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.
Issue 39, October 2, 2006
- Op-Ed: Childhood Hunger in Richest Country on Earth Is “Treble Crisis”
- USDA Awards $18 Million to States for Best and Most Improved Access in Food Stamp Program
- U.N. Groups Present “Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition Initiative” to U.S. Senators
- CDC Publishes Nutrition Monitoring Directory
- Many Low-Income Parents Are Unable to Receive Needed Child Care Assistance
- Michigan: More Schools Required to Offer Breakfast Due to Increasing Numbers of Students Eligible for Subsidized Meals
- North Carolina: USDA Distinguishes Exemplary School Breakfast Expansion at Cliffside Elementary School
- Colorado: Denver School Features Breakfast Carnival to Kick Off Citywide Free Breakfast Program
- Nebraska: Successful Breakfast Program at Lincoln School Prompts Visit From Department of Education Official
- Editorial: New York City War on Poverty Should Result in Jobs That Lead to Middle Class
- Op-Ed – Wisconsin: “Good Public Policy Solutions” Needed to Combat Childhood Poverty
- California: Moderation and Nutrition Education Are Key in School Cupcake Wars
- NBA Star Stephon Marbury Remembers Living on Food Stamps; Gives Back to Community
1. Op-Ed: Childhood Hunger in Richest Country on Earth Is “Treble Crisis”
(“Child Hunger in a Land of Abundance Makes Us All Poor,” philly.com, September 24, 2006)
“While it is normal to expect high levels of hunger and poverty in a developing country, it may come as a surprise to observe a similar epidemic in one of the richest countries in the world,” writes César Chelala, an international public health consultant and author of Children’s Health in the Americas in The Philadelphia Inquirer. There are millions of hungry children in the United States, which puts the country in a “treble crisis” that has to be addressed. “No matter how rich a country is, if it doesn’t fill the needs of its children it is, in fact, a poor country,” contends Chelala. The nation’s capital is the worst case of this. In 2002 in Washington, D.C., the number of babies who died before their first birthday was 11.5 per thousand live births versus 4.6 in Beijing. According to the United Nations Development Program, an African-American baby born in the nation’s capital has less chance of surviving its first year than a baby born in urban areas of the state of Kerala in India. The United States ranks 43rd in the world in infant mortality. Chelala cites Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who said: “A person may have little means of commanding food if he or she has no job, no other sources of income, no social security. The hunger that will result can coexist with a plentiful supply of food in the economy and the markets.” This applies to America, where “there are increasing gaps between the rich and the poor, who remain permanently marginalized and forgotten,” argues Chelala.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15592465.htm
2. USDA Awards $18 Million to States for Best and Most Improved Access in Food Stamp Program
(“USDA Awards $18 Million to States for Excellent Customer Service in Food Stamp Program,” usda.gov, September 28, 2006)
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns awarded $18 million to states for excellent customer service in the Food Stamp Program. Johanns was “pleased to award states that have demonstrated diligence and commitment in making sure the Food Stamp Program is carried out properly.” Awards are given to states with the best or most improved program access index – the ratio of participants to the number of people with incomes below 125 percent of the poverty line – in FY 2005. Missouri, District of Columbia, Maine and Tennessee will receive their awards for providing best program access. Washington, Illinois, New York and Iowa will be recognized for most improved program access. Massachusetts, North Carolina, District of Columbia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Montana will be given awards for best application processing timeliness. The awards recognize the importance of customer service in administering food stamps, a critical nutrition program that “serves as the first line of defense against hunger” to more than 26 million people in approximately 11 million households in the United States.
3. U.N. Groups Present “Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition Initiative” to U.S. Senators
(“U.N. Groups Push to End Child Hunger Around the World,” usinfo.state.gov, September 27, 2006)
Representatives of UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Programme, joined by others from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and nonprofit organization World Vision, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee about hunger among the world’s children last week. The U.N. groups are seeking donor countries to join them on the “Ending Child Hunger and Undernutrition Initiative,” which will launch in March 2007. The initiative will target malnourished children under 5 years old with food distribution programs, nutrition supplements, clean water, de-worming, educational campaigns and hand-washing instruction. According to a World Food Programme spokeswoman, there are 852 million chronically hungry people in the world today, and nearly half of them are children. She said there have been improvements in poverty rates since 2000, “but hunger has gone in the other direction.” Ann Veneman of UNICEF told the senators that one-fourth of the world’s children under 5 are underweight and that malnutrition causes the deaths of more than 5 million children a year. There are also many children whose diets do not provide the nutrients the children need.
4. CDC Publishes Nutrition Monitoring Directory
(“Nutrition Monitoring in the United States,” cdc.gov, September 2006)
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the Directory of Federal and State Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Activities. Nutrition monitoring is defined as “an ongoing description of nutrition conditions in the population, with particular attention to subgroups defined in socioeconomic terms, for purposes of planning, analyzing the effects of policies and programs on nutrition problems, and predicting future trends.” The directory is a guide to federal and state survey and research activities that are part of the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Program whose brief history is offered in the introduction. The directory not only describes national nutrition surveys and other monitoring activities conducted since the mid-1990s, but also informs about uses and policy applications of the data. The chapter called “Data Set Availability” provides information on ways to obtain the various data sets described in this publication.
5. Many Low-Income Parents Are Unable to Receive Needed Child Care Assistance
(“Child Care Assistance Policies 2006: Gaps Remain, With New Challenges Ahead,” nwlc.org, September 2006)
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released its 2006 annual 50-state report on states’ child care assistance policies. “Strong early care and education experiences are particularly important for low-income children, who are at greatest risk of starting school behind other children,” states the report titled “State Child Care Assistance Policies 2006: Gaps Remain, With New Challenges Ahead.” Center-based care for one child can cost between $3,000 and $13,000 per year depending on geographical location and the age of the child. But many low-income families are unable to receive help with child care they need. The report reveals that states continue to underfund programs that help low-income families pay for child care. In the area of reimbursement rates for child care providers, states were significantly behind where they were in both 2005 and 2001. Currently, only nine states have adequate reimbursement rates for providers serving low-income clients. Between 2005 and 2006, two-thirds of the states increased their income eligibility to adjust it to, or surpass inflation. Many parents in child care assistance programs deal with waiting lists and rising copayments. The problem is likely to get worse as new welfare work requirements imposed by Congress this year will create more demand for child care assistance, forcing the states to increase the number of welfare recipients participating in work activities, warns NWLC.
http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/StateChildCareAssistancePoliciesReport2006.pdf
6. Michigan: More Schools Required to Offer Breakfast Due to Increasing Numbers of Students Eligible for Subsidized Meals
(“More Schools Required to Offer Breakfast,” mlive.com, September 22, 2006)
Four schools in Livingston County, Mich., have been added to the number of state schools required to serve breakfast. The requirement kicks in when 20 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. School officials see this addition as a sign that Michigan’s economy is not improving in Livingston County. The numbers of students qualifying for subsidized meals are up in every district. “Plants that our parents work at are closing and people are losing their jobs,'” said Sharon Martin, Fowlerville Community Schools’ food service director. “The great thing is that we have this service we can offer to help our families out.” Fowlerville schools have already been serving breakfast regardless of mandated numbers. Michigan schools are required to host a public hearing prior to the start of each school year to find out whether parents want a breakfast program in non-mandated schools. “Both parents are rushing off to work these days, and some kids are just not ready to eat when they first wake up, or they eat better if they eat with their friends,” Martin explained. Pinckney has à la carte breakfast items at its high school, but this is the first time the district has been mandated to offer a breakfast program, said Linda Moskalik, assistant superintendent. The Michigan Department of Education encourages all families who think they may qualify for free or reduced-price school meals to submit applications, said Barbara Campbell, supervisor of school nutrition training and programs.
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-7/115893638355340.xml&coll=2
7. North Carolina: USDA Distinguishes Exemplary School Breakfast Expansion at Cliffside Elementary School
(“Rutherford County Schools Nutrition Program Earns National Honor,” citizen-times.com, September 29, 2006)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will present the Rutherford County Schools (N.C.) Child Nutrition Program with a Best Practices Award on Oct. 25, during the Annual Conference for Child Nutrition Directors & Supervisors in Raleigh, N.C. The award recognizes the program’s “exemplary accomplishments in the area of school breakfast expansion at Cliffside Elementary School,” said Lynn Hoggard of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. “Our average number of students having breakfast at school each morning has jumped from 233 to 306 since this program began,” explained Cliffside Principal Jason Byrd. This is a 31 percent increase in the number of children who eat a nutritious school breakfast every day. The award distinguishes the school’s program as one of the best in the nation in the area of school breakfast expansion.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200660929042
8. Colorado: Denver School Features Breakfast Carnival to Kick Off Citywide Free Breakfast Program
(“Kingsbury, Fields Help Kick off Start Smart,” sports.espn.go.com, September 22, 2006)
Denver Public Schools (DPS) kicked off its Start Smart program with a breakfast carnival featuring Mountain States circuit tie-down roper, Charlie Kingsbury, and Miss Rodeo Colorado 2007, Amy Fields, at Castro Elementary School. To heighten interest in its new universal breakfast program, school officials offered activities that ranged from milk-bottle bowling to egg races to a milk-mustache booth with Fields and a roping lesson from Kingsbury. The program provides free breakfast to all students, regardless of family income, at schools where breakfast is currently served. It is funded by DPS Department of Food and Nutrition services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture School Breakfast Program. More than 11,000 students are eating school breakfasts in Denver. The school district hopes that the new program will help more students to “Start Smart” their day and better prepare for academic success.
http://sports.espn.go.com/prorodeo/news/story?page=g_news_SmartStart_060922
9. Nebraska: Successful Breakfast Program at Lincoln School Prompts Visit From Department of Education Official
(“Impressed With Progress,” theindependent.com, September 23, 2006)
Regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education, Mary Cohen, started her visit to Lincoln ( Neb.) Elementary School with the school’s lunchroom. Principal Brad Wentzlaff told Cohen about the breakfast program for students in the summer school program. The school has 77 percent ethnic minority students, and almost 84 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunches. “Breakfast for school kids is good,” said Cohen, impressed by the dramatic improvement the students have made in test scores. They improved their reading proficiency from approximately 56 percent in the 2003-04 school year to 78 percent in 2005-06. The math proficiency scores also went up, from 63 percent to 87 percent.
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/092706/new_cohenvisit27.shtml (registration required)
10. Editorial: New York City War on Poverty Should Result in Jobs That Lead to Middle Class
(“The Mayor’s War on Poverty,” nytimes.com, September 24, 2006)
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed the recommendations made by his Commission for Economic Opportunity on ways to reduce poverty in New York. The recommendations include day-care tax credits and incentive payments for better parenting – “novel strategies that could make New York’s approach a pilot for how to help the nation’s working poor,” writes this editorial in The New York Times. The commission, headed by Richard Parsons, the chairman of Time Warner, and Geoffrey Canada, a prominent pioneer of antipoverty programs, had studied ideas that work, one being incentive payments of $50 to $1,500 that “would reward everything from good performance on tests to getting a sick child to a doctor.” These incentives have been successfully used in Turkey and Mexico City. However, “the hard part will be ensuring that there are good jobs at the end of the line — jobs that offer real avenues for the middle class,” points out the newspaper. “That is an area where the mayor could really have an impact. He could speak out not only here but nationally for a raise in the paltry federal minimum wage, and he could convene business leaders to explore ways to raise wages and improve benefits for the lowest-paid employees.” Currently, almost one-quarter of the city’s jobs are low-wage, often without health coverage or other benefits. If this does not change, the poor will find themselves at a dead end no matter how hard they work, argues the newspaper.
11. Op-Ed – Wisconsin: “Good Public Policy Solutions” Needed to Combat Childhood Poverty
(“Remember Poor Kids When You Vote This Fall,” jsonline.com, September 23, 2006)
Political candidates should be “thinking seriously about how to address some concerning problems that affect many children in Wisconsin,” writes Charity Eleson of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Voters should ask candidates to address poverty and its extreme effects on children. Wisconsin has 179,000 children, or 14 percent, living in poverty. About 84,000 children live in deep poverty – at or below the 50 percent poverty threshold. The city of Milwaukee has 38 percent of children living at or below the poverty line. Wisconsin children also suffer from the lack of quality child care and health insurance coverage. “We can make a difference by electing people who care about our children,” urges Eleson. “The challenges our children face need good public policy solutions.”
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=502328
12. California: Moderation and Nutrition Education Are Key in School Cupcake Wars
(“Sorry, Cupcake, You’re Not Welcome in Class,” latimes.com, September 27, 2006)
Orange County’s Saddleback Valley Unified School District started a new nutrition policy that allows non-nutritious classroom treats only three times per year. Students “can bring carrots,” said Laura Ott, assistant superintendent. “A birthday doesn’t have to be associated with food.” As schools across the nation adopt federally mandated wellness policies to improve students’ health and nutrition, traditional treats like cupcakes are under attack. Some districts are trying to come up with alternatives for celebrations, such as healthier treats, reading and special seat covers. “There’s no central directive,” said Susan Cox, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “We try to encourage parents to consider healthy alternatives.” In some cases, strict nutrition policies in schools have ignited rebellions. The Texas Legislature last year passed the Safe Cupcake amendment, after a state school ejected a father who tried to bring birthday pizzas to his child’s class. The amendment guarantees parents’ right to bring unhealthful treats to the classroom on Valentine’s Day or days like Halloween. “It is a very serious problem, and some districts are looking not only to change what is offered and sold during lunchtime, but what is being provided during” the rest of the school day, said Martin Gonzalez of the California School Boards Association. “The more you restrict these special foods — cakes or sweets or whatever — they become even more valued by children. It can almost kind of backfire,” said Dr. Nancy Krebs of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Obesity. “You want to have a kind of pragmatic approach that sweets and desserts are OK in moderation and not put them up on a pedestal.”
13. NBA Star Stephon Marbury Remembers Living on Food Stamps; Gives Back to Community
(“NBA Star Stephon Marbury’s Visit to Baltimore a Slam Dunk,” examiner.com, September 29, 2006)
New York Knick and two-time NBA all-star Stephon Marbury visited several malls in Baltimore to promote his new brand of apparel and shoes that offers an affordable alternative to expensive sportswear, featuring no item over $15. A 29-year old player from Coney Island, New York, has not forgotten his roots and wants others to have opportunities he didn’t. “I grew up in the ghetto, I grew up in the projects, I grew up on food stamps. I know how that feels.”
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