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. FRAC Report Shows Low Participation in Summer Food Service Program
(AP, June 29, 2010; FRAC, June 29, 2010)

According to a new Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) report (pdf), the Summer Nutrition Programs in 2009 experienced a drop in participation, as states and cities cut budgets during the recession while need for summer meals skyrocketed. Only 16 percent of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch during the regular school year also participated in the summer meal program during the summer of 2009. The number is down from 17 percent in 2008 and 21 percent in 2001. “Low income children across the country clearly bore the brunt of budget cuts,” said Jim Weill, FRAC’s president. California, in the middle of a budget crisis, saw its participation drop by 13 percent from the previous year – meaning 78,000 fewer children in the state received free summer meals in 2009. Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Hawaii and Utah also showed large decreases in participation, while West Virginia’s participation increased 24 percent. D.C. was also successful last year, as four out of five of the District’s children receiving free or reduced-price lunch also took part in the Summer Food Service Program. FRAC is urging Congress to make improvements to the Summer Nutrition Programs as it considers child nutrition legislation. In FRAC’s press release, Weill noted that “[i]ncreased funding for child nutrition programs would ensure that more low-income children have access to summer meals that stave off hunger, help reduce obesity, and draw children into educational and enrichment programs that keep them learning throughout the summer. Congress must make these programs stronger so we can take a decisive step forward in meeting President Barack Obama’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.”

2. SNAP/Food Stamp Caseloads Overwhelm Illinois County
(The New York Times, June 17, 2010)

In DuPage County, Ill., requests for SNAP/Food Stamp and other assistance have increased 60 percent over the past five years, as the recession hit the suburban middle class, including homeowners with college degrees. The county’s increase has been larger than the state’s 20 percent increase. About 900 residents “come through these doors” every day, said Phyllis Baxter, administrator for the county’s Villa Park office of the Illinois Department of Human Services, located near million dollar homes. “[T]hey’ll say ‘I lost my job. I need food. I can’t pay my medical bills.” Caseworker caseloads used to number around 900, but now some have more than 2,300 cases. Caseworkers feel guilty that they can’t spend enough time with each client, and the office is unable to add to its 81-person staff, since the state is so broke. “The stress level is off the charts,” said Ms. Baxter. “And, remember, plenty of our people have also got somebody in the family who has lost a job.” Hue Tran, a caseworker in the county for 32 years, said the past two years have been unlike any others. “I just have to work faster. The phones are ringing, people are lining up, they’re demanding to know why they’re not getting benefits,” she said. Many of the families struggling in the county earn less than $44,000, but more than the $22,000 federal poverty level. They have “too much to get help, but not enough to get by,” said Candace King, executive director of the DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform. The sense of despair among those lined up outside the office – in the baking summer heat and in the rain – is heartbreaking, said Ms. Baxter. “I know we’re in a hurry,” she tells caseworkers, “but we’ve got to give them time to talk it out. Because they’re hurting. And they’re so scared.”

3. Court Holds California County to SNAP/Food Stamp Processing Deadlines
(Orange County Register, June 9, 2010)

SNAP/Food Stamp applicants and recipients filed suit with Orange County, California’s Social Services Agency (SSA) for unlawfully denied or delayed benefits due to SSA budget cutbacks. The case’s settlement requires SSA, for three years, to:

- approve within 30 days at least 93 percent of eligible applications;
- approve or deny within 30 days at least 90 percent of applications;
- approve or deny within 60 days 97 percent of all applications.

For “expedited” SNAP/Food Stamp applications, SSA must:

- approve within 3 days at least 90 percent of these applications;
- approve within 14 days at least 95 percent of applications.

“We recognized that the County was faced with its own budget pressures,” said Phillip Kaplan, partner and pro bono chair of O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s Newport Beach office, “but we believed strongly that in this severe recession, the County needed to do a better job in getting benefits to those in need in a more timely way.”

4. Oil Spill Forces Fishermen to Collect SNAP/Food Stamps
(CBS Evening News, June 16, 2010)

About 32,000 Vietnamesse live along the Gulf of Mexico and rely on fishing for their livelihoods. However, the BP oil spill has forced many to apply for SNAP/Food Stamps, since a ban on fishing has closed more than a third of the Gulf’s fishing waters. “Tell [BP] to hurry up and stop the spill so we can get back to work,” said fisherman and recent SNAP/Food Stamp applicant Kin Van Nguyen through an interpreter.

5. More Idaho Residents Eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps After Asset Test Eliminated
(Idaho Reporter, June 18, 2010)

Idaho’s asset test for SNAP/Food Stamps was suspended in June 2009, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) will seek legislative approval in 2011 to extend the suspension. The asset test made SNAP/Food Stamp applicants ineligible for assistance if they had more than $2,000 in “hard assets” – cars, homes, etc. The recession made it more difficult for families to sell these items in order to become eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps. In June, Idaho was the number one state in the nation in terms of SNAP/Food Stamp use increase; in the past year, SNAP/Food Stamp use in the state increased 43 percent, and in January, more than 179,000 Idaho residents participated in the program, with one-third of them using SNAP/Food Stamps for the first time. However, the asset test elimination did not account for the majority of this increase. “We think many of these people had no other choice with the economy because all the local food banks and churches did not have enough food to help,” said Tom Shanahan, DHW spokesman. “Many people were faced with the problem of choosing to make their rent payment or put food on the table.” The increase in the program has come at a time when budget shortfalls caused the state to close nine field offices and lay off 120 workers. DHW hired 10 workers from May 2009 to June 2010 to handle the caseload increase. “If we continue experiencing this record caseload growth, we may see our performance suffer in processing the applications because of the reduction of positions,” said Shanahan. Lawmakers should repeal the asset test altogether, or adjust the income level for SNAP/Food Stamps said Leo Morales, legislative advocate with the Idaho Community Action Network. “We think it (removal of the test) is a good thing because many families are still struggling due to the economy and this ensures that they will become more secure and be able to apply for public assistance,” said Morales.

6. Boston SNAP/Food Stamp Initiative for Farmers’ Markets Expands
(Boston Globe, June 23, 2010)

The Boston Bounty Bucks program gives the city’s SNAP/Food Stamp participants credits of up to $10 to buy, with their EBT cards, produce from local farmers’ markets. Dewey Square farmers’ market is the latest market to offer the program, which helps more than 82,000 SNAP/Food Stamp recipients access healthy food. The program also helps convince participants that farmers’ markets aren’t too expensive for them, noted Megan Harrington, market manager for the Boston Public Market Association. The program is funded through contributions at the city, state and federal level, along with nonprofit resources.

7. Fewer Sites Offering Summer Meals

Alabama
(Birmingham News, June 8, 2010)
This year, more than 411,000 Alabama children – 56 percent of students - received free or reduced-price school meals. But when school lets out, things get tougher for these students, as summer meals are served in only half of the state’s 67 counties. Today there are only 37 agencies sponsoring meals, down from 50 eight years ago, said James Peoples, an Alabama Department of Education administrator. Summer food programs need sponsors (like the city of Birmingham, which sponsors 104 sites) in order to qualify for USDA reimbursement. Peoples noted that many children in areas serving meals can’t access them because they don’t have transportation, since school buses don’t run during the summer.

Washington
(Public News Service, June 21, 2010)
In Washington State, children have fewer summer learning opportunities. Danielle Baer, communications and grants manager for School’s Out Washington, notes it’s tough for sponsors. “A lot of the sponsors of the summer feeding service program can’t afford to run the program; it runs at a loss for them,” said Baer. “While they’re being reimbursed, it’s not enough to make it sustainable, so they just don’t have the money to keep the summer food program going.” Summer meals and learning go hand-in-hand, but students who don’t have these opportunities “fall two months behind in math, and lower-income children fall two to three months behind in reading skills – achievement gaps that are not always possible to overcome in the classroom,” notes the National School Learning Association.

8. West Virginia County Working to Improve School Meals
(Herald-Dispatch, June 17, 2010)

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver spent three months in Cabell County, WV, working to improve the nutrition of the county’s residents. Now the county is working with USDA to improve school meal nutrition by ensuring the new menus meet federal school meal nutrition standards. The state has already removed all a la carte items from school menus, instituted universal breakfast, increased the amount of whole grains and vegetables served students, and was the first state to implement the Institute of Medicine’s school nutrition recommendations (which exceed the current federal standards). “It is exciting for myself and my cooking staff to think we can influence positive change nationwide,” said Rhonda McCoy, Cabell County’s Food Services director. “We have found it is possible to prepare nutritious meals from scratch utilizing fresh, whole ingredients.”

9. New York Senate Passes Automatic Enrollment Legislation for Children’s Health Insurance
(Media Newswire, June 21, 2010)

Senate Democrats in New York State recently passed legislation, titled the Child Health Plus and School Meals Enrollment Coordination Act of 2011, which requires coordination between Child Health Plus, Medicaid, and School Meals programs to ensure that children who are eligible and enrolled for free and reduced price school meals are also enrolled in Child Health Plus or Medicaid. Currently, about 250,000 of the state’s children do not have health insurance, with 220,000 of them eligible for, but not enrolled in, Child Health Plus or Medicaid. Although 88 percent of America’s children with insurance receive health care in any year, a third of uninsured New York children go without health care for an entire year. New York’s uninsured Hispanic children are ten times more likely to miss out on medical care than [insured] Hispanic children. That rate jumps to 20 times for uninsured African-American children. “I introduced the Child Health Plus and School Meals Enrollment Coordination Act to increase the information being shared to streamline services, ensuring that eligible children receive necessary medical care, and that no child goes hungry,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Commenting on the legislation, state Senator Neil Breslin said “Allowing more children to get health care coverage through enrollment in school lunch programs is a smart and efficient way to diminish the rate of uninsured children in our state.”