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The Weekly Food Research and Action Center 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. Previous editions of the Digest are available on FRAC’s website.
Issue #41, December 5, 2011
- Report Finds Spending on Food by Tens of Millions of Americans Drops to Unhealthy Level
- SNAP/Food Stamps Reaching 15 Percent of U.S. Population
- Idaho Sees SNAP/Food Stamp Numbers Rise Along with Unemployment
- Pediatric Clinic in Rhode Island Steers Patients to SNAP/Food Stamps and WIC
- SNAP/Food Stamp Challenges Continue in North Carolina
- Hawaii Improves SNAP/Food Stamp Application Process, Reducing Wait Time for Benefits
- Syracuse, New York Schools Receive Grant to Increase Breakfast Participation
- Improving New Jersey’s School Breakfast Participation Would Help Schools Financially
- Recession Forces Some Homeless Families in Florida to Live in Cars
- Report Forecasts Bleak Economic Picture for States
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1. Report Finds Spending on Food by Tens of Millions of Americans Drops to Unhealthy Level
(FRAC, December 8, 2011)
In A Tightening Squeeze: The Declining Expenditures on Food by American Households (pdf), FRAC analyzed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) annual reports that compare the amount of households’ median spending on food to the amount of the Thrifty Food Plan – the level the government defines as needed for a bare bones diet on an emergency basis, albeit a level that many experts consider to be inadequate for most families to obtain a healthy diet. The FRAC analysis found that:
Spending on food by the median household fell from 1.36 times the Thrifty Food Plan level in 2000 to 1.19 times that level in 2010.
By 2010 median spending on food by Black households and Hispanic households had fallen to the point where it was only a tiny bit above (101 percent for Black households) or was actually below (96 percent for Hispanic households) the bare bones Thrifty level.
Spending by households with incomes less than 185 percent of the poverty level fell from 106 percent of the thrifty level in 2000 to 95 percent in 2010.
“In short, tens of millions of households are failing to attain an adequate standard for food purchasing,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “When families don’t have enough resources to purchase an adequate diet, it leads to increased hunger and damages health, mental health, family cohesion, early child development, learning, and productivity at work. Today’s inability to afford enough food will lead to widespread harm to the nation’s children and adults, its schools and its workplaces, and its economy unless this trend is reversed.”
2. SNAP/Food Stamps Reaching 15 Percent of U.S. Population
(The Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2011; FRAC, December 6, 2011)
In September, SNAP/Food Stamp participation reached nearly 46.3 million recipients, or 15 percent of the population. Eleven states* received disaster SNAP/Food Stamp assistance tied to Hurricane Irene, which raised the SNAP/Food Stamp participation numbers. However, a number of states not receiving disaster aid had 10 percent increases in participation over the past year; one in five residents in New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Louisiana were receiving SNAP/Food Stamps; and Mississippi had the largest share of population receiving the benefit - more than 21 percent.
*Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.
3. Idaho Sees SNAP/Food Stamp Numbers Rise Along with Unemployment
(NBC Rock Center, November 28, 2011)
Idaho SNAP/Food Stamp families are showing up at midnight at Walmarts in order to restock their kitchens, which are almost empty at the end of each month. “Two years ago, we were at just 2 percent unemployment,” said Kathy Gardner, director of Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force. “Our food stamp participation rate was one of the lowest in the nation…because only 55 percent, a little over half of the Idahoans that were eligible and needed food stamps were participating.” As unemployment shot up to 9.1 percent, SNAP/Food Stamp participation increased 15 percent. Professionals without jobs and struggling financially have joined the chronically poor as SNAP/Food Stamp recipients. “We know that Idahoans are in a desperate situation. They are watering down baby formula. Parents are cutting back on what they’re eating so that their children can have food,” said Gardner. “We know that families are getting up in the middle of the night to get to the store.” Walmarts are adding extra staff to handle the extra shoppers. “We…make sure all of our registers…are open,” said Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development. “Some people may think that at 12:01, Walmart’s very quiet, but in a lot of areas of the country, 12:01 is a big day or a big night for us, actually.”
4. Pediatric Clinic in Rhode Island Steers Patients to SNAP/Food Stamps and WIC
(Gant Daily, November 22, 2011)
The pediatric clinic at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been directing hungry families to the SNAP/Food Stamp and WIC Programs, spurred by data released in September by medical center officials showing household food insecurity among young children at the hospital increased to 41 percent in 2010, from 29 percent in 2009. Children without adequate nutrition for a prolonged time could develop iron-deficiency anemia or experience developmental delays, noted Children’s HealthWatch, and children in food insecure households are more likely to be in fair or poor health.
5. SNAP/Food Stamp Challenges Continue in North Carolina
(Appalachian Online, November 29, 2011)
About 30 Appalachian State University students in North Carolina participated in the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge, living off $21 for a week’s worth of groceries - $4.50 a day - which approximates the SNAP/Food Stamp weekly benefit amount. “My hope is that through taking the challenge, even just taking the week out of your life, that we would look upon people with compassion and without judgment and connect with them on a more human level,” said senior Caroline Graebe. “I went to make food and I realized I didn’t have any more money left on my $4.50 and I was extremely disturbed by it.” Georgia Bowen, a senior student with a family of four who receives SNAP/Food Stamps, sometimes eats only one meal a day so that there’s more food for her children. “To see students willing to try and put themselves in other people’s shoes and to have that bit of empathy is amazing,” said Bowen. “It’s beautiful and it’s inspiring to us that people do care.”
6. Hawaii Improves SNAP/Food Stamp Application Process, Reducing Wait Time for Benefits
(Maui Now, December 6, 2011)
Hawaii’s Department of Human Services saw its SNAP/Food Stamp caseload increase 11 percent over the past year, but reduced staffing, a hiring freeze and reduction in force initiatives over the past few years caused a backlog of applications. DHS recently launched the Business Processing Re-Engineering Project (BPRP) on Maui in order to reduce the backlog and get SNAP/Food Stamp benefits to applicants quicker. Instead of one caseworker handling an entire application, SNAP/Food Stamp applications are now handled by several workers assigned to stages in the process – Intake, Interviewing, Pending, Processing and Maintenance. Since BPRP’s launch in November, Maui’s DHS office reports that 78 percent of SNAP/Food Stamp, cash and Medicaid applications are being processed on a “same-day” basis. “The application process is much quicker under the new system,” said Maui eligibility worker Aranda Kahaialii, in a written statement. “If applicants have all their required paperwork in order at the Income Maintenance Office, they should be able to complete the application the same day they apply.”
7. Syracuse, New York Schools Receive Grant to Increase Breakfast Participation
(Syracuse.com, November 30, 2011)
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) recently awarded the Syracuse, New York school district a grant of $400,000 (funds provided by the Walmart Foundation) to increase school breakfast participation, part of AASA’s national campaign to get more students eating free breakfast. While the school district has offered free breakfast to all students for 16 years, the grant will enable high school students to receive grab-and-go breakfast bags instead of eating in the cafeteria, and elementary school students will be able to eat breakfast in the classroom. Grab-and-go breakfast and breakfast in the classroom, noted Cindy Bonura Sturgeon, the district’s director of food and nutritional services, are national models shown to improve school breakfast participation. The district has a high poverty rate, with 75 percent of students eligible for free school lunch and seven percent eligible for reduced-price lunch. Three additional school districts are receiving grants (Riverside, California, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Brentwood, New York) out of the 16 districts invited to submit applications.
8. Improving New Jersey’s School Breakfast Participation Would Help Schools Financially
(Edison Sentinel, December 7, 2011)
Advocates for Children of New Jersey's "Food for Thought School Breakfast Campaign" found that only 1 percent (16 students) of Middlesex County's 2,299 students eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast actually received the benefit. Edison Public Schools in New Jersey would receive $687,334 if their school breakfast participation reached 100 percent of eligible students. The district has begun expanding school breakfast to increase participation, offering free breakfast in the classroom to all students receiving free or reduced-price breakfast in Benjamin Franklin and Lindeneau elementary schools. Herbert Hoover and Thomas Jefferson middle schools will join the breakfast expansion in January.
9. Recession Forces Some Homeless Families in Florida to Live in Cars
(CBS News, November 27, 2011)
One-third of America’s homeless families are in Florida, and two-thirds of those families are living on the street. Some of the homeless families in Central Florida are living in their cars, victims of the collapse of the state’s construction industry and the recession’s high unemployment rate. The Metzger family has been living out of their truck for about five months, and Tom Metzger continues to look for carpentry work. Correspondents met 15 students at Casselberry School in Seminole County who had been living in cars. “We were really scared,” said student Marquis Gines. “So…we would stay up all night sometimes and watch over my mom and keep her safe.” The Coates family found the best places to park the car they lived in were some Walmart lots (depending on the manager), near YMCAs, and outside hospital emergency rooms, as those areas provided lighting and security. To keep from being idle, the Metzgers would drive their truck to libraries, where the kids could use computers and study. Education “is everything to us,” said Arielle Metzger. “I plan to be a child defense lawyer. If I focus on my studies, I have that opportunity.” Now that she’s been homeless, she wants to help those other homeless people she used to see before the family lived in their car.
10. Report Forecasts Bleak Economic Picture for States
(The Washington Post, November 29, 2011)
A report released by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) forecasts a bleak fiscal situation for states, although there has been improvement since the worst of the recession. The economic stress of continued high unemployment will force states to spend more while they struggle with weak revenue growth. “[T]here is not enough money for all the bills coming in,” said Scott Pattison, NASBO executive director. “State officials will still be cutting some programs, and increases in funding for any program except for health care will be rare.” While the private sector job market has improved somewhat, 455,000 state and local government jobs have been lost since the start of 2010. Since the 2008 financial crisis, public sector jobs have accounted for the smallest share of employment in the U.S. “Local governments are still seeing declines in their revenues, because even if property values have stabilized, property taxes tend to follow a couple of years behind,” said Dan Crippen, NGA’s executive director.
Thanks so much. I have a hectic life, but am so blessed. Cooking is my creative outlet
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