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. New FRAC Analysis of How Nutrition Programs Can Help Low-Income Families Cope with High Energy Costs
2. FRAC Releases Summary and Papers Presented at Roundtable on Hunger and Obesity
3. NPR Series on Hunger and Food Insecurity in America
4. Low-Wage Workers Ruined by Katrina Face Hard Struggle to Reclaim Lives
5. National League of Cities: Cities Face Challenges in Connecting Families to Food Stamps
6. Editorial: Budget Bills Reflect “Intolerable” Unfairness toward the Poor
7. Pennsylvania – Editorial: Wise Budget-Making Means Protecting the Poor
8. Progressive Church Leaders Find 2006 Budget “Obscene” in Treatment of Poor
9. Vermont: Cuts to Food Stamps Would Worsen Rising Hunger
10. Op-Ed – New Mexico: Soaring Fuel Prices and Cuts in Food Stamps Threaten Progress against Hunger
11. Kentucky: Heating Cost Assistance Too Little For Rising Fuel Costs
12. District of Columbia Hearings Agency Has Huge Backlog of Cases, Including Food Stamp Cases
13. California: Fresno City Hall Puts Fighting Poverty at Top of Agenda
14. Oklahoma – the Hungriest State in America
15. California: Outreach Fair Brings Relief to Homeless in Oakland
16. Maine: Healthful Changes in School Vending Machines and in à la Carte Menus Possible

1. New FRAC Analysis of How Nutrition Programs Can Help Low-Income Families Cope with High Energy Costs

(Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills, frac.org, November 22, 2005)

A new FRAC publication, Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills, reviews various strategies in food stamps and child nutrition to help low-income families deal with the classic heat-or-eat quandary at a time of skyrocketing heating fuel costs. The federal government expects this winter’s natural gas heating costs to be 41 percent higher than last year’s and the average bill to be $173/month, or 19.4 percent of the income from a full-time, minimum wage job. The federal nutrition programs cannot solve this problem for low-income families, but they can help. They can reach eligible, unserved families quickly; can adjust benefits to meet rising shelter costs; and otherwise help families and child-serving institutions. The new publication is intended to be useful to state and local officials, food stamp and TANF caseworkers, LIHEAP offices, utility executives and offices, community-based organizations, food banks, anti-hunger advocates, and others seeking to help low-income families with this coming winter’s terrible cost crunch.

http://www.frac.org/pdf/energy_paper05.pdf

2. FRAC Releases Summary and Papers Presented at Roundtable on Hunger and Obesity

(Proceedings of the Roundtable on Understanding the Paradox of Hunger and Obesity, frac.org, November 22, 2005)

Proceedings of the Roundtable on Understanding the Paradox of Hunger and Obesity is a new publication, released by FRAC, which summarizes discussions and presentations from a November, 2004 roundtable meeting on hunger and obesity that FRAC convened. The meeting brought together leading researchers in the field, anti-hunger advocates working on this issue, government officials, national organizations, and others. At the roundtable, which consisted of five solicited papers, panelists’ comments, and a group discussion, attendees exchanged information and strategies for making the connection between food insecurity and obesity and addressing the needs of low-income people. They discussed effective and sensitive national, state, and local solutions and identified promising areas for additional research. The publication includes a report on the proceedings and the papers presented at the roundtable.

http://www.frac.org/pdf/proceedings05.pdf

3. NPR Series on Hunger and Food Insecurity in America

(Hunger in America, npr.org, November 21-23, 2005)

National Public Radio aired a series on food insecurity and hunger during the week of November 21 st, with each story featuring people from the ranks of the 38 million hungry or food insecure Americans. In the story, “A Rural Struggle to Keep the Family Fed,” (November 21) a family of five from Smyth County, Virginia has a hard time putting food on the table even though both parents work. Fifteen percent of the rural people surveyed last year for the Economic Research Service are uncertain about getting enough food. Many of them live in households where at least one adult works. The Hankins family survives by searching for food deals everywhere, including flea markets, dollar stores, and expired meat sections in supermarkets. A nearby food pantry is another source of food. But even with this help, Robbie Hankins, a full-time cement plant worker, does not know “whether we're going to have food from one week to the next.”

A second story, “Hunger Hidden but Real in America's Suburbs,” on November 22 focuses on a Michigan family that represents poor Americans who live in the suburbs. The Hardenburghs have been struggling to pay for food ever since they were overwhelmed by Chris Hardenburgh’s medical bills from a work accident.

The story, "Housing Costs Play Role in Urban Hunger," on November 23 is about Brian Donaldson from Oakland, California who lost his well-paid software engineering job and has experienced a drastic change in his lifestyle. His rent eats up his disability check and his wife’s unemployment insurance because he cannot find any affordable housing. Because his disability check puts him over the income limit, he gets no food stamps. The couple eats whatever Brian can get from a food bank where he volunteers.

In “Q & A: The Causes Behind Hunger in America,” (November 22) Penn State University economic geographer Amy Glasmeier explains that the existence of hunger in America is due to uncertainties and crises of daily life, a low minimum wage, and underparticipation in the food stamp program. “At the core, hunger is the result of employment instability and the lack of an adequate minimum wage. If an employer is allowed to pay a person a wage that essentially does not lift them out of poverty, then the real culprit is failed federal policy.” Low-income households cut back on food: “When a family is living that close to the edge, the bottom line is that cuts will be made in the consumption of food.” Poor families are often forced to trade off between food and other expenses. “In many places in the country, fewer than half of the people who are eligible for food stamps actually receive them. According to the Food Research Action Center, many people aren't aware they're eligible for food stamps,“ Glasmeier said. Food insecurity in America is growing, she added.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5023829 (main series page with links to individual stories)

4. Low-Wage Workers Ruined by Katrina Face Hard Struggle to Reclaim Lives

(“Still Adrift after the Storm,” chicagotribune.com, November 13, 2005)

Hurricane Katrina destroyed the home of John Hoffmann Jr. and took away his job at Antoine's, a currently closed 165-year old French Quarter restaurant. Jobs are hard to find for John, who is mentally disabled, but that one made his life bearable for the last 23 years. Today he lives in a camping trailer 250 miles from New Orleans with little money, no car, and a gym bag containing all his possessions. Mr. Hoffmann did not evacuate before the hurricane because he needed the $6-per-hour pay from his Saturday night shift. Now, he and many other employees of Antoine's, who have suffered from Katrina’s aftermath, have no idea how they will ever get back home to their normal lives. “More than two months after the Aug. 29 storm, those employees represent one restive caravan in a new American diaspora, a giant rootless community populated by at least 138,000 households that remain dislocated from New Orleans alone.” Tamyra Lee, 25, an Antoine's cook, is sleeping on the floor of an apartment in Pasadena, Texas. Having escaped her flooded home with three children, Lee is surviving on food stamps and $93/week in unemployment insurance in a place so remote that she must pay $24 for a taxi every time she needs to get to the grocery store. The restaurant plans to open and rehire the old staff, but there is no guarantee that there will be enough customers to keep it in business. Hoffmann applied for a FEMA trailer that he hoped could replace his ruined home, so he could work at Antoine's when it reopened. But, a FEMA inspector left a note on the door at his former New Orleans home – where no home exists any more behind the door – that the owner’s presence was required to complete the inspection. Even if Hoffmann, 250 miles away, had known about this notice, he could not have read it, as he is illiterate, and he could not have contacted the inspector, who left neither his name nor his phone number. Hoffman’s application will not be processed until he returns to his nonexistent home to meet with the nameless inspector. “Katrina unmoored people like Hoffmann who had little to begin with and marooned them hundreds of miles away with even less,” this poor man’s odyssey shows.

http://tinyurl.com/7outr (registration required)

5. National League of Cities: Cities Face Challenges in Connecting Families to Food Stamps

(“Many Eligible Families Fail to Claim Food Stamp Benefits,” nlc.org, November 21, 2005)

This National League of Cities coverage of FRAC report on food stamps and hunger in 25 of the largest urban areas in America notes that only 62 percent of urban households eligible for food stamps take advantage of the program. Lack of language skills and knowledge about how to obtain food stamp benefits along with concerns about the stigma associated with receiving food assistance hinder eligible families from claiming the benefits. “Underparticipation in the Food Stamp Program adversely affects not only low-income people who are missing out on benefits, but also local communities,” said FRAC Legal Director Ellen Vollinger. “Research shows that each dollar in federal benefits generates nearly twice that in economic activity.”

http://tinyurl.com/a9r6y

For NLC’s Special Report, “Screening Tools to Help Families Access Public Benefits,” visit http://www.nlc.org/IYEF/ and click on “Publications and Resources” and then “Special Reports.”

Also see http://www.frac.org/pdf/cities2005.pdf(FRAC Study, Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot)

6. Editorial: Budget Bills Reflect “Intolerable” Unfairness toward the Poor

(“Big, Bad Budgets,” newsobserver.com, November 19, 2005)

“Capitol Hill budget bills cut services for the poor and cut taxes for the rich, an outrage if allowed to stand,” editorializes The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. While the number of poor Americans is growing, the House budget aims to save money by taking food stamps away from nearly a quarter of a million people and by decreasing child support enforcement efforts and help with child care. The budget also does not provide enough home heating assistance money for a winter of sharply higher energy costs. This is an example of “intolerable” unfairness. “A compassionate people doesn't force choices between food and medicine, not even if it costs the rich. One would hope that when all is said and done, that kind of compassion might win out in Congress as well.”

http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/368797.html

7. Pennsylvania – Editorial: Wise Budget-Making Means Protecting the Poor

(“Congress Must Pay Attention to Poverty as It Resolves Its Budget Differences,” mcall.com, November 22, 2005)

“The Lehigh Valley area must have a particular concern regarding the $50 billion in domestic-spending reductions in the House bill.” The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania says that “these funding priorities go in the wrong direction.” “Wise budget-making demands that we look at the losers – the people and programs whose government support is to be cut. In some cases, such as the holders of tax-sheltered investments, alternatives are within reach. In other cases, such as the person getting only a meal and a place to sleep, there is nowhere else to turn,” except to the government.

http://tinyurl.com/eyrdu

8. Progressive Church Leaders Find 2006 Budget “Obscene” in Treatment of Poor

(“Progressive Church Leaders Warn Bush, Congress on Budget Cuts,” beliefnet.com, November 21, 2005)

Progressive church leaders denounced the 2006 federal budget. The budget cuts that hurt the poor while extending tax breaks to the rich are not “a partisan issue, it's a stark moral choice,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, the head of the Call to Renewal anti-poverty campaign. “The House bill is obscene.” During a “Faith Summit on Poverty,” the church leaders said they would keep the pressure on to have the Senate’s refusal to cut funds for the food stamp program retained in the final bill. “A Christian president better pay attention to what Christians think about this budget bill,” Wallis said. Wallis and other leaders, including Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action and the Rev. Glenn Palmberg of the Evangelical Covenant Church, said conservatives in Congress are slowly coming to realize that “God cares about the poor.” On the other hand, social conservative Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, urged his members to support the House bill to help restore fiscal discipline.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/179/story_17950_1.html

9. Vermont: Cuts to Food Stamps Would Worsen Rising Hunger

(“Food Stamp Cuts Threaten Growing Hunger Problems,” boston.com, November 21, 2005)

Vermont anti-hunger advocates worry that cuts in the federal food stamp program will worsen growing hunger in the state. According to the Vermont Campaign Against Childhood Hunger, about 40,000 Vermont residents, 40 percent of whom are children, receive food stamps. Another 45,000 Vermonters are eligible. Robert Dostis of the Vermont Campaign said that the most recent USDA data regarding Vermont show “a 100 percent increase in the incidence of hunger” affecting children between 2002 and 2004, “the biggest increase in hunger in any state in the country.” Cutting the food stamp program is “just misplaced priorities and I think a poor direction for this country to be going in,” Dostis said.

http://tinyurl.com/a2hf9

10. Op-Ed – New Mexico: Soaring Fuel Prices and Cuts in Food Stamps Threaten Progress against Hunger

(“New Mexico Must Take Another Bite out of Hunger,” abqjournal.com, November 18, 2005)

According to a recent USDA report, 15.8 percent of New Mexico residents (about 300,000 people) are skipping meals, not eating so their children can, or simply do not know where their next meal will come from, writes Mark Winne, a member of the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger, in the Albuquerque Journal. New Mexico has the second worst hunger and food security rate in the country. Two years ago, Gov. Bill Richardson took the nearly unprecedented step of acknowledging high hunger rates and the need to do something about it. He convened a Governor's Hunger Summit, out of which came “a statewide commitment to significantly reduce hunger in New Mexico.” The New Mexico Human Services Department has increased the proportion of persons eligible for food stamps who are in fact participating from 55 percent to 70 percent through an innovative outreach partnership with the New Mexico Association of Food Banks. The State Legislature in its 2005 session provided funds that will help pay for a healthy breakfast for all children in New Mexico's poorest school districts. New state funds have created a hunger coordinator position. The same Legislature, however, failed to increase the minimum food stamp benefit from $10 to $35 per month, a severe blow to the elderly. Soaring gasoline prices and Congress’ possible cuts in funding for food stamps have added to the list of major concerns of the anti-hunger fight. “With an adequate commitment of public and private resources and an effective collaboration between food banks, government agencies, farmers, the private food industry and faith-based institutions, no New Mexican should ever go to bed hungry,” points out Winne.

http://tinyurl.com/d3rbv

11. Kentucky: Heating Cost Assistance Too Little For Rising Fuel Costs

(“Heat Vouchers Not Keeping Pace with Rising Energy Costs,” amnews.com, November 21, 2005)

Rita Maddox, an employee at Danville's Southern States farm supplies store, knows that the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is not keeping up with her customers’ needs. The budgets of LIHEAP’s clients, most of whom are Social Security, food stamps, or other benefit recipients, are not elastic. “I know a few older women, all widows, who might go without one of their daily meals, normally lunch, so they don't spend too much on food so they have enough money to pay their heating bills,” said Maddox, who oversees fuel sales in Southern States' credit department. “While she and the LIHEAP subsidy customers she deals with appreciate the help the program provides, Maddox said she shakes her head at the amounts she sees on the vouchers . . . . The government won’t increase anything on this program, and when it does, it’s a little.” A common one per winter voucher for propane ($114 to $149 value) will pay for just two to three weeks of propane heating. And that’s all people get during the whole season. “Still, as heart-rending as some of their stories are, as tough as they will say it is for them in the winter and as little as they are getting on their vouchers, most of these people . . . say they are lucky they are eligible for at least a little help.”

http://tinyurl.com/dpnh7(archive subscription required)

12. District of Columbia Hearings Agency Has Huge Backlog of Cases, Including Food Stamp Cases

(”Agency Backlog Imperils Federal Funds,” washingtontimes.com, November 17, 2005)

Washington, D.C. officials are concerned that the District will lose federal funding because a new agency, the Office of Administrative Hearings, that settles disputes between residents and District agencies, has accumulated a massive backlog of cases. Agencies had hired their own administrative judges to settle disputes before the Office was created in 2002. When the Office began hearing cases in March 2004, it already had a backlog of 3,000 unresolved cases inherited from 10 agencies. The ongoing backlog threatens the budgets of several agencies and jeopardizes funding for programs such as food stamps, said D.C. Council member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee Phil Mendelson. City residents who have been denied federal benefits must wait longer than federal standards allow for their appeals to be heard, Mendelson added.

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20051116-111005-4412r.htm

13. California: Fresno City Hall Puts Fighting Poverty at Top of Agenda

(“In Fresno, Tackling Poverty Moves to the Top of the Agenda,” washingtonpost.com, November 21, 2005)

Downtown Fresno, the largest city in California's Central Valley, with a population of 456,000, is half empty, while its soup kitchens and food pantries are overcrowded. “The lines for meals are packed with old people, young couples, extended families, blacks, whites, Latinos.” Nearby, “people live in slum buildings where roaches crawl in tenants' ears, the black mold looks like wallpaper and families split the rent by sleeping in walk-in closets, laundry rooms and bathtubs.” According to a report by the Brookings Institution, Fresno has a higher proportion of poor people who live in areas of concentrated poverty than any other major city in the country. This finding helped put poverty on the political agenda: “Poverty is now topic number one in and out of City Hall.” The biggest problems are the lack of affordable housing and decent jobs as well as immigration. Poverello House estimates that 70 percent of the average 1,200 meals it serves every day goes to the working poor.

http://tinyurl.com/crnf8

14. Oklahoma – the Hungriest State in America

(“Hungry? You Are Not Alone,” newsok.com, November 20, 2005)

“The state that ranks No. 2 in winter wheat production, No. 3 in beef, No. 6 in peanuts and No. 8 in pork now ranks No. 1 in hunger,” according to a United States Department of Agriculture report. More than one in 20 Oklahoma households qualified as hungry in the 2002-2004 period, compared with about one in 25 nationally. This figure translates into 236,000 hungry Oklahomans, many of whom are working poor. “Almost half the people we serve today have a job, sometimes two and three jobs,” said Rodney Bivens, director of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. He recalls a 4-year-old who passed out on a Monday morning because all he ate over the weekend was a hot dog, and an 8-year-old girl who was sent to the principal's office for eating balloons in class, because she was hungry. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has been trying to sign up more eligible people for food stamps. The agency reported a record number of 436,585 food stamp recipients in September. But Kathie Wright, director of Oklahoma's food stamp program, is concerned about program funding cuts being considered in Congress. “What they determine determines what we do in the state,” Wright said.

http://www.newsok.com/article/1682829/ (archive subscription required)

15. California: Outreach Fair Brings Relief to Homeless in Oakland

(“Oakland's Homeless Find Relief at Outreach Resources Event,” insidebayarea.com, November 16, 2005)

The Homeless Outreach Resources Fair at the Lake – the first of its kind in Oakland – was organized by the city, Alameda County, neighborhood activists, and members of the City Council, and was modeled after a bimonthly San Francisco program called Project Homeless Connect. Participants were offered free medical services and stations to talk with officials from organizations such as Goodwill and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Michael Fritz, who has been homeless for three or four years, signed up for food stamps at the fair and found something to eat. Many of the homeless people were driven to drop-in center services and the Oakland Army Base Winter Shelter. According to City Councilmember Pat Kernighan, there are about 1,000 people living on the streets of Oakland on any given day. About 4,000 other Oakland residents do not have permanent homes.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3222191

16. Maine: Healthful Changes in School Vending Machines and in à la Carte Menus Possible

(“The Vending and à la Carte Policy Intervention in Maine Public High Schools,” cdc.gov, November 2005)

This article describes a project to make healthier snacks and beverages available in vending machines and à la carte programs in Maine public high schools. Before the change 80 percent of snack items, 54 percent of beverages and 69 percent of à la carte items did not meet nutrition guidelines. In four schools, only low-fat and low-sugar items were offered in vending machines and à la carte programs. Early communications with school officials, monetary stipends for participation, identification of a school liaison, and a school committee to promote changes were among the strategies used to implement this project. The case study found that it is possible to make nutrition in high schools healthier. Healthful changes in vending machines were well accepted by students (although faculty members complained about the disappearance of carbonated drinks from the faculty room). Changes in the à la carte programs met more resistance in two of the four schools. “Future interventions to change school nutrition environments should consider early communication with all stakeholders, including students, parents, faculty, administrators, and food service personnel,” the case study authors recommend.

http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2005/nov/05_0076.htm

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

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