The weekly Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) 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. Food Insecurity Reduces Children’s Ability in Reading and Math, Affects Behavior and Weight Gain, Study Finds
2. House Committee on Agriculture to Start Public Hearings on 2002 Farm Bill in February
3. Workers’ Pay Is Rising at Slowest Rate Since World War II
4. Workers’ Wages Did Not Keep Up with Rising Prices in 2005
5. Living-Wage Movement Gains City, State, and Voter Support
6. Sen. Kennedy Is Optimistic About Minimum Wage Raise This Year
7. Rebellion of Starving Farmers Still Echoes in England, Arkansas
8. Arkansas Needs New Approaches to Fight Persistent Hunger
9. Labor Unions Launch TV Ad Campaign to Get Votes Against Budget Cuts
10. Op-Ed: Congress Should Reject Tax Cuts for Wealthy
11. Taste of the NFL to Raise Money at Super Bowl to End Childhood Hunger
12. Maryland: Baltimore Expands Universal Breakfast to All Schools
13. American Business Leaders See Preschool Education as Investment in Long-Term Economic Prosperity
14. Chicago Mayor Urges Working Families to Apply for Government Help
15. Poor Customer Service and Application Assistance Prevent Eligible New Yorkers from Receiving Food Stamps, Study Finds
16. Op-Ed: You Know Poverty When You See It, But Government Does Not
17. Hurricanes Spurred Deep Crisis for Floridians and Dislocated Evacuees in Florida
18. Guam Installs Computer System to Expedite Welfare Services and Crack Down on Backlogs
19. Billy Wagner Helps At-Risk Children in Native Southwest Virginia

1. Food Insecurity Reduces Children’s Ability in Reading and Math, Affects Behavior and Weight Gain, Study Finds

(“New Study Reports Strong Links Between Food Insecurity and Negative Developmental Consequences for Young School-age Children,” frac.org, January 23, 2006) 

Food insecurity reduces reading and mathematical performance and socializing skills among school children and also increases their weight, found a study published by the Journal of Nutrition by researchers from Cornell University and the University of South Carolina. Food insecure children of both sexes, compared to those who were food secure, had smaller increases in math scores and reading scores over time. Poorer reading performance particularly occurred among girls. Moreover, there was a fairly short time lag between food insecurity and its effects on girls’ reading. Food insecure girls gained more weight than food secure girls, and food insecure boys showed greater declines in social skills than food secure boys. “Food insecurity … serves as an important marker for identifying children with delayed trajectories of development,” the researchers concluded. The study used a nationally representative sample of 21,260 children from 1592 elementary schools who were followed from kindergarten in 1998-1999 up to the third grade. Both the duration of the research and its large sample provide greater statistical power and legitimacy of the associations between food insecurity and developmental outcomes in young children.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/study012306.html (analysis of the article)

http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/135/12/2831 (Journal of Nutrition article; subscription or purchase required)

2. House Committee on Agriculture to Start Public Hearings on 2002 Farm Bill in February

(“Goodlatte and Peterson Announce First Farm Bill Hearings,” agriculture.house.gov, January 23, 2006)

House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Minority Member Collin Peterson announced the first two full-Committee field hearings on the 2002 Farm Bill to determine the status of U.S. agricultural policy before writing the next farm bill in 2007 (when the current law is set to expire). Congressmen Goodlatte and Peterson will hear from farmers, ranchers, agribusiness representatives and government officials about what aspects of the current bill are working well and what aspects need improvement. “A farm bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation that not only involves farm programs, but conservation, nutrition, forestry and trade among many other issues,” Chairman Goodlatte said. The first hearing will be held on Monday, Feb. 6 in Fayetteville, N.C., followed by a hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in Auburn, Ala. Times, locations and witness lists will be announced soon.

http://agriculture.house.gov/press/109/pr060123.html

3. Workers’ Pay Is Rising at Slowest Rate Since World War II

(“Bush's Expansion Leaves Workers Behind, Sparking Fed Friction,” bloomberg.com, January 17, 2006)

Companies are paying less from their cash gains to their employees than at any time since the Great Depression, according to government data. After 16 consecutive quarters of economic growth, starting with the final quarter of 2001, pay to employees by corporations, including health benefits, rose at a 4.3 percent average annual rate, the slowest rate for any similar period of extended growth since the end of World War II. “There is no doubt that something is happening” to reduce labor's share of income, said Robert Solow, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An economy that does not distribute its gains widely is “poorly performing,” he pointed out. “You've got fairly low unemployment, solid profits” and gains in stock and housing markets but, still, “there is a considerable amount of economic anxiety,” commented pollster John Zogby. Wal-Mart Stores Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott admitted that Wal-Mart shoppers “are struggling to get by” and urged Congress to raise the minimum wage. Smaller shares of the national prosperity American workers take home are especially puzzling when put in the context of rapidly rising productivity.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=azvCEhXtl1g0

4. Workers’ Wages Did Not Keep Up with Rising Prices in 2005

(“Inflation Cut Wages in 2005,” baltimoresun.com, January 19, 2006)

In 2005 the average American worker suffered the biggest increase in energy prices in 15 years while earning wages that failed to keep up with inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The inflation rate went up because of a 17.1 percent surge in energy costs. When adjusted for inflation, hourly earnings were by 0.5 percent lower in December 2005 than in December 2004. This decrease followed a 0.7 percent fall in 2004 for the 80 percent of people employed by the private sector in nonsupervisory jobs.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/investing/bal-bz.economy19jan19,1,5266255.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

5. Living-Wage Movement Gains City, State, and Voter Support

(“What Is a Living Wage?” nytimes.com, January 15, 2006)

Jen Kern, an Acorn advocate and campaigner for raising the minimum wage, sees so many successful campaigns to increase the minimum wage in recent years that she speaks of “a widespread living-wage movement.” These campaigns have originated in cities and states, while Washington has refused to act on the issue since 1997. This month Santa Fe raised the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, the highest rate in the United States, and it will go up to $10.50 in 2008 for businesses with 25 or more employees. Kern believes the minimum wage increase has become an “ultimate moral-values issue. This is what moves people to the polls now.” Louis Alvarez, a 58-year-old school cafeteria worker in Santa Fe helped prepare daily meals for 700 children for many years. He was paid $6.85 an hour and brought home $203 every two weeks. He could barely pay his rent. Public polls show overwhelming support for a higher minimum wage. Surveys of top academics demonstrate that a majority now agrees that a modest wage increase does little to harm employment. But the moral argument in favor of the increase trumps all others: ”Should an employer be allowed to pay a full-time employee $5.15 an hour … if that's no longer enough to live on? Is it just under our system of government?” The Rev. Jerome Martinez from Santa Fe traces the moral justification for a decent living wage back to the encyclicals of Popes Leo XIII and Pius XI and John Paul II: “This [minimum wage law] is religion. The Scripture is full of matters of justice.”

http://tinyurl.com/8ulyf

6. Sen. Kennedy Is Optimistic About Minimum Wage Raise This Year

(“Kennedy: Wage Increase Is Likely This Year; At Quincy MLK Event, Says GOP Financial Scandal May Swing Votes to Democrats,” patriotledger.com, January 17, 2006)

The chances are better this year that Congress will pass the first federal minimum wage increase in almost a decade, said Sen. Edward Kennedy at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in Quincy, Mass. The senator is planning to file a bill that raises the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. The minimum wage’s spending power is 15 percent less than it was in 1997 when Congress approved the last wage increase. Sen. Kennedy said the wage increase used to be a bipartisan issue supported by many Republicans, including President Bush’s father, former President George Bush. It is “unconscionable” that members of Congress have given themselves seven raises worth almost $30,000 since the minimum wage was last raised, he noted.

http://www.patriotledger.com/articles/2006/01/17/news/news01.txt

7. Rebellion of Starving Farmers Still Echoes in England, Arkansas

(“The Forgotten Rebellion,” arktimes.com, January 19, 2006)

England, Ark., is a typical farm town in the South. But events there 75 years stirred the hearts of many Americans. On Jan. 3, 1931 draught-stricken farmers gathered in England to demand food for their starving families. “People straggled along the county roads begging for food. There was no welfare, no Social Security, no nothing back then,” recalls a 91-year-old local resident. “500 Farmers Storm Arkansas Town Demanding Food for Their Children,” reported the New York Times’ front page. Much of the anger was directed at the American Red Cross, which had exhausted its supply of food vouchers but was lobbying against federal aid. The rebellion of the starving Arkansas farmers became one of the symbols of the Great Depression, even though Arkansas Gov. Harvey Parnell tried to downplay the situation. President Herbert Hoover thought that federal funds to feed the hungry could erode the incentive for citizens to work and that relief should come from churches and charities. The Hollywood star Will Rogers became a staunch advocate of helping the hungry. He toured Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas raising money for relief but also insisted the government should do much more about the unemployment and “arrange some way of getting a more equal distribution of wealth in the country.” Today 18 percent of England residents live below the poverty level and more than 500 school children receive free or reduced-price lunches. As local farmers suffer from the lack of rain and pay higher prices for tractor fuel, the fabric of the England economy is stitched together with federal dollars from food stamps to child support payments and other assistance.

8. Arkansas Needs New Approaches to Fight Persistent Hunger

(“Arkansans Still Hunger,” arktimes.com, January 19, 2006)

Arkansas ranked near the top in the number of hungry people 75 years ago, but not much has changed. A recent study shows that about 414,000 Arkansans do not get the food they need. Approximately 300,000 state residents – an all-time high – receive food stamps. Charitable organizations such as the Arkansas Food Bank Network and a number of food pantries operating primarily through churches and faith-based programs help, but the battle with hunger continues. “It’s a very complex issue. Testing new ideas, such as community gardens, and measuring results is critical,” said Dr. Margaret Bogle of the USDA-financed Delta Nutrition Research Initiative in Little Rock. “Too much money is being plowed into … federal programs that aren’t working. We’ve got to find what works and what does not work.” Hope Coulter of the Arkansas Hunger Coalition believes that hunger is the offspring of poverty. “One long-term buffer against hunger would be higher wages,” Coulter said.

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=9ca05a5a-a214-4bb9-8b36-2ce4c4c6942a

9. Labor Unions Launch TV Ad Campaign to Get Votes Against Budget Cuts

(“Unions Target GOP Centrists in TV Ads on Cuts,” thehill.com, January 18, 2006)

Two labor unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have launched an advertising campaign to pressure centrist Republicans to oppose spending cuts when the conference report on the budget bill comes to the House of Representatives vote on Feb 1. Despite being on opposite sides of the recent labor movement split, the unions have united their forces to sponsor television ads and a public relations campaign in 11 states. In 27 more states, the unions will also use direct mail, online protests, and town meetings. Both AFSCME and SEIU belong to the Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities that has been campaigning for a budget that puts America's families as the first priority.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/011806_budget.html

10. Op-Ed: Congress Should Reject Tax Cuts for Wealthy

(“Lawmakers Must Reduce Income Gap,” coloradoan.com, January 13, 2006)

“The War on Poverty must succeed, naysayers notwithstanding!” writes Gerald P. Benson, emeritus professor at Colorado State University, in The Fort Collins Coloradoan. The U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics show that from 1960 to the early 1970s the war helped decrease poverty from over 35 percent to 14 percent for senior citizens and for 27 percent to 14 percent for children under 18. The anti-poverty efforts, however, were abandoned by successive administrations. Frighteningly, one-third of Colorado's young children are living in poverty, according to the Bell Policy Center. “Will we ask our legislators to reduce the income gap by cutting tax breaks for the wealthy and restoring basic support for education, health and other human services?” Benson asks. The 66 bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America set an example by petitioning Congress to reject the $70 billion in tax breaks for the rich and to preserve domestic spending from further cuts.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060113/OPINION04/601130319/1014

11. Taste of the NFL to Raise Money at Super Bowl to End Childhood Hunger

(“Taste of the NFL,” abclocal.go.com, January 21, 2006)

Super Bowl XL marks the 15th anniversary of Taste of the NFL, the premier food and wine tasting extravaganza featuring a top chef from each of the 31 NFL cities, paired with an alumnus or current player from each team. The event has been the largest fundraiser on Super Bowl weekend and raised more than $5.7 million for the efforts to end childhood hunger in the United States over the past 14 years. This year’s “Party with a Purpose” will continue to raise awareness about the issues of hunger. Every NFL city's America's Second Harvest Food Bank will receive a portion of the proceeds, while a special emphasis will be placed on the Gleaners Community Food Bank of Metro Detroit and Forgotten Harvest. The balance of the net proceeds will benefit a number of national anti-hunger organizations, including America's Second Harvest Community Kitchens and the Food Research and Action Center. On Saturday, Feb. 4 in Detroit, Mich., attendees will be offered specialty foods and signature dishes from famous chefs and will be able to get photos and autographs from players and celebrity guests.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=websites&id=3832620

http://www.tasteofthenfl.com/ (more information about the Taste of the NFL)

12. Maryland: Baltimore Expands Universal Breakfast to All Schools

(“Brain Food for Young Scholars,” baltimoresun.com, January 22, 2006)

Starting Feb. 1, the Baltimore school system will expand its universal breakfast program to 39 more schools, so all city elementary and middle schools will be offering free meals to all pupils, regardless of family income. High schools are scheduled to adopt universal breakfast by the fall. Research shows that children learn better if they start the school day with a nutritious breakfast. A 1997 study by the Abell Foundation found that the number of disciplinary incidents at the schools serving universal breakfasts in homeroom classes was cut in half and tardiness was cut to one quarter of its previous rate. In Baltimore, 64,000 of 87,000 students are eligible for a federally subsidized breakfast, but fewer than a third of them receive breakfasts each day. Soon elementary and middle schools will have a “Breakfast Club,” featuring meals with community mentors and other activities to encourage children to come early and have breakfast. The schools also are working on making their menus more attractive to children. As students and their parents have less time to make breakfast, parents more often request schools to serve breakfast at school. Nationwide, 44 percent of children who eat subsidized lunches eat school breakfast, according to the Food Research and Action Center. That number is more than double what it was 15 years ago. “The numbers are much too low, but they're going in the right direction,” said Jim Weill, president of FRAC.

13. American Business Leaders See Preschool Education as Investment in Long-Term Economic Prosperity

(“National Poll Reveals American Business Leaders Link Access to Pre-Kindergarten Education to Country's Economic Prosperity,” pewtrusts.org, January 10, 2006)

A forum on “Building the Economic Case for Investments in Preschool,” sponsored by the Committee for Economic Development, The Pew Charitable Trusts and The PNC Financial Services Group, introduced a survey of business executives from Fortune 1000 and other big companies about investments in pre-kindergarten education. Four in five (81 percent) respondents said public funding of voluntary pre-kindergarten for all children would improve America's workforce. Eighty-three percent of respondents rated the importance of a skilled workforce as “very high” for the nation’s success in the global marketplace. The survey’s findings are consistent with other research on early childhood education. Preschool programs for disadvantaged children “raise the quality of the workforce, enhance the productivity of schools and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare dependency. They raise earnings and promote social attachment. Focusing solely on earnings gains, returns to dollars invested are as high as 15-17 percent [per year],” wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman of the University of Chicago in his paper, “Investing in Disadvantaged Young Children Is an Economically Efficient Policy.”

http://tinyurl.com/9mnh4

http://www.pewtrusts.org/pdf/ZogbyCED1-10-06.pdf (full survey, “American Business Leaders' Views on Publicly-Funded Pre-Kindergarten and the Advantages to the Economy”)

http://www.ced.org/newsroom/center_prek_kit.html (survey’s summary)

See also http://www.ced.org/docs/report/report_2006heckman.pdf (paper, “Investing in Disadvantaged Young Children Is an Economically Efficient Policy,” by James Heckman)

14. Chicago Mayor Urges Working Families to Apply for Government Help

(“Daley Says Working Families Should Get Help,” cbs2chicago.com, January 19, 2006)

Chicago Mayor Daley urged working families eligible for government assistance to take advantage of available help and apply for food stamps, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The mayor referred to a FRAC study that showed more than $120 million in food stamps went unclaimed in 2003 in the Chicago area. Government funds are not charity, but simply money that working people are entitled to, Daley said.

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_019081449.html

See also http://www.frac.org/pdf/cities2005.pdf (FRAC report, “Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot”)

15. Poor Customer Service and Application Assistance Prevent Eligible New Yorkers from Receiving Food Stamps, Study Finds

(“A Better Recipe for New York City: Less Red Tape, More Food on the Table," urbanjustice.org, January 2006)

The Urban Justice Center study, “A Better Recipe for New York City: Less Red Tape, More Food on the Table,” found that most residents who were pre-screened as eligible for food stamps did not enroll in the program. “Despite innovative efforts to improve Food Stamps access in New York, all too often, clients were discouraged by reputations of or direct experience with long lines and waiting times in Food Stamps offices, lost paperwork, and unfriendly bureaucratic systems for checking and double checking eligibility,” the study’s authors wrote. Enrollment of working people proved to be significantly lower than the enrollment of unemployed clients, 37 percent versus 45 percent respectively. Food stamp benefits can provide a 20-percent increase in household incomes of eligible persons, all of whom struggle financially. The study recommends that New York City’s Human Resources Administration expand access to phone interviews and enrollment without office visits; reduce wait times by 50 percent and expand office hours (until 6 p.m. week nights and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday) at all service centers; continue outreach efforts; and convene a working group charged with implementing these recommendations.

http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/better_recipe_exec_sum.pdf (report summary)

http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/better_recipe_full_rpt.pdf (full report)

16. Op-Ed: You Know Poverty When You See It, But Government Does Not

(“Federal 'Poverty Line' Needs to Be Redefined,” kitsapsun.com, January 19, 2006)

“Poverty – which, once upon a time, had a war declared on it – is on the rise in Washington state,” writes Laura Schuck in the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Wash. “Poverty poses a much greater risk to our communities, our state, and our country than just about anything out there nowadays.” In Washington 13 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 live in poverty as officially defined and about 35 percent qualified for free or reduced-price lunches last year, the U.S. Census Bureau data show. You know poverty when you see it, but the government methods of defining the poverty line are out of touch with reality. If the official poverty thresholds recognized the real costs of medical and child care, housing and transportation, the number of poor people would immediately go up, primarily by including the working poor who make too much to qualify as “poor” by current standards, yet cannot make ends meet. With poverty come hunger and illness and the lack of opportunity to advance. For children it is “almost impossible to focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic on a perpetually empty stomach.”

http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/op_columnists/article/0,2403,BSUN_19095_4397877,00.html

17. Hurricanes Spurred Deep Crisis for Floridians and Dislocated Evacuees in Florida

(“FL Disasters Worsen Social Woes,” disasternews.net, January 13, 2006)

The lack of affordable housing resulting from the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes has become a second disaster in Florida, according to the Rev. Russell Meyer of the Florida Council of Churches, only magnifying weaknesses in social infrastructure. Before the hurricanes struck people already were struggling to find affordable housing. Now, “people are being dislocated while their property is being repaired, plus Katrina survivors are living in Florida wondering whether or not they'll be able to go home,” Meyer said. For some Floridians, the dislocation period has been extended for more than two years. Under non-emergency circumstances, the group Florida Impact usually helps about 600 people a month who call for help with their food stamps applications. In October and November 2005 FEMA directed 8,000 or more people per each month to the Florida Impact hotline for emergency food stamps. Emergency food stamps issued last fall will expire soon, and FEMA has designated Feb. 7 as the deadline for evacuees in Florida to leave their temporary shelter in hotels. “We have no idea what the ongoing need will be for people who have been dislocated,” commented Meyer.

http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=3029

18. Guam Installs Computer System to Expedite Welfare Services and Crack Down on Backlogs

(“Pagu System to Expedite Welfare Services,” guampdn.com, January 18, 2006)

Nuria Chiro from Mangilao, Guam, applied for food stamps in January two years ago and finally got help in October. Each time she wanted to check on her application’s status she had to wait five hours. Pagu, or Public Assistance for Guam, is a new computer system seeking to improve service to 8,000 existing customers and people newly applying for food stamp, welfare and other benefit programs. With this new system, getting food stamps or welfare will take two days instead of six to 10 weeks, said contractor Charles Hansen of Charles Hansen Consulting.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060118/NEWS01/601180324/1002

19. Billy Wagner Helps At-Risk Children in Native Southwest Virginia

(“Long Road of Billy the Kid,”nydailynews.com, January 15, 2006)

The New York Mets recently paid $43 million to secure the services of William Edward Wagner, an “undersized lefthander with an oversized fastball.” But thirty-four years ago Billy Wagner was just a country boy living in the “crushing poverty” of southwest Virginia. Young Billy knew hunger and shame first hand. A few crackers with peanut butter and a glass of water were his typical breakfast. The red token given to the poorest children provided Billy with a free lunch at school and with the stigma of being a “red-chip kid.” A famous baseball player, he now funds the 2nd Chance Learning Center in Bluefield, Va., a counseling program for at-risk children. “The need for this [program] is so crucial in southwest Virginia. It's diminishing so rapidly, with a lack of jobs and a lack of ambition,” says Wagner.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/382933p-325022c.html