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. Iowa – Editorial: Cutting Food Stamp Program Would Be Anti-Family, Anti-Business
2. Oregon – Editorial: To Reconcile Tax Cuts and Spending Congress Should Reduce Farm Subsidies
3. Florida – Editorial: Proposal to Cut Conservation and Food Stamps Is “Wrong Way to Go”
4. Pennsylvania – Editorial: Cuts in Defense Spending, Farm Subsidies, Star Wars, and Other Programs Could Provide Billions in Savings
5. New York – Editorial: Tax Cuts Are Not an Answer to the Needs of the Poor
6. National Religious Leaders Appeal to Rep. Chambliss Not to Cut Food Stamps
7. What to Cut: Dairy Program and Farm Proposal Versus Food Stamps
8. USDA Reports Characteristics of Food Stamp Households in FY 2004
9. News Release: USDA Announces More Farm Bill Forums That Will Focus on Food Stamps
10. News Release: USDA Acknowledges Outstanding Achievements of National School Lunch Program
11. Utah – Letter to the Editor: How in Good Conscience Can Congress Rob Poor Peter to Pay Rich Paul?
12. USDA Seeks Public Comments on Quality Control Rules Under 2002 Food Stamp Reauthorization Act
13. Ohio – Editorial: Poor Working Families Deserve Full Child Tax Credit
14. Americans Make Unwise Food Choices, Lack Important Vitamins, Report Says
15. Children in Communities with Expensive Fruits and Vegetables Gain Excessive Weight, Study Finds
16. Economic, Other Factors reduce African-American Marriage Rate
17. New York: Difficulties with Applications Turn New Yorkers Away From Food Stamps
18. New York: New Studies of Hunger, Poverty, and Obesity in NYC

1. Iowa – Editorial: Cutting Food Stamp Program Would Be Anti-Family, Anti-Business

(“Slash Elsewhere, But Don't Cut Food Stamps,” desmoinesregister.com, October 10, 2005)

Both of Iowa's senators, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley, members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, “should oppose any cuts to food stamps – as should all members of Congress,” editorializes The DesMoines Register. In July 2005, 210,660 Iowans (greater than the population of Des Moines) participated in the food stamp program. Cutting off this help would mean taking food from their mouths and the mouths of many other Americans. This would be not only anti-family, but anti-business. The food stamp money goes directly to grocery stores and farmers markets, contributing to local economies. Unlike FEMA, the food stamp program quickly mobilized resources to provide food to Hurricane Katrina victims. “Senators could start by adopting Grassley's proposal to cap subsidies to large farms. But it's hard to imagine why any member of Congress would want to cut food stamps, a program that works when disaster strikes and also benefits low-income families, businesses and farmers year-round.”

http://tinyurl.com/7are4

2. Oregon – Editorial: To Reconcile Tax Cuts and Spending Congress Should Reduce Farm Subsidies

(“Reduce Farm Subsidies,” registerguard.com, October 10, 2005)

“At a time when many Americans are struggling to deal with hurricanes, drought and soaring fuel costs, congressional leaders are trying to cut food and conservation programs for the poor,” writes The Register-Guard. “That makes about as much sense as approving more tax cuts favoring top-bracket Americans. . . .” Among federal programs, the Food Stamp Program is “a lean, clean machine.” The typical food stamp recipient gets only $1 per meal. The $3 billion in cuts targeted for the Agriculture Department should come from “a bloated crop subsidy program” that benefits primarily corporate agriculture. The wealthiest 10 percent of farms receive two-thirds of the subsidy dollars, whereas the 80 percent of the farm population with the lowest incomes collect only one-sixth. Yet Congress has proposed to reduce food programs by $574 million and conservation programs by $1 billion to reconcile tax cuts and spending plans. “If lawmakers are sniffing out government waste, they should head straight for the farm subsidy program, which doles out more than $15 billion a year in agribusiness welfare.”

http://tinyurl.com/8yhpb

3. Florida – Editorial: Proposal to Cut Conservation and Food Stamps Is “Wrong Way to Go”

(“The Wrong Way to Go,” orlandosentinel.com, October 8, 2005)

“Our position: Extending costly farm subsidies while cutting conservation is all backward,” stated an editorial in the Orlando Sentinel. “If Congress is serious about cutting spending to help cover the cost of relief and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, farm subsidies are a good place to start.” A Senate proposal from Agriculture Chairman Saxby Chambliss, if accepted, would only extend the wasteful farm-subsidy program while cutting food stamp and conservation programs. “The Chambliss proposal is the opposite of what's needed.”

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed08305oct08,0,420956,print.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

4. Pennsylvania – Editorial: Cuts in Defense Spending, Farm Subsidies, Star Wars, and Other Programs Could Provide Billions in Savings

(“Spread the Pain Fairly,” centredaily.com, October 9, 2005)

This editorial from The Centre Daily Times of State College, PA, proposes a list of cuts – up to $148 billion over five years – that would make “more sense from the perspective of Katrina evacuees than cutting Medicaid and food stamps, which could end up hurting some of the very people that government is trying to help.” First on the list is defense spending, which increased 54 percent from 2000 to 2004, to $454 billion per year. The highway bill is next: 9 percent of the $286 billion package comes from lawmakers' 6,500 pet projects for their home districts. Then there are farm subsidies: $21 billion a year can be saved, according to the Cato Institute. The list also includes cutting nine of the Navy's planned 19 Virginia-class nuclear submarines; termination of the Airborne Laser program known as "Star Wars"; cancellation of NASA's Prometheus project to build nuclear reactors in space ($2 billion in savings over five years); and elimination of tax credits for U.S. corporations that pay income taxes to foreign governments ($31 billion in savings over five years). Also, “it's painfully clear” the government cannot afford all of the tax cuts of the last four years. “In addition to forgoing further tax cuts, such as eliminating the estate tax, Congress should increase the tax rate on the top two income brackets by 1 percent, as well as raise the rates on dividends and capital gains. This move would impact taxpayers who have benefited the most from tax cuts, raising $52 billion over five years.”

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/12853238.htm

5. New York – Editorial: Tax Cuts Are Not an Answer to the Needs of the Poor

(“Paying Katrina's Price,” timesunion.com, October 12, 2005)

“A hurricane leaves the ravages of poverty so baldly exposed? What a perfect time to increase the pressure for more tax cuts. What an opportunity to further dismantle anti-poverty programs that weren't working anyway,” sarcastically editorializes The Times Union in Albany, NY. “The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina isn't the great cry for renewed attention to the gaps in income and housing and health care after all. Easing the tax burden of the rich is more like it.” Congress is considering scaling back programs like Medicaid and food stamps, while continuing on a path to pass $70 billion in tax cuts. Meanwhile, there is no evidence that tax cuts alleviated "deep, persistent poverty" that President Bush acknowledged in a recent speech from New Orleans. The national poverty rate, on the contrary, is on the rise. To conservatives, the solution is their old agenda. "Poor people are going to get the short end of the stick, despite all the public sympathy," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

http://tinyurl.com/bvzgz

6. National Religious Leaders Appeal to Rep. Chambliss Not to Cut Food Stamps

(Letter to Rep. Saxby Chambliss in Support of Food Stamp Program, September 21, 2005)

A group of eminent religious leaders appealed to Rep. Saxby Chambliss, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Nutrition and Forestry, to protect the Food Stamp Program from cuts. “Food stamps are the frontline defense against hunger for many of the most vulnerable members of our society. More than 50 percent of food stamp beneficiaries are children. Virtually all of the rest are seniors, people with disabilities, or those making the transition from welfare to work. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one of the first actions authorities undertook was distribution of food stamps, tapping a program that has helped curb hunger for 40 years,” they stated. Reductions in the program would be “a moral failure” since the number of people experiencing hunger in America is on the rise and nutrition programs are as important as they have ever been. Signatories included the National Commander of the Salvation Army; the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C., the Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the General Secretary of Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church; the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA; the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; the General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee; the General Secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA; the Presiding Bishop of the United Church of Jesus Christ, Apostolic; the President of the Evangelicals for Social Action; the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ; the Senior Bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church; the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); the General Secretary, Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church; the President of the Union of Reform Judaism.

http://www.frac.org/pdf/chambliss_101405.pdf (letter to Rep. Chambliss)

7. What to Cut: Dairy Program and Farm Proposal Versus Food Stamps

(“What to Cut,” timesargus.com, October 10, 2005)

A price support program for dairy farmers and federal spending on food stamps are both targets for budget cuts now being negotiated in the Senate Agriculture Committee. In order to gain support for the dairy program, Sen. Patrick Leahy agreed to $578 million in food stamp cuts, mainly achieved by tightening food stamp program eligibility requirements. Sen. Leahy is not happy about having to agree to cuts, but, in his view, the cuts were going to happen, and so he made it a priority to save the dairy program. The Barre Montpelier Times Argus writes that the fact that this negotiation took place is “a sign of the times”: “The impoverishment of the government was a strategy created by the Bush administration, and we are seeing that it comes with a price.” Anti-hunger advocates such as Oxfam America prefer the approach taken by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa that would preserve both the Food Stamp Program and the dairy program, as a better way of achieving budget goals. Sen. Grassley has proposed to place a cap of $250,000 on subsidies that could be received by big farms.

http://tinyurl.com/dpoez

8. USDA Reports Characteristics of Food Stamp Households in FY 2004

(“Characteristics of Food Stamp Households: Fiscal Year 2004 - September 2005,” fns.usda.gov, September 2005)  

On average, about 23.9 million people living in 10.3 million households received food stamps in the United States each month in FY 2004. Just over 12 percent lived above the poverty line. The rest had incomes at, or below, the poverty level, and 40 percent were below one half the poverty line. The typical food stamp household had a gross income of $643/month and received $196 in food stamp benefits, nearly one-fourth of its monthly funds (cash income plus food stamps). The average food stamp household possessed only about $143 in countable resources. Over half of all food stamp recipients are children and another 8 percent are age 60 or older. Working-age women represent 28 percent and working-age men represent 13 percent of the total caseload. Over one fourth (29 percent) of food stamp households earn wages (up from 19 percent in 1990). Less than one in six (16 percent) of households collected TANF benefits (down from 42 percent in 1990). Most households are small - the average size was 2.3 persons.

http://tinyurl.com/a73rf (full report)

http://tinyurl.com/77l3o (summary)

9. News Release: USDA Announces More Farm Bill Forums That Will Focus on Food Stamps

(“USDA Nationwide Farm Bill Listening Tour Continues,” usda.gov, October 7, 2005)

USDA announced more Farm Bill Forums that will focus on the nutrition title of the Farm Bill and will be hosted by Food Nutrition and Consumer Services Undersecretary Eric Bost. The new forums are on October 18, in Detroit, Michigan, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (CDT), at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center; on October 19, in Miami, Florida, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (EDT), in Miami-Dade College; on October 25, in Portland, Oregon, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (PDT), in the Portland State Office Building; on October 28, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (EDT), in the Boston Public Library; on November 1, in Austin, Texas, time and place forthcoming; and on November 2, in Atlanta, Georgia, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (EDT), at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Upcoming forums that Secretary Johanns will conduct this month on the Farm Bill in general are on October 18, in Moultrie, Georgia, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EDT), in the Sunbelt Ag Expo Morton Building and on October 24, in Greeley, Colorado, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (MDT), in the Island Grove Park Exhibition Building. The next October forum on the Farm Bill in general, hosted by Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner, will take place on October 19, in Greensboro, North Carolina, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (EDT), at a Small Farms Conference. This news release also contains a schedule of specialty forums held by Natural Resources and Environment Under Secretary Mark Rey and by Rural Development Under Secretary Tom Dorr. The public is also invited to submit comments at United States Department of Agriculture - Farm Bill Forums.

http://tinyurl.com/cuflg

10. News Release: USDA Acknowledges Outstanding Achievements of National School Lunch Program

(“USDA Officials Observe National School Lunch Week Celebration,” usda.gov, October 7, 2005)

In school visits across the country during the week of October 10-14, USDA officials recognized “the outstanding achievements” of the school lunch program as well as honored several schools participating in USDA's Healthier US School Challenge. The National School Lunch Program, administered by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, provides funds for meals to children in more than 100,000 schools and residential child care institutions. Over 29 million children each school day receive nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches through the program.

http://tinyurl.com/adnwg

11. Utah – Letter to the Editor: How in Good Conscience Can Congress Rob Poor Peter to Pay Rich Paul?

(“More Cuts Coming,” sltrib.com, October 11, 2005)

A. Patrice Schell of Voices for Utah Children wrote a letter to the editor of The Salt Lake City Tribune about planned budget cuts. “What many Utah residents may not know is that Congress is about to vote on cuts to health-care and nutrition programs for vulnerable children and their families that threaten the well-being of more than 200,000 Utahns. To add insult to injury, Congress is planning these cuts to partially fund more tax cuts to benefit millionaires,” Schell wrote. “How in good conscience can Congress ignore their plight, cut programs that benefit them, and turn around and shell out $70 billion in tax giveaways to millionaires?” As a person who knows firsthand how programs like food stamps and Medicaid help people during emergencies, especially when Utah took in evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, Schell urged that “robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the way to go.”

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3107429

12. USDA Seeks Public Comments on Quality Control Rules Under 2002 Food Stamp Reauthorization Act  

(“Food Stamp Program: Discretionary Quality Control Provisions of Title IV of Public Law 107-171,” a257.g.akamaitech.net, September 23, 2005)  

The Food and Nutrition Service, Department of Agriculture invites interested persons to submit comments on a proposed rule to implement certain discretionary provisions concerning the Quality Control system in Sections 4118 and 4119 of the Food Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2002. This rule would affect state agencies’s quality control review operations, and it would alter the impact on state agencies of assessment and resolution of potential liabilities for excessive payment error rates and awarding of bonuses for superior performance. This rule also would establish new timeframes for completing reviews, establish procedures for resolving liabilities following appeal decisions, and revise the negative case review procedures. Households sampled for quality control review of their cases would be minimally affected by this rule. Comments concerning this proposed rule will be accepted on or before December 22, 2005.

http://tinyurl.com/ccudr

13. Ohio – Editorial: Poor Working Families Deserve Full Child Tax Credit

(“Give Neediest Tax Credit, Too,” toledoblade.com, October 9, 2005)

Nineteen and a half million low-income children cannot receive the $1,000 child tax credit. Their families are too poor to owe income tax and only get a partial refundable credit or nothing at all, according to the Tax Policy Center. Toledo’s The Blade writes that “the wide racial gap evident in families too poor to claim the full credit ought to embarrass the Bush Administration.” While 18 percent of white families are too poor to get the full credit, 50% of black and almost 50% of Hispanic families are too poor to be eligible. On average, white children receive $721 per year, and black children and Hispanic children get $564 and $638 respectively. Among the millions of families with children too poor to get the full tax credit, more than three-fourths have working parents, contradicting the stereotypes. The Bush administration should live up to its four-year-old commitment to give the credit to working families still too poor to owe income tax. “The entire benefit should go to the families who truly need it.”

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/OPINION02/510090314

14. Americans Make Unwise Food Choices, Lack Important Vitamins, Report Says

(“Study Finds Diet Deficiencies in U.S.,” washingtontimes.com, September 30, 2005)

Most Americans are not getting enough vitamins E, A, and C or magnesium in their daily diets, but they have plenty of carbohydrates, according to a new USDA report. This finding demonstrates that people do not follow the dietary guidelines that include healthy foods rich in these elements. There was no improvement compared to previous USDA reports. “What we saw was they are eating less from the recommended basic food groups and getting more of their calories from fat and sugar,” said Alanna Moshfegh, research leader for the USDA’s food surveys research group.

http://washingtontimes.com/business/20050929-105716-2345r.htm

15. Children in Communities with Expensive Fruits and Vegetables Gain Excessive Weight, Study Finds

(“Study Ties Kids’ Weight Gain, Produce Cost,” sfgate.com, October 5, 2005)

The price of fresh fruits and vegetables has more to do with weight gain among children than their proximity to fast-food restaurants does, according to researchers from the Santa Monica-based Rand Corporation. They compared the price of different types of foods and the number of food outlets with the weight gain figures of children from kindergarten to third grade from 59 U.S. urban areas. Children from communities where fruits and vegetables are more expensive were more likely to gain excessive weight than children from neighborhoods with less expensive produce. The study also showed that families of poor children and children from higher-income communities have different abilities to afford healthy foods. “Lower-income families are more price-sensitive,” said Susan Foerster, chief of the Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section of the California Department of Health Services. “They have to be careful with how much they spend on food.” Roland Sturm, a co-author of the Rand study, suggested providing fruits and vegetables free to schoolchildren in order to combat child obesity.

16. Economic, Other Factors Reduce African-American Marriage Rate

(”’Baby Mamas’ Await Right Daddies,” jsonline.com, October 5, 2005)

Some statistics say that nearly 70 percent of black babies are born to unmarried mothers. So sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas looked into this in their new book, “Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage.” They found that many poor women do not have access to a large enough pool of potential partners who could be considered suitable for a sustainable marriage. Most of these women aspire to marry, but “they think too much of marriage to wed in circumstances that will almost certainly lead to divorce.” Realities such as unemployment, the lack of education, and a high incarceration rate among black men are barriers. Given their choice, it seems reasonable to remain single rather than marry a man who will not make their children’s and their own lives better. “Whenever a social issue is identified as a problem for black America, many always point to out-of-wedlock births as the main culprit. This new book suggests the solution may be more complicated than just tying the knot.”

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct05/361106.asp

17. New York: Difficulties with Applications Turn New Yorkers Away From Food Stamps

(“New Yorkers Pay More, Get Less From Government For Food,” zwire.com, October 6, 2005)

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some 14.5 percent of Queens’ residents live below the poverty line, a number that grew last year despite improvements in the economy and a rising median household income. Social service workers, observing longer food pantry and soup kitchen lines, say the real number is even higher. The transition from skilled manufacturing jobs to low-paid service jobs especially have contributed to widening economic inequality. “It used to be that a rising tide lifted all boats. Now, it’s lifting the yachts and drowning the rowboats,” said Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. Half a million New Yorkers eligible for food stamps in 2003 did not receive them, according to a recent report by the Food Research and Action Center. Berg’s group estimates that this figure is closer to 700,000 or 800,000 people. Lack of convenience is the major barrier to higher food stamp participation. Some service centers do not open during prescheduled hours, or lack the proper forms. Long waiting time also turns people away. Moreover, applications for food stamps in New York City, unlike other places, cannot be faxed or submitted electronically. Madison County, in upstate New York, showed that once online applications were allowed, the participation rate jumped 29 percent. In New York, a similar jump would translate into 300,000 more food stamp recipients. Meanwhile, hunger persists. “To see a child coming to a soup kitchen, it stops you in your path...10 years ago, you didn’t see it,” points to a new, disturbing development John Krakowski of the City Harvest.

http://tinyurl.com/czcvl

18. New York: New Studies of Hunger, Poverty, and Obesity in NYC

(“Hunger and Obesity In The Two New Yorks,” gothamgazette.com, October 12, 2005)

Thirty-seven percent of East Harlem residents live below the poverty line. About 600 of them go to the Yorkville Common Pantry for food every week. Most of them are working poor. "Hunger is not about individual failings. It’s about a failed system,” says Deborah Goldstein, the author of "The Faces Behind the Statistics," one of two recent studies released by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. In her report, she profiled hungry people to put a human face on cold-blooded statistics. The second study, "Hunger and Obesity in East Harlem" by J.C. Dwyer compares conditions between East Harlem and the Upper East Side, two contrasting NYC neighborhoods. In East Harlem, 38 percent of children are born into poverty while on the Upper East Side, just five percent. East Harlem has the highest obesity and diabetes rate in the city whereas the Upper East Side has the lowest. Dwyer found that people who have more food choices and more control over their diet eat healthier and have lower obesity and poverty rates. The Upper East Side has more stores with a variety of foods. East Harlem has more bodegas, fast food outlets, and food charities, which often distribute foods discarded by food corporations and lacking in nutrition.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/socialservices/20051012/15/1615

For news tips, suggestions, comments, contact Olga Doty at odoty@frac.org

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