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. More Stores Accepting SNAP/Food Stamp Benefits
(Chicago Tribune, September 8, 2009; Providence Business News, September 14, 2009)

With record numbers of consumers signed up for and using SNAP/Food Stamps – more than 35 million in June - retailers who did not accept the benefit in the past are doing so now. All 600 Sam’s Club locations now accept SNAP/Food Stamps, and Target expanded acceptance in its 1,700 stores. CVS (5000 of its 6,900 stores), 7-Eleven and BJ’s Wholesale Clubs are also on the list of retailers now accepting the benefits. (Costco only accepts EBT cards at three New York City warehouses, but has not made a decision on expanding the service, although customers have been asking.) “It’s about making sure all our guests can enjoy the same shopping experience no matter what,” said David Fransen of Target. Stores that used to say “we accept” EBT cards are now saying “we welcome” them, as sales have slowed due to the recession. The stores are saying “We want you here,” noted Kevin Concannon, USDA’s Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. He added that it’s not that the stores are feeling benevolent: “It’s the accountants in the back telling them to accept them. They are thrilled to have that revenue.” Concannon said that the next challenge is getting the people to apply who are eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps but are not getting them.

2. Rhode Island Grocer Accepts SNAP/Food Stamps and Reaches Out to Community
(Providence Business News, September 14, 2009)

Brigido’s Fresh Market is a family-owned grocery store in Rhode Island, and has long accepted SNAP/Food Stamps. The store also has helped the state promote the benefit, and has held awareness events in partnership with the Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America. SNAP/Food Stamp pamphlets, available at the cash registers, regularly run out. Since a customer might pull out an EBT card to pay for groceries, cashiers no longer ask “debit or credit,” which could make the customer uncomfortable. “The employee should ask ‘How would you like to pay for it,’” said store owner Leeann Brigido. “It’s a better way to handle it.”

3. Idaho Officials Forecast Continued Rise in SNAP/Food Stamp, Other Assistance Numbers
(Boise Weekly, September 14, 2009)

Idaho’s leading social advocates participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Boise State Radio recently, in which Rosie Andueza, director of the state’s SNAP/Food Stamp program, said 149,000 residents – 9 percent of the population – were receiving the benefit. She and other experts noted that not only have assistance levels for programs been rising dramatically, but they would continue to do so, since so many people are “on the bubble” between self-sufficiency and qualifying for aid. According to Senator Kate Kelly, elected officials have not focused on and made issues like hunger a priority because the state’s political culture favors smaller government and less intervention. She added that the people using these services – like single mothers working two jobs – aren’t well-represented politically, and their voices can’t compete with the interests who pay to have the “loudest voices.” The discussion included representatives from the Idaho Food Stamp Program, the Salvation Army, the state’s 2-1-1 Careline, the City of Boise’s Charitable Assistance to Community’s Homeless program, and Genesis World Mission. Boise State Radio, the convener of the discussion, plans to launch “That Could Be Me,”a series of reports on the newly poor. The segments will focus on hunger, health care, and how families are impacted.

4. Alaska Legislators Take SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge
(KSDP, September 11, 2009)

From September 12 to 18, Alaska Senators Bill Wielechowski (D–Anchorage), Johnny Ellis (D–Anchorage) and Lesil McGuire (R–Anchorage), and Representatives Lindsey Holmes (D–Anchorage) and Scott Kawasaki (D–Fairbanks) took the SNAP/Food Stamp challenge, agreeing to feed themselves for the week on the equivalent of one week of SNAP/Food Stamps, which averages out to $2.30 per meal. The legislators aimed to raise awareness about the need for increased SNAP/Food Stamp funding. Before embarking on the challenge, Senator Wielechowski predicted “This will be a sobering first-hand experience to see how tens of thousands of Alaskans live every day.”

5. More than Half of Mississippi Public School Students Qualify for Free Lunch
(Clarion Ledger, September 5, 2009)

During the 2008-2009 school year, 58 percent of Mississippi’s 491,000 public school children qualified for free lunch (46 percent for private school students). Nine percent of public school students, and 7 percent of those in private school, qualified for reduced-price meals. In some school systems – like Benoit School District – all 270 students eat for free. In Bolivar County – home to the Benoit district – 39.5 percent of families lived below the poverty line in 2007. Across Mississippi, 20.7 percent of families are below the poverty line; for the U.S., 13 percent of families live below the poverty line. In Mississippi, school officials predict even more families will sign up their children for free or reduced-price school meals. While all Mississippi school districts serve school lunch, 92 percent serve breakfast. “Parents are out of work here. For some students, this may be the only nutritious meal they receive all day,” said Rena Pritchard, head of child nutrition for the Holmes County School District. “Only about 3 percent of our students don’t receive a free or reduced-price meal.” Pritchard has already seen numbers rise in the upper grades. “Ever since this school year began, in every school I’ve noticed that just about all of the children are eating breakfast even though many middle school and high school students don’t normally eat breakfast at school.”

6. Downturn in Commodity Prices Spurs Stores to Offer Bargains on Staple Food Items
(The Washington Post, September 17, 2009)

After last year’s skyrocketing increases, commodity prices for staples such as wheat, corn and milk have taken a steep decline due to the global economic downturn. The price of corn on the Chicago Board of Trade is down 56 percent since July 2008. Such drops have helped decrease the grocery consumer price index about 2.5 percent since its peak last November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Grocery store food prices are plummeting – in the Washington area, Safeway stores have cut prices by as much as 25 percent, and Giant Food has doubled the number of items on sale. Meanwhile, consumer budgets remain tight due to the recession, and stores are “going to do anything that [they] can as a retailer to keep consumers in [the] store,” said Adam York, an economic analyst with Wachovia. Although lower prices are great for customers, the drop in commodities prices means lower revenue for grocery stores. With the cost of cheese dropping 17 percent, milk 27 percent, and cherries 42 percent, Safeway’s revenue for the most recent quarter dropped 6.5 percent from the previous year, in spite of more transactions. “The deflation is deeper and more sustained than we had earlier predicted,” said the store’s chief executive Steven A. Burd to investors. Burd noted that the price declines were the worst in 17 years.

7. Unemployed in Wisconsin Are Unable to Contact Aid Office
(Journal Sentinel, September 6, 2009)

Callers to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s hotline have been finding themselves dumped out of the agency’s telephone system about 86 percent of the time. The hotline is for unemployed people to get updates on their unemployment claims or to answer questions about their applications. The system dumps the calls to keep people from having to wait too long – and the situation has unemployed workers and state employees frustrated. In August, an average of 62,000 calls to the hotline were dropped weekly, including people dialing multiple times after disconnection. Officials have added staff, phone lines and server capacity to handle all the calls. People are unable to stop into an actual office to get their questions answered or provide information, as the agency got rid of local offices in the 1990s. The replacement – an online system - enables more cases to be handled. The phone system for initial claims works well – unemployed workers raved about it when they first lost their jobs. The agency’s goal has been to get people signed up for benefits quickly, and pays nearly 90 percent of claims within 21 days of filing, the standard required by the U.S. Department of Labor.

8. Analysts Say U.S. Economy’s Recovery Will be Slow After Deep Dive
(Bloomberg.com, September 14, 2009)

According to JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief economist Bruce Kasman, the recession’s slump has been so great that his forecasted 3.5 percent average quarterly growth rate over the next year won’t be enough to bring the gross domestic product back to its pre-crisis peak of $13.42 trillion. In the previous 10 recoveries, the GDP returned to its previous levels in 12 months. Through 2010, unemployment could hover around its 26-year high of 9.7 percent. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, it may not be until the middle of the decade before the U.S. gains back the 6.9 million lost jobs and $13.9 trillion in lost wealth due to the recession. He forecasts that the unemployment rate may never get back to 2007’s 4.4 percent low. “This will be the most disappointing recovery,” said Kasman. Even if the most optimistic forecasts come true, the recovery will be the slowest since World War II.

9. Incomes Plunge for People Born After 1955
(USA Today, September 18, 2009)

According to a USA Today analysis of new Census data, incomes for people 54 and younger are plunging at an “unprecedented” rate during this recession, and many age groups are poorer now than in the 1970s. However, older people have grown more prosperous, further widening a gap between old and young. People born before 1955 continue to benefit from four-decades of historic growth, while people born after are seeing their incomes shrink. For people in their peak earning years (45 and 54 years of age), household incomes dropped $7,700 (adjusted for inflation) between 2000 and 2008 to $64,349, and people in their 20s and 30s are struggling similarly. For women, the news is slightly better: by working longer hours and holding half of the jobs in the U.S., women have narrowed the gender earning gap. In 2000, women earned 25 percent less than men; in 2008, 23 percent less, with the biggest gains in income going to career women who are older and college-educated.