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. Budget-Cutting Reconciliation Bill Passes the House, Senate Poised to Take Action
2. School Breakfast Served 7.5 Million Low-Income Children in 2005, After Biggest Annual Jump Since 1995
3. Only Two in Five Low-Income Children Who Need It Benefit from School Breakfast, FRAC Report Says
4. USDA Denies Five States Ability to Adjust Food Stamps to Reflect Rising Heating Bills
5. USDA News Release: Five States Receive $4 Million in Rural Transportation Grants for Summer Food Program
6. Fifteen Senate Republicans Sign Letter to Agriculture Chairman Chambliss Opposing Food Stamp Cuts
7. Sense of Senate Resolution Opposes Food Stamp Cuts in Budget Bill Negotiations
8. Religious Activists Protest Cuts in Programs for the Poor at Capitol Hill
9. Editorial: Congress’ Balancing Budget Is “Sham” and “Shame” for Low-Income Americans
10. Catholic Groups Take Action to Persuade New Jersey Congressmen to Reject Budget
11. Maine’s Congressional Delegation and State Officials Oppose Budget Cuts
12. Iowa: Prayer Vigil to Protest Budget Cuts
13. Iowa Advocates for Poor Ask Sen. Grassley to Preserve Medicaid and Food Stamps
14. Op-Ed: Single Mothers Will Be Biggest Losers of Budget Cuts
15. Axing $249 Million in Federal Child Support Enforcement Funding Would Be Devastating to Michigan Children
16. Food Used by Schools as Incentive or Reward Adds to Students’ Waistlines, Study Finds
17. Australia’s Look at Poverty Among America’s Working Poor
18. Iowa: Cold Weather Reveals Growing Number of Homeless People
19. Virginia: A La Carte Foods Interfere With Efforts for Healthier Lunch Menus
20. Editorial: Colorado Counties Hired More Workers to Salvage Benefits Management System
21. Editorial: Minnesota Losing Leadership Position in Children’s Health Coverage

1. Budget-Cutting Reconciliation Bill Passes the House, Senate Poised to Take Action

In a pre-dawn vote on Monday, December 19th, the House, by a vote of 212 to 206, passed the Budget Reconciliation Conference bill. The Senate is currently debating the measure and a vote is expected shortly. Although the bill does not include any of the harsh food stamp cuts included in the original House version, it still contains many harmful cuts in Medicaid, child support, foster care, SSI, TANF, and student loans. The bill would harm families’ ability to make ends meet and would increase hunger and food insecurity among low-income people. For up-to-date information, go to the FRAC website, www.frac.org.

2. School Breakfast Served 7.5 Million Low-Income Children in 2005, After Biggest Annual Jump Since 1995

(FRAC 2005 School Breakfast Scorecard, frac.org, December 2005)

Participation in the nation's School Breakfast Program (SBP) rose by more than 378,000 low-income children from the 2003-2004 to the 2004-2005 school year, the largest increase since the 1994-1995 school year. A record 7.5 million children received free or reduced-price breakfasts each day, a 5.3 percent increase compared to the prior year. In 2004-2005, more than 4 out of 5 schools (81.1 percent) that offered school lunches also participated in school breakfasts, which set another record. Despite these gains, the program still reaches only about 2 out of 5 eligible children – 44 low-income children for every 100 who eat school lunch. If all states and the District of Columbia performed at the top level achieved by the three highest performing states (a ratio of 55 out of 100 low-income students), FRAC estimates that the program would feed 1.9 million additional low-income children and provide a total of $382 million each year in additional federal funds to schools across the nation. FRAC President James Weill said, “No child should have to start the school day hungry to learn, but unable to do so because of a hungry stomach. The states and schools that are leaving millions of hungry children behind need to act now. And this is the perfect time, since Congress has told them to address student wellness problems this coming year.”

http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/12.13.05.html (FRAC press release; see right-hand sidebar links for state press-releases)

http://www.frac.org/pdf/2005_SBP.pdf (FRAC 2005 School Breakfast Scorecard)

3. Only Two in Five Low-Income Children Who Need It Benefit from School Breakfast, FRAC Report Says

(“Report: More Children Get School Breakfast,” seattlepi.nwsource.com, December 13, 2005)

More children than ever are getting free or reduced-price breakfasts at school as more schools serve breakfast, according to a report released by the Food Research and Action Center. In New Jersey, a new law requires schools to provide breakfast if 20 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced-price school lunch. The law took effect last year for elementary schools and included secondary schools this year. Subsequently, in the 2004-2005 school year, New Jersey had the biggest increase in students eating school breakfasts, 39 percent growth to 114,387 children. Nationwide, more than 81 percent of schools participating in the lunch program were also in the breakfast program, up from 79.4 percent last year. Yet, the school breakfast program helps only two in five low-income children who need breakfast have a morning meal.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_School_Breakfast.html

2005 School Breakfast Scorecard (FRAC report)

4. USDA Denies Five States Ability to Adjust Food Stamps to Reflect Rising Heating Bills

(“Some May Face Choice: Whether to Heat or Eat,” usatoday.com, December 13, 2005)

The Bush administration has denied requests from Maine, New York, Kansas, Virginia and South Carolina to project what families will pay for heating bills and thereby increase food stamps for low-income families so they do not have to sacrifice nutrition to pay higher heating bills this winter. State officials and advocates for the poor worry that this decision will make it hard for needy families to afford both heat and food. Research shows that some poor families reduce food purchases when utility bills rise. Maine and New York plan to appeal the decision. It “forces some difficult circumstances on people who have marginal incomes,” said Russell Sykes, deputy commissioner of New York's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Barbara Van Burgel, acting director of Maine's Office of Integrated Access and Support, said families are expected to spend about $200 more this winter to heat their homes, “and they will have less food on the table.” The decision “will force people to choose between heat, medicine and food,” and will be particularly damaging to children, James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-13-heating-bills_x.htm?POE=click-refer

Also see http://www.frac.org/html/news/energy_paper05.html (FRAC analysis, “Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills”)

5. USDA News Release: Five States Receive $4 Million in Rural Transportation Grants for Summer Food Program

(“USDA Awards $4 Million in Rural Transportation Grants for the Summer Food Service program,” usda.gov, December 13, 2005)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded multi-year grants totaling $4 million to Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia “for innovative approaches in overcoming limited transportation resources in rural areas for the Summer Food Service Program.” Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner said, “Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation, yet of the 16 million children that utilize free and reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program, only three million of these children have access to these same meals during the summer months. These grants are designed to increase access to our Summer Food Service Program.” The 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act authorized USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to award grants to no more than five states for innovative strategies to overcome limited transportation resources in rural America. “Ensuring that all eligible individuals, families and especially our children have access to the nutrition assistance they need is a high priority for the Bush Administration,” said Conner. Eighteen school districts and 12 community-based organizations across the awarded states will provide transportation services for an estimated 265 sites as part of their summer food programs. Transportation will be provided to get children to existing meal sites and will be used to deliver food to new sites in remote rural areas. Children’s participation in summer meals is “especially critical in rural areas where the lack of transportation resources can be a significant obstacle that prevents participation.”

http://tinyurl.com/abjc9

6. Fifteeen Senate Republicans Sign Letter to Agriculture Chairman Chambliss Opposing Food Stamp Cuts

(Letter to Senate Agriculture Chairman Saxby Chambliss Opposing Cuts to Food Stamps in Budget Reconciliation Bill, frac.org, December 8, 2005)

Fifteen Senate Republicans wrote a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss opposing cuts to food stamps in the Budget Reconciliation bill. “We urge you to continue your strong leadership in protecting food stamps and reject the program cuts proposed by the House. Thanks to your leadership, the Senate Agriculture Committee was able to meet its reconciliation instruction from the Budget Committee with savings that do not adversely affect the millions of children, working parents, people with disabilities, the elderly, and others who rely on food stamps to help them secure an adequate diet. The House bill, by contrast, would make two permanent changes to the Food Stamp Program, for a total savings of nearly $700 million over the next five years. . . . The experience in the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes this fall also demonstrated how critically important and effective the Food Stamps Program is. The Food Stamp Program was one of the swiftest ‘first responders’ to the vast number of families that urgently needed help. In addition, both USDA and GAO have released data showing that the food stamp error rate has declined to the lowest point in the program’s history. Simply put, the program offers a great ‘bang for the buck.’ We appreciated your comments that ‘the food stamp program supports poor families trying to put food on the table, and also helps farmers by increasing the food purchasing power of those families. It is a win-win program for American agriculture.’ We . . . ask that the Senate insist on maintaining its position of not cutting the Food Stamp Program in the final budget reconciliation conference agreement,” reads the letter. The letter’s signatories include Senators Gordon Smith, Mike DeWine, Richard Lugar, Arlen Specter, Rick Santorum, Chuck Hagel, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chafee, Olympia Snowe, Norm Coleman, Elizabeth Dole, James Talent, Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and Mike Crapo.

http://www.frac.org/pdf/fsp_chambliss05.pdf

7. Sense of Senate Resolution Opposes Food Stamp Cuts in Budget Bill Negotiations

(“Fight Looming, Senators Oppose Food Stamp Cuts,” today.reuters.com, December 14, 2005)

Last Wednesday the Senate voted 66-26 to instruct its negotiators to insist on preserving the $700 million funding for food stamps that the House of Representatives wants to cut during a budget bill conference aimed to pass a compromise version of the bill before Congress adjourns for the year. The House would eliminate benefits from an estimated 235,000 people over five years. Food stamps help some 27.5 million Americans buy groceries. Enrollment was up by 1.5 million people in September in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, four states affected by Hurricane Katrina, according to the Food Research and Action Center. Rep. James Walsh ( R- NY) told Reuters it seemed as if House-Senate negotiators would abandon the House's food stamp cuts. Two congressional staff workers also confirmed that discussions were moving toward keeping food stamps intact.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=261115+14-Dec-2005+RTRS&srch=food+stamps+cuts

http://tinyurl.com/ey4oz (Senate roll call vote)

8. Religious Activists Protest Cuts in Programs for the Poor at Capitol Hill

(“’Christmas Scandal' Outcry,” chicagotribune.com, December 15, 2005)

Hundreds of religious activists protested cutting programs for needy Americans near the Capitol last Wednesday. Rev. Jim Wallis and 113 other protesters were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Wallis called the budget version from the House of Representatives “the Christmas scandal” and “an assault on low-income people, on poor families.” Assistance program cuts in Congress have angered many religious people who believe that helping the poor should be a lawmakers’ priority. “When our government stands before God Almighty, Jesus will say, I was hungry but you cut food stamps. I was thirsty but you cut Pell grants. When I needed surgery I was not part of your social class so I was denied access,” said Frederick Haynes, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church, a 10,000-member megachurch in Dallas. A Gallup poll conducted after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast showed that 75 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with the government's anti-poverty efforts. This dissatisfaction has been consistent throughout recent years: a similar poll four years earlier indicated that 71 percent of those polled felt the same way.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512150220dec15,1,3695231.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

9. Editorial: Congress’ Balancing Budget Is “Sham” and “Shame” for Low-Income Americans

(“GOP's Sham Budget Cuts,” recordonline.com, December 11, 2005)

“In the guise of cutting the deficit, congressional leaders have cut programs for the poor and passed tax cuts for the rich. For shame,” declares this editorial in the Times-Herald Record Middletown, New York. With the war in Iraq and Christmas shopping distracting most Americans’ attention, Congress privately is going through a budget approval process, passing social program cuts in the name of balancing the budget and two tax cut bills that would increase the deficit. “What's going on in the Capitol is a sham and an absolute shame for low- and middle-income Americans. . . . to slash funds for the neediest Americans while extending tax breaks for the wealthiest, in the guise of reducing the budget deficit, is not just fiscally irresponsible, it's dishonest and immoral.”

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/12/11/opinion-11decedit1-12-11.html
(registration required)

10. Catholic Groups Take Action to Persuade New Jersey Congressmen to Reject Budget

(“Catholic Groups Call for Budget Rejection,” nj.com, December 15, 2005)

Catholic groups, including the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have taken steps to influence several New Jersey Republican congressmen to vote against President Bush’s budget. The groups call the House of Representatives’ spending plan damaging to the poor, elderly and handicapped. “The Catholic tradition clearly says to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first, above all. It just seems in recent years we keep deepening the division between the rich and the poor,” said Tim Kautza, NCRLC spokesman. In New Jersey, the NCRLC has placed advertisements in the diocesan newspapers of five Republican lawmakers, urging their Catholic constituents to convince the lawmakers to oppose cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare. The ads say the cuts will strip 250,000 people, many of whom are children, of food assistance and will raise Medicaid co-payments making health services too expensive to use.

http://www.nj.com/news/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1134638127304730.xml&coll=8

11. Maine’s Congressional Delegation and State Officials Oppose Budget Cuts

(“Proposed Federal Welfare Cuts Imperil Mainers' Food Stamps,” bangornews.com, December 14, 2005)

Anna Hicks, with the Maine Equal Justice Project, said proposed congressional cuts in food stamps would have a “very dramatic” impact on poor families. In November, nearly 160,000 Mainers received food stamps. If all the House proposals are passed, about 16,000 (10 percent) of them would lose their benefits entirely, Hicks said. “These are people that need our help. If these [proposed cuts] go through as they were pushed through the House, some of these are just devastating. The entire Maine [Congressional] delegation opposed these cuts,” said Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democratic member of the House Agriculture Committee. Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins signed a letter to conference committee negotiators last week opposing the cuts. “The House food stamp provisions shift costs to the states and would complicate state administration,” they wrote. “This . . . would hamper states' efforts to move families from welfare to work by providing them with critical 'work supports' to help make ends meet.” Michaud pointed out that the reductions run contrary to a broader federal effort over the last few years to increase the use of food stamps to reduce hunger. “These changes would have a significant impact on families in Maine,” Barbara Van Burgel of the Maine Bureau of Family Independence said.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=125074

12. Iowa: Prayer Vigil to Protest Budget Cuts

(“Prayers Made to Protest Budget Cuts,” qctimes.net, December 15, 2005)

Members of faith and social action organizations prayed together at the building that houses the Social Security office in downtown Davenport last Wednesday to protest budget cuts that will affect low-income families. They presented anti-cut petitions to representatives from Sens. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley and Rep. Jim Nussle. “We wanted to bring awareness to the community about how horrible these budget cuts are,” said organizer Ollie Finn of Bettendorf. Rick Schloemer of Rapids City, Illinois, said, “The number of Americans who are food-insecure has been steadily rising over the past few years, and it’s critical that conferees reject any attempts to scale back food assistance that will make this problem even worse.”

http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/12/15/news/local/doc43a127bc47a4b264616055.txt

13. Iowa Advocates for Poor Ask Sen. Grassley to Preserve Medicaid and Food Stamps

(“Groups Ask Senator to Block Cuts to Medicaid and Food Stamps,” radioiowa.com, December 13, 2005)

A coalition of Iowa advocacy groups is calling on Sen. Chuck Grassley to continue defending Medicaid and food stamp programs from cuts. “Senator Grassley (will) have a pivotal role in the conference negotiations . . . we trust he will continue to protect food stamps and Medicaid as he did before,” says Matt Russell, co-chair of Iowa Human Needs Advocates, who is concerned that, by contrast with the Senate’s, the House of Representatives’ proposal “would harm low-income Iowa families in a very significant way.” Russell says Grassley has “stepped up” in the budget process to protect Medicaid beneficiaries and food stamp programs. Grassley says the Senate didn't follow President Bush's recommendation and chose to maintain funding to food stamps. Grassley is optimistic about preserving the programs and says, “I think we'll get it done.”

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=83258B97-3C8E-484B-951DC4C9242E7487

14. Op-Ed: Single Mothers Will Be Biggest Losers of Budget Cuts

(“Working Hard and Losing out,” nytimes.com, December 11, 2005)

For the last three years, low-income women have been growing their own vegetable garden on a small plot of land in North White Plains as a way to lower their food expenses as they return to work after escaping domestic violence or mental illness. Congressional budget actions may eliminate this innovative project, writes Sharon Lerner, a senior fellow at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, in The New York Times. “The loss of the little garden is probably the smallest of the many changes facing Americans if the House gets its way, but it's an apt metaphor for the cuts, which threaten to undermine both the independence and sustenance of thousands of poor New Yorkers.” More than one in 10 New Yorkers are hungry or at risk of hunger. Yet, Congress targets food stamps, Medicaid, and child support enforcement programs. Single mothers on welfare, according to the House’s budget plan, will need to work 40 hours instead of 30 per week with no additional money to pay for increasing child care needs. “Already facing long waiting lists, rising co-payments and stricter eligibility requirements in many New York counties, many parents would be forced by the inability to secure safe, affordable places to keep their children to give up their jobs, which would in turn swell the welfare rolls.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/opinion/nyregionopinions/11WElerner.html

15. Axing $249 Million in Federal Child Support Enforcement Funding Would Be Devastating to Michigan Children

(“Funding for Child Support at Risk,” freep.com, December 5, 2005)

Michigan’s child support enforcement system is in danger of losing $249 million in federal funding over the next five years. It would be damaging to the state’s children and could increase the number of children on public assistance. Calling the possible move “penny-wise and pound-foolish,” Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan is asking the public for help in persuading Michigan's 15 members of Congress to stop the proposed cuts. “It is under-resourced now and this is just going to be devastating,” she said. Corrigan was holding to hold a news conference, joined by Marianne Udow, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, and Susan Thorman, president of the state's Friend of the Court Association, to discuss the proposed legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved cuts that would reduce federal support for state employees who work to enforce court-ordered child support from 66 percent of administrative costs to 50 percent. This reduction would cause about $24 billion less to be collected in support for children over the next decade, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy. Rochelle Ponder, dean at a charter school in Detroit, is a single mother of three who is owed about $6,000 in child support from her children's father. “I think it's ridiculous,” Ponder said. “These systems were developed and put in place because people were not supporting their children. Of all systems to cut, this makes no sense.”

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/NEWS06/512050319/1001/NEWS

16. Food Used by Schools as Incentive or Reward Adds to Students’ Waistlines, Study Finds

(“Schoolwide Food Practices Are Associated With Body Mass Index in Middle School Students,” rchpedi.ama-assn.org, December 8, 2005)

For “Schoolwide Food Practices Are Associated With Body Mass Index in Middle School Students,” published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (Vol. 159, No. 12, December 2005), the authors interviewed school administrators about school food policies and practices used in school fundraising and in the classroom as incentives and rewards and collected self-reported data from 3,088 eighth-grade students about their heights and weights in 16 middle schools in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area. The study found that the most common food practices were the use of food as incentives and rewards (69 percent of schools) and for in-classroom fundraising (56 percent). Students’ body mass index increased 10 percent for every additional food-related practice allowed in their school. “Schoolwide food practices that supported frequent snacking and the consumption of foods and beverages high in calories and low in nutrients by students throughout the school day were common and adversely associated with body mass index . . . . Prevention of overweight in childhood must include attention to the nutrition integrity of schools, and school nutrition policies that consistently support and promote healthy dietary practices among young adolescents are urgently needed,” concluded the authors.

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/159/12/1111

17. Australia’s Look at Poverty Among America’s Working Poor

(“US Debates Causes of ‘Working Poor,’" abc.net.au, December 2, 2005)

“Even if Australia is heading down an American path, it would have to travel a long way to reach these levels of inequality,” concluded an Australian television program looking at the phenomenon of the working poor in the United States. The broadcast investigated American poverty in the light of concern about Australia’s adopting an American social welfare system. Chundra Brantley’s Texas family was shown as a typical poor American household where parents work, and yet the family cannot make ends meet. Chundra and her husband have college degrees, but the low-wage full-time job of Chundra’s husband does not pay enough even to buy food. Before they lost their home to Hurricane Rita and fled Texas, Chundra worked two jobs starting at 7:00 in the morning, finishing at 1:00 in the morning. “Chundra Brantley doesn't have enough money for reading glasses and sometimes skips meals because she can't pay the grocery bill.” Chundra is “pre-diabetic” and can go into coma if she does not get to eat on time. He husband says, “If you skip meals you can go into a coma, if I skip a meal, it's OK.” Similarly, “just minutes from the heart of the nation's capital, a charity is handing out food and clothing to people who can't buy their own,” the reporter announced. “Few of these officially poor men and women are homeless; many of them have jobs. Around one-third of America's poor are working full-time.” Not long ago President Bush vowed in New Orleans that his country would change, but fiscal conservatives “used the disaster to push for cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, moves that would hit the poor hardest.” Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute in the United States said, “One week later, we're looking at poor people dying because of an inept government response to a national disaster. The next week we're talking about cutting health services. So we've got a lot of work to do to get this debate back to some sort of humane level.”

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1521256.htm

18. Iowa: Cold Weather Reveals Growing Number of Homeless People

(“Homeless Fill Shelters During Coldest Days,” desmoinesregister.com, December 9, 2005)

Last month Carrie Wilson and her 2-year-old son were evicted from their apartment in Des Moines and started living in her truck, fighting fears of freezing to death or catching pneumonia. Wilson exemplifies the fastest-growing segment of people with no place to live – women and children. In this season of frigid temperatures, Des Moines is experiencing an influx of homeless persons seeking shelter. “This year is going to be a crisis year because of energy costs rising. There are so many people on the edge,” Lyle Schwery, homeless programs coordinator for the Iowa Council on Homelessness said. A soon-to-be-released study estimates 21,000 people were homeless in Iowa sometime during 2005. A 1999 study reported 18,592 homeless Iowans.

http://tinyurl.com/8eaev

19. Virginia: A La Carte Foods Interfere With Efforts for Healthier Lunch Menus

(“Sugar Over Substance,” washingtonpost.com, December 6, 2005)

In the cafeteria at an elementary school in Arlington, Virginia, the reporter watched most first-graders skip the chef salad and the carrot sticks offered on a regular school lunch menu and opt for bright packages of fruit snacks from the a la carte offerings. The snacks look like fruit, but have high sugar and corn syrup content. As many other schools, Arlington schools are struggling to find food that is both nutritious and appealing to students. Food sold as part of the school lunch program has to meet government nutrition requirements, but a la carte offerings do not have to comply. This is why it is possible for a student to have a lunch of a large cup of french fries and a sugary drink, or an ice-cream bar. When Abby Raphael, PTA president at Arlington Science Focus School, tells parents about what children have for lunch, “their jaws drop.” Last year, Congress passed a law requiring schools to develop a wellness policy on nutrition by July 2006. In Arlington, the School Board plans to form a parent, student and staff advisory committee on lunches and possibly to hire a nutrition consultant. But children’s eating habits are difficult to change even though the schools try to serve more fruits and vegetables, and small children, attracted by the bright appearance of front labels, are not yet ready to consult nutrition labels for making their food choices.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120502211.html

20. Editorial: Colorado Counties Hired More Workers to Salvage Benefits Management System

(“Counties the Heroes in State CBMS Mess,” denverpost.com, December 5, 2005)

Colorado’s “overpriced ($200 million) and under-performing” Benefits Management System (CBMS) is finally getting timely benefits to most needy people after its start fifteen months ago. This has become possible thanks to Colorado’s 64 county human services offices , whose employees have “worked themselves to exhaustion reducing case backlogs.” CBMS’s manager John Witwer reported that the backlog, which stood at 30,000 pending cases last December, had been trimmed to 3,711 by August. In part due to Hurricane Katrina leading to increases in applications for benefits, the backlog rose to 5,800 in October. Regrettably, the reduction in caseloads comes not from improving the system, but “from a brute force approach by counties that have added hundreds of new employees and paid large amounts of overtime to get the work done,” writes this editorial in The Denver Post. Streamlining Colorado’s benefits process “has a long way to go.” However, “improvements at the state level, though agonizingly slow in coming, are beginning to take hold.”

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3278750

21. Editorial: Minnesota Losing Leadership Position in Children’s Health Coverage

(“Covering Kids or Moving Backward?” startribune.com, December 11, 2005)

Between 1996 and 2004, remarkably, the “number of adults without health insurance went up and up, yet the number of uninsured children went down and down.” Equally remarkable, Minnesota went the other way in child coverage. A new study from Georgetown University showed the percentage of poor children without health insurance dropped 21 percent nationally, but in Minnesota it rose by 11 percent between 1996 and 2004. Minnesota remains slightly above average in providing health benefits to low-income children, but it went down from No. 7 to No. 22, now lagging states like Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Wyoming. This is explained by the “dramatic cuts in the state's health care system – chiefly Medical Assistance for poor families and MinnesotaCare for the working poor,” made by the governor and the Legislature trying to fix the state’s budget without raising taxes, argues the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. “Republicans argued that Minnesota was so far ahead of other states that they could squeeze and squeeze and still leave their state a leader. . . . When a state insures its children, it is insuring its future. It's time for Minnesota to stop thinking of these children as a liability and remember that they are an asset.”

http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5774080.html (registration required)

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

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