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.

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1. Op-Ed: “Call Hunger in America … Hunger, Not Very Low Food Security”
2. One in 20 Hispanics Regularly Goes Hungry, Study Says
3. Heat or Eat Dilemma Becomes Problem for Poor Households
4. Report Outlines Key Characteristics of Local Wellness Policies in Schools
5. Op-Ed: Both Parties Should Embrace Spirit of Innovation and Responsibility for Programs Helping Low-Income Americans
6. Affordable Housing Is Unaffordable to Minimum Wage Workers, Study Finds
7. Oklahoma: Rural Families Struggle with Poverty and Hunger
8. New York City and State Officials Will Pay Millions of Dollars in Retroactive Food Stamp Benefits Improperly Denied to Disabled Clients
9. Florida: Low-Income Families Suffer from Public Assistance Backlog
10. Illinois: Chicago’s Need for Emergency Food Soars 18 Percent This Year
11. Editorial – California: Hunger Task Force Helps Reduce Hunger in San Joaquin County
12. Arizona Pushes for More Participation in School Breakfast
13. Illinois Reports on Successes of State’s WIC Program
14. Kentucky: Rigid Rules for Getting Food Assistance to Low-Income Children in Day Care Drive Many Operators out of Program
15. Editorial: North Carolina Legislators Will Work to Enact Tax Credit for State’s Poor

1. Op-Ed: “Call Hunger in America … Hunger, Not Very Low Food Security”

(“My Turn: Yes, There Is Still Hunger in America,” burlingtonfreepress.com, December 21, 2006)

Just before the holiday season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture eliminated the word “hunger” from the terms used in an annual report on hunger and food insecurity statistics to Congress, write Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, and Robert Dostis, a registered dietitian, executive director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and a state representative in the Burlington Free Press, Vt. “This way of making ‘hunger’ disappear, unfortunately, does not reflect any change in the actual lives of the hungry – the seniors, parents working at low-wage jobs, disabled persons, children and others forced on a regular basis to skip meals, make the rounds of food pantries, or substitute cheap, low-quality foods for healthier foods. Now, suddenly, these people suffer only from ‘very low food insecurity,’” write Dostis and Weill. This “whitewashing” of language reflects a long-term trend in Washington of insufficient commitment to the issue of hunger and malnutrition in Vermont and nationwide. Hunger is solvable, and strengthening federal nutrition programs like food stamps, school meals, summer meals, and child and adult care meals is the best way to solve it, point out the authors. “Congress now has an opportunity to right the wrongs of a decade of turning its back on the hungry. It’s time for Congress to call hunger in America what it is: hunger, not very low food security” and to “fully support a strengthening of the Food Stamp Program in the 2007 congressional reauthorization of the Farm Bill.”

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612210323

2. One in 20 Hispanics Regularly Goes Hungry, Study Says

(“Study Warns of Hunger Among Hispanics,” washingtonpost.com, December 20, 2006)

Nearly one in five Hispanics lacks sufficient access to nutritious food and one in 20 regularly goes hungry, according to a new study by the National Council of La Raza. Poverty is the main factor that contributes to the problem. About 22 percent of Latinos are poor, compared to 25 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 8 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Many Latinos, 40 percent of whom are foreign-born, face linguistic, cultural and legal barriers to enrolling in food assistance programs. Slightly more than half of eligible Latinos participate in the Food Stamp Program. The program’s complex requirements and paperwork are daunting to many immigrant Latinos. In comparison, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children has a simpler enrollment process and a high rate of Latino participation. Study co-author Jennifer Ng’andu said government food programs need to undertake an aggressive outreach in the Latino community and train their staff to better understand the eligibility rules affecting immigrants.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901318.html

Also see http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/43410/ (report, “Sin Provecho: Latinos and Food Insecurity”)

3. Heat or Eat Dilemma Becomes Problem for Poor Households

(“U.S.: More Families to Face ‘Heat or Eat’ Choice This Winter,” infoshop.org, December 15, 2006)

Over the next few months, many poor households will be facing the “heat or eat” dilemma, illustrating the challenge of meeting one basic need by suppressing another. Social service organizations say the home-heating crunch is due to an overlap of fluctuating energy markets, intensifying economic hardships among the working poor, and a disintegrating safety net. Deborah Flateman of Vermont Foodbank said, Vermont’s rural terrain, combined with the bitter cold, “just adds a very heavy layer of responsibility that drains families’ resources. And for this reason, we see more people – and especially more working people – coming to food shelters [and] soup kitchens.” The U.S. Department of Energy forecasts that a typical household will pay roughly $940 for heating home from October through March, which is well above the $700 annual average from the previous five years. Meanwhile, Congress proposed $2.1 billion for LIHEAP, the federal Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program, for fiscal year 2007, a $1 billion decrease from 2006, and about $3 billion short of what state energy assistance directors said was needed to cover growing need. Mark Wolfe of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association pointed out that skewed policy priorities in Washington are relegating communities to unsustainable energy costs.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20061218105357385

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

4. Report Outlines Key Characteristics of Local Wellness Policies in Schools

(“School Wellness Policies Provide Foundation for Healthy School Environments,” marketwire.com, December 18, 2006)

School boards nationwide have approved student wellness policies that include such key characteristics as more nutrition education, mandatory recess and additional nutrition standards for foods and beverages available outside the school cafeteria, according to “A Foundation for the Future II,” a new study by the School Nutrition Association (SNA). SNA analyzed the local wellness policies approved by 140 school districts in 49 states. It found that 98.6 percent of schools address school meal nutrition standards set by the government for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs; that 88.6 percent address nutrition standards for a la carte foods and beverages; and that 87 percent address the standards for food and beverage offerings in vending machines. Moreover, wellness policies of 69 percent of schools set up nutrition standards or guidelines for fundraisers held during school hours. The majority of schools (65.7 percent) do the same for classroom celebrations or parties as well as for teachers using foods as rewards in the classroom (55 percent). This report follows the October release of “A Foundation for the Future,” an SNA analysis of the school wellness policies for the 100 largest school districts by enrollment.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=196066

Also see http://tinyurl.com/ymrs5h (report, “A Foundation for the Future II”)

Also see http://tinyurl.com/y5rrzm (report, “A Foundation for the Future”)

5. Op-Ed: Both Parties Should Embrace Spirit of Innovation and Responsibility for Programs Helping Low-Income Americans

(“Bloomberg’s Brave Bet on Innovation,” washingtonpost.com, December 22, 2006)

Last week, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new initiative to fight poverty. It will include a Center for Economic Opportunity, an Office of Financial Empowerment to educate and protect low-income workers, and $150 million annually in incentives for the poor to stay in school, save money and get preventive medical care, writes Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. The mayor’s intention to use $25 million raised privately will allow these new programs room for innovation that the government often lacks. “When you do things with public money, you really are required to do things that have some proven track record and to focus on more conventional approaches,” said Bloomberg. “But conventional approaches … have kept us in this vicious cycle … of too many people not being able to work themselves out of poverty,” the mayor stressed. He also said that he would “carefully monitor these new programs and hold them accountable for producing results … . And if we find that a certain program isn’t making the grade, we will terminate its funding.” The importance of Bloomberg’s initiative should not be exaggerated, argues Dionne. According to Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, the initiative will spend “only about $125 per person for the approximately 1.8 million New Yorkers living below the meager federal poverty line.” However, “both parties would do well to embrace the spirit of Bloomberg’s initiative,” contends Dionne. Republicans need to recognize that the new economy and growing inequality are leaving millions of Americans behind, and the Democrats “need to show they are under no illusions that all government programs work splendidly,” concludes Dionne.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/21/AR2006122101274.html

6. Affordable Housing Is Unaffordable to Minimum Wage Workers, Study Finds

(“Study: Affordable Housing out of Reach for Many Low-Wage Workers,” usatoday.com, December 12, 2006)

Affordable one or two-bedroom rental housing remains beyond the means of most low-income Americans with full-time jobs paying the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in its annual “Out of Reach” report. The report calls affordable those rentals that take 30 percent or less of a worker’s income. An average worker would need to earn more than $16.31 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental in the District of Columbia and 14 states, mostly in the Northeast. Rep. Barney Frank, incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the new Democratic majority in Congress would work “to get the federal government back in the business of preserving and building affordable housing.” Frank said one priority is creating a national affordable housing trust fund. The creation of such fund could spur construction of up to 1.5 million new units, according to Sheila Crowley of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. When a low-income worker spends more than 30 percent of earnings on housing, Crowley said, “you have to make adjustments – none of them good.” Food, child care and other basics are likely to be cut, Crowley pointed out.

http://tinyurl.com/sgqux

Also see http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2006/ (report, “Out of Reach 2006”)

7. Oklahoma: Rural Families Struggle with Poverty and Hunger

(“Rural Areas Fight Hunger,” tulsaworld.com, December 18, 2006)

Rural Oklahoma historically has been the hardest hit during economic downturns. Advocates now are looking to see if this is contributing to the state’s top national ranking in hunger. “The whole idea of people going hungry in rural Oklahoma is counter to the cattle in the fields and food being grown nearby,” said Maura McDermott of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Many rural families do not have transportation, and public transportation is nonexistent. The lack of grocery stores only adds to the hardships of poverty. Delaware County provides an example. Its poverty rate is 17 percent, about 13 percent of families are using food stamps, and on average 72 percent of students qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch at school. Despite such pronounced need, only two food pantries are open in the county. “We lack jobs that Tulsa and Oklahoma City have,” said Anna Shaw of the Christian HELP food pantry in Grove. “In a lot of our cases, both parents are working and trying to raise three or more kids. . . . But they aren’t getting the work and jobs it takes to support themselves.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=061218_Ne_A1_Rural2207

8. New York City and State Officials Will Pay Millions of Dollars in Retroactive Food Stamp Benefits Improperly Denied to Disabled Clients

(“City and State Agree to Pay Aid Withheld in Welfare Shift,” nytimes.com, December 19, 2006)

New York City and state officials agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit by disabled New Yorkers who were improperly denied their food stamp benefits when they were transferred from welfare to the federal disability rolls. The lawsuit has its roots in the 1996 welfare policy changes. With the new time limits for welfare benefits, the city and state transferred clients, who were unable to work, to the federal Social Security disability program. During the transfer, many disabled welfare clients were automatically cut off from food stamps, while the law allowed them to receive both benefits. The city and state will distribute at least $4.3 million in retroactive food stamp payments. Back in 2002, when the Urban Justice Center filed the lawsuit, city and state officials admitted that automatic cutoffs should be prevented. But, both parties to the lawsuit have struggled with how to efficiently restore benefits to those who lost them. The city and state have resisted calculating the benefits owed to every individual, saying it would be too expensive and time-consuming and even burdensome for the people served by the program. The current proposal calls for restoring food stamps using standard amounts for certain categories of clients. The U.S. Department of Agriculture needs to approve the settlement.

http://tinyurl.com/y6etzx

9. Florida: Low-Income Families Suffer from Public Assistance Backlog

(“Struggling Family Not Alone in Public Assistance Backlog,” news-journalonline.com, December 18, 2006)

For the Cates family from Port Orange, Fla., this year has been a year of financial and health woes. Jennifer and Louis Cates were without jobs for months, have more than $40,000 in hospital bills, had no electricity for two days and no hot water for five months. In addition to these problems, the family lived without food stamps for two months, falling victims to a backlog of cases in the Florida’s Department of Children and Families. About 900 cases are pending in local welfare offices, which close daily at 2 p.m. so workers can process more than 400 applications a day, including almost 200 new applications daily. The backlog involves more than 600 households that could be applying for more than one assistance program. Some of the local offices lost staffers in September and October on top of the state cutting 20 local positions in the last fiscal year. Social workers reported about being overwhelmed and overworked. “We’re doing everything in our power to rectify the situation,” said Lotta Mapp, local DCF spokeswoman. The backlog has strained resources of area churches and food banks, seeing more people seeking food, help with electric bills, prescriptions and rent.

http://tinyurl.com/y2mta4

10. Illinois: Chicago’s Need for Emergency Food Soars 18 Percent This Year

(“Demand Puts Strain on Pantries,” chicagotribune.com, December 15, 2006)

The Chicago Anti-Hunger Foundation, which runs 170 food pantries and shelters in the Chicago area, reports a 18 percent increase in requests for food assistance this year. Requests for emergency food from families with children are up 20 percent and requests from seniors have increased by 9 percent. “It’s a crisis,” said executive director Dan Gibbons. “When a mom looks into her pantry and sees that there is not enough food for her family of four, that’s a crisis,” he added. The group pointed out to increasing difficulties securing healthy and nutritious food for vulnerable populations. The group said rising housing costs and stagnant paychecks affect Chicagoans’ ability to secure adequate food, placing greater demand on food pantries. “It really goes back to that fact that people are just simply not making enough money to feed their kids,” said Amy Runnel of the Heartland Alliance. One in five Chicago residents lives in poverty, which is nearly 21 percent of the population, compared with 11.9 percent for the state, according to the 2006 Report on Illinois Poverty.

http://tinyurl.com/yyqne3

Also see www.heartlandalliance.org/creatingchange/documents/Povertyreport2006lr.pdf (2006 Report on Illinois Poverty)

11. Editorial – California: Hunger Task Force Helps Reduce Hunger in San Joaquin County

(“Starving the Ravages of Hunger,” recordnet.com, December 20, 2006)

“There is no excuse for not reducing hunger. We live in the midst of agricultural bounty,” writes this editorial from Stockton, Calif. One-third of the residents in San Joaquin County, Calif., are not sure where their next meal will come from. According to an annual survey by the University of California, 203,175 county residents are food insecure. The San Joaquin Valley is one of the hungriest regions in California. Local leaders created the Hunger Task Force of San Joaquin County, which came up with eight recommendations to reduce hunger. One of them includes shared funding of a liaison official who will coordinate human service efforts and keep the issue in the public eye.

http://tinyurl.com/y3qbtu

12. Arizona Pushes for More Participation in School Breakfast

(“Push Is on to Give More Kids Free Breakfast at Their Schools,” azstarnet.com, December 18, 2006)

Arizona is one of three states, with Louisiana and Hawaii, experiencing a declining number of low-income students taking advantage of free or reduced-price breakfasts at school, according to a new report by the Food Research and Action Center. In the 2004-05 school year, 40.9 percent of Arizona students eligible for subsidized breakfast actually received it, but the next school year, only 39.8 percent did. Arizona Department of Education data show that about half of the state’s students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. The Arizona Board of Education mandated new nutrition guidelines for schools, and state officials are devising new strategies to make more children to participate in school breakfast programs. Offering free breakfast for all students is a key way to increase participation numbers at schools with high percentages of low-income children, said Madeleine Levin, co-author of the report. “If it’s offered to all kids at no charge, it takes away the stigma that’s associated with [subsidized] breakfast,” she said. Low-income students “will see that breakfast is for everybody, not just those who can’t afford it.” State education departments and legislators are key to making that happen, Levin said. “We should be able to get breakfast to every kid,” said Levin.

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/160809

Also see http://www.frac.org/pdf/2006_SBP.pdf (FRAC report, “School Breakfast Scorecard 2006”)

13. Illinois Reports on Successes of State’s WIC Program

(“Study Shows Sustained Health Benefits from IDHS Programs,” cantondailyledger.com, December 18, 2006)

The Illinois Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Family Case Management programs are effective in reducing premature births, low birth weight, infant mortality and health care costs during the first year of life. A new study by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) shows that in 2004 the infants born to program participants were 62 percent less likely to be born prematurely, 38 percent less likely to have a low birth weight and had 33 percent lower health care expenses during the first year of life. The mortality rate among infants born to program participants was 63 percent lower than the rate among infants born to non-participating low-income mothers. “These results underscore the benefits of preventive health care and good nutrition during pregnancy,” commented IDHS Secretary Carl L. Adams. “We are focused on reaching the women who do not engage in the WIC and Family Case Management programs so that they too realize the benefits of participation in these programs.” “Studies in Illinois and across the nation have demonstrated the importance of good nutrition for women before, during, and after pregnancy and for promoting the healthy growth and development of children,” stressed Penny Roth, bureau chief for Family Nutrition. More than 40 percent of newborns in Illinois participate in WIC.

http://www.cantondailyledger.com/articles/2006/12/18/news/news04.txt

14. Kentucky: Rigid Rules for Getting Food Assistance to Low-Income Children in Day Care Drive Many Operators out of Program

(“Fed Up with Food Rules,” courier-journal.com, December 18, 2006)

Kentucky day care directors and child advocates criticize increasingly complex and rigid regulations from the state agency that administers food program funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Phyllis Brown, the owner of Ujamaa Learning Center in Louisville, said she dropped out of the program even though most of her children qualify for assistance. “You had to document every penny, every nickel, every dime, every ounce of food. It was just too much to monitor,” she explained. Community Coordinated Child Care, or 4Cs, a nonprofit that used to do required paperwork for a nominal fee for many Louisville area day care centers, stopped handling the claims after a new state rule made it responsible for any mistakes in centers’ food assistance claims. Previously, the individual centers would have been held accountable for any mistakes. At least 20 day care operators left the program after that. State officials say they are trying to meet federal requirements to ensure money is spent properly and expenses are documented. But some child advocates say the program has diverted from the main goal, to ensure that poor children get nutritious meals. There are instances where Kentucky’s program goes beyond federal requirements, they point out. The state’s insistence this year that all participating centers file claims by computer prompted some criticism from federal authorities. Another rule prevents operators from serving the same meal for lunch and dinner, even though most of children do not stay in day care long enough to eat dinner, and those who stay come after lunch. Diane Zwick of Ashland Child Development said her centers put up with the rules because they need the food subsidy to stay in business. Children attending those centers often are from very poor, food insecure families. “They don’t eat if they don’t come to us,” Zwick said.

http://tinyurl.com/tcwqy

15. Editorial: North Carolina Legislators Will Work to Enact Tax Credit for State’s Poor

(“Credit Due,” newsobserver.com, December 15, 2006)

“Good news for North Carolina’s low-wage workers: A push is on for a state version of the successful earned income tax credit,” writes this editorial in The News & Observer, N.C. State Rep. William Wainwright and Sen. David Hoyle are planning to re-introduce legislation to create a state earned income tax credit set at 5 percent of the federal credit. “If the bill passed, North Carolina would join 18 other states and the District of Columbia in providing the working poor with this incentive, which benefits people whose wages keep them on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder,” the newspaper writes. Advocates for low-income people say the credit has become one of the nation’s most effective anti-poverty programs because it directly benefits the working poor by refunding them part of the money they earn. “The credit can be a needed safety net for families on the financial edge,” the newspaper states. “If the middle class is just making do, low-wage workers are struggling. So a new push … to create a state earned income tax credit comes at a good time.”

http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/521479.html