocketing need, DSS still processes help requests in nine days – the same as before the current crisis. Electronically-submitted forms help speed the process. Recent changes, including the exemption of retirement and investment accounts from asset limits, have helped more people qualify. “The idea,” said Buncombe County DSS Director Mandy Stone, “is that Americans losing their jobs don’t have to deplete all their resources in order to access services. That’s a real change from the old days.”

4. Georgia Farmers’ Market Will Soon Accept SNAP/Food Stamps
(Flagpole Magazine, May 5, 2010)

Athens Farmers’ Market in Georgia began accepting SNAP/Food Stamps, via EBT cards, on May 8, thanks to a grant from the Oconee River Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council which allowed the market to buy the EBT card reading machine. “We have brought [the program] to this market because this community has such a high percentage of EBT users,” said market manager Jan Kozak. EBT users will receive wooden tokens to use at farmer stalls, and the market will reimburse farmers for the value of the tokens; the market receives reimbursement from the SNAP/Food Stamp program within 48 hours. “The Board of Directors, myself included, wanted to do this since we got started,” said Jay Payne, the market’s president. “It’s just a desire to provide what we think is good food to as many people as possible.” According to the Food Research and Action Center, SNAP/Food Stamps went to a record 39 million participants nationally in January 2009, 7.2 million more than in January 2007. An estimated 15.8 percent of Georgians are on SNAP/Food Stamps, ranking the state 13th highest in the nation in participation; the number increased 27.7 percent over the past year, and 68.3 percent over the past five years.

5. SNAP/Food Stamp Offices in Hawaii Will Remain Open
(KHON2, May 6, 2010)

A proposal to close down 31 welfare assistance offices, which provide SNAP/Food Stamps and other benefits to Hawaii’s needy, and replace them with two call centers in Hilo and Honolulu has been scrapped. Creation of the Eligibility Processing Operations Division (EPOD) would have eliminated 228 Department of Human Services (DHS) jobs. State Rep. John Mizuno, chair of the Human Services Committee, opposed the EPOD plan, and said that the call centers would not have been able to handle the volume of assistance requests. “Some of our elderly or disabled would not be able to navigate through that system,” he said. “So the director was wrong, we protected those services.” DHS Director Lillian Koller proposed the EPOD plan, and said her department “will continue doing all it can to improve customer service over the next seven months, but this will fall far short of the convenient and speedy system we could have implemented through EPOD, such as opening the Honolulu processing center in June.”

6. Child Nutrition Reauthorization Could Help More Minnesota Students Access School Meals
(Duluth News Tribune, May 4, 2010)

Changes included in the Senate’s bill for Child Nutrition Reauthorization help battle hunger for more students in Minnesota’s Duluth and Superior school districts. Paperwork will be eliminated for schools with 40 percent or more of the students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, making the meal free for many. All foster children would be automatically qualified for free meals. Removing the paperwork will make it easier for families to get their children fed at school, especially since many families don’t want to provide personal information on forms, said Bill Hanson, Duluth school district’s director of business services. The district has 41 percent of students currently eligible for free or reduced-price lunch; the district’s Grant Elementary has 88 percent of students that qualify, and Nettleton Elementary has 79 percent. In Superior, 49 percent of students qualify for school meal assistance.

7. Maryland Contest Aims to Increase School Breakfast Participation
(Southern Maryland Online, May 3, 2010)

Although Maryland schools served more than 25 million school breakfasts during the 2008-09 school year, many students didn’t get the meal. The “Ready, Set, Go!” contest , organized by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) School and Community Nutrition Programs branch, aimed to increase participation by getting students interested in school breakfast. George Washington Carver Elementary School in St. Mary’s County was among the winning schools; these schools submitted binders with photos showing increased participation and how nutrition information was incorporated into daily lessons. Prizes included cash awards to support school wellness policies, “Got Milk” breakfast carts, and funds for nutrition education materials. The contest was based on the School Nutrition Association’s national contest, and was sponsored by Action for Healthy Kids, the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, Magic Moment Designs, Ltd., Maryland Hunger Solutions, and MSDE.

8. Texas Launches Statewide Summer Meals Challenge
(Capital Area Food Bank of Texas blog, May 5, 2010)

In order to increase participation in the Summer Food Service Program, and lift the state’s ranking of 47th in the nation for its low numbers, Texas is launching the “Summer Meals Mayor’s Challenge.” The challenge, instituted by Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, charges mayors with encouraging program outreach and working with city council and other elected officials to increase participation. Only 7.41 percent of the state’s 2,213,000 children receiving free or reduced-price lunch took part in the summer meals program in 2007, according to the Food Research and Action Center’s July 2009 Summer Nutrition Status report. The Austin Food Bank’s Hunger in America 2010: Central Texas Report found that only 7.1 percent of households with at least one child under 18 received summer meals – and a third of households reported they didn’t know about the program. The state would receive $38,444,674 in federal funding if 40 percent of students receiving free or reduced-price meals participated in the summer meals program, notes this blog post. Readers are encouraged to contact their Members of Congress and ask them to support “adequate funding, administrative improvements, and ensure children in rural and urban areas can access the program” through the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which provides the funding for this and many other federal [nutrition] programs.

9. More Children in Indiana Could Benefit from Summer Meals
(News and Tribune, May 6, 2010)

Surveys in Indiana show that 80 percent of students receiving free or reduced-price school meals don’t participate in the summer nutrition program, with nearly half of families reporting they don’t know the program exists. And only 68 of the state’s 92 counties offered the program. “Therefore, before summer break arrives, educators have an opportunity to inform students and their parents about local providers of the summer food program,” notes this op-ed by Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute. “Delivering this information becomes much more difficult when the students scatter for the summer.” Stanczykiewicz encourages “religious congregations, service clubs and other community organizations” to promote the program and provide transportation as part of their services to low-income people. The state’s Department of Education (DOE) is recruiting more sites and providers. “Programs like this run effectively because of the ways communities work together,” said Lauren Auld of the Indiana Department of Education. “We appreciate the collaboration that we get from communities to make these programs work – schools, churches, YMCA’s, Salvation Armies, summer camps, nonprofits and food banks. It is our hope that other organizations similar to these in counties where there isn’t a site will step up to the plate.”

10. Afterschool Meals Benefit Thousands of Children, Could Help Even More
(AP, May 9, 2010)

About 49,000 children receive afterschool meals each day through the USDA’s Afterschool Meal Program that provides reimbursements for the meals in 13* states and the District of Columbia. Many more could benefit from the program, which is available in those states to afterschool programs in communities where at least 50 percent of households are below the poverty level. “What it allows us to do is provide those kids with an extra nutritious meal before they go home because some kids go home to nothing,” said Susan Eckes, director of child nutrition programs for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. According to officials, the need for the meals is growing as more families lose their jobs and homes; USDA data shows that the number of food-insecure people in the U.S. increased from 36 million in 2007 to 49 million in 2008. In 2007, 12.4 million were children; the number rose to 16.7 million in 2008. “As the economy gets worse, we’re seeing more and more kids,” said Beth Baldwin-Page, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro, Vermont. The club feeds 40 to 60 kids three days a week – and sometimes serves 100 meals on Friday. Lester Gillespie, youth program director at the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center in East Prairie, Mo., reports they’re serving 150 meals a day at two sites.
*Eligible states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia.

11. D.C. Releases First Ever Obesity Report and Action Plan
(D.C. Department of Health, May 5, 2010)

The District of Columbia released a report that looks at factors contributing to obesity in the District, and a five-year obesity action plan for the government and community to reduce the city’s rate of obesity and overweight. In announcing the release, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said “These reports combined offer an effective approach to tackling many of the issues” around the Districts obesity and overweight problem, including “poor health behaviors, income, access to healthy food options, and proper diet and nutrition.” The obesity report found that wards with the most grocery stores, organic food and farmers markets (Wards 2 and 3) had the lowest obesity rates. Ward 8, with the fewest “healthy food options,” had the highest obesity rate. The action plan outlines eight specific goals in seven categories for the next five years.