1.  Letter to the Editor: Food Stamp Program is Helpful to Individuals and Communities

(Buffalo News, September 30, 2007)

“The Food Stamp program is the most effective and far-reaching tool we have to address hunger,” wrote Suzanne Shears, Executive Director of Niagara Community Action Program Inc., in this letter to the editor. Not only do food stamps provide poor working families and others on minimal fixed incomes with the nutrition they need but, Shears pointed out, the federal dollars can help local economies. “Let us take a step forward in addressing hunger by showing our support for the Food Stamp program,” she wrote.

2.Editorial: Farm Bill Also Impacts Inner Cities

(Louisiana Weekly, September 10, 2007)

Congress should not forget about urban America in the Farm Bill, wrote Marc Morial, President/CEO of the National Urban League in this op-ed. Many low-income communities, like Washington, D.C.’s 8^th Ward, are considered to be “food deserts” – areas that lack full-size chain supermarkets and only a few small grocery stores. Morial pointed out that more than 300 doctors and other health professionals asked Congress to write a farm bill that will improve access to healthy foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, and help to build the infrastructure to get healthy foods to low-income communities.  

 3. Food Stamps Usage Up among Working Poor; Lawmakers Take Food Stamp Challenge (Advance Monticellonian, October 3, 2007)

The number of working people in Drew County, Ark. who are receiving food stamps is increasing. DHS county administrator, Amber Mullis, attributes this rise in federal assistance to a few factors, including low wages and loss of income. "We're seeing more applicants who work that can't make it on their income; they can't pay for basic necessities like food, housing, clothing and energy costs," said Arlene Russell, Drew County Salvation Army president. Over a three day period in August, 20 lawmakers lived on $3 a day – the average food stamp benefit in Arkansas. “I had no idea the difficulty I would face over just 3 days” said State Rep. Steve Harrelson.

4.Wisconsin Participants Reflect on Food Stamp Challenge

(Leader Telegram, October 4, 2007)

Nancy Coffey, a nutrition coordinator with UW-Extension of Eau Claire County, and Emily Moore, executive director of Feed My People Food Bank, both took the Food Stamp Challenge, where they used the average weekly food stamp benefit as their total budget for groceries for one week. Coffey spent a long time planning for the challenge to make sure she could buy most items on sale and meet nutritional guidelines. "The goal of food stamps is to improve people's nutrition, but we're not giving them enough money to do that," Coffey said.

Read more:           FRAC’s ongoing coverage of the Food Stamp Challenges

5.Food Prices May Continue to Rise

(Marketwatch, October 4, 2007)

Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, says that food prices in the U.S. may continue their upward trend. “We are subject to agri-inflation that may be more sustained than we would like,” he said in a speech on inflation. "Routinely excluding food and oil price movements from our inflation gauges may have made sense in the 1970s, the 1980s and even the 1990s -- but not now, nor in the next few years," Fisher said.  Fischer argued that “[f]ederal reserve policy makers should not rely on the "core" measure of inflation, which is adjusted to exclude volatile food and energy prices.”

6.Letter to the Editor: Schools Should Provide Breakfast

(Kennebec Journal, October 2, 2007)

Local schools should make sure that all students start their day on a full stomach by providing a hot breakfast to all, wrote Deb Sewall of Hallowell, Me, in response to the paper’s series on hunger in the state. “I urge local school districts to make it a priority to offer a hot breakfast to all of their students… good nutrition allows children to learn and to achieve their true potential. Without it, the best teaching in the world will be ineffective... We can and should step up and make sure that none of our children starts the school day with an empty stomach,” she wrote.

7.School Receives Grant for Offering Breakfast

(Williamsport Sun-Gazette, October 1, 2007)

Loyalsock Township High School in Pennsylvania earned a 2^nd place Expanded Breakfast Award for its Grab-n-Go breakfast kiosk called “Camelot Café.” Offering breakfast through grab and go carts can help increase participation in school breakfast, especially for students that arrive late or prefer to socialize with friends in the morning. The school received a $2,000 grant from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association which will be used to expand the program to the Middle School. The award is intended to highlight the importance of alternative ways to serve school breakfast.

 8.Omro and Winneconne School Districts Expand School Breakfast Programs

(The Northwestern, October 2, 2007)

The breakfast program in the Omro School District is in its third year for middle and high school students and its second year for elementary school children. All students can receive breakfast in the morning, regardless of income. In the elementary schools, students have a “morning nutrition break” where they can grab a bag and bring it to the classroom. "All kids need some kind of nutrition to help them start the day and to keep them focused on their studies," says Diane Agrell, food service director for the Winneconne Community School District, which also offers breakfast to students at the elementary, middle, and high schools. At the middle school, students can purchase a breakfast box that contains cereal, a snack item like graham crackers, juice, and milk.

9.WIC  Centers Merging in Connecticut

(Hartford Courant, September 30, 2007)

Five Connecticut WIC centers will merge into five others and positions will be cut to reduce operating costs in an attempt to cover the rising costs of food. Over the past year, food costs have risen by 12 percent. In the Northeast, the price of a gallon of milk rose from $3.14 to $3.47. "We continue to feed those folks. There's no saying no," says John Frassinelli, co-director of the Women, Infants and Children program at the state Department of Public Health.