Sponsors Needed for 2014 Conference!

Excited for Conference?  So are we!  Help make it happen by becoming a sponsor or recommending an organization you think we should talk to!  Please see our sponsorship options below and  

Contact: info@wafoodcoalition.org for more information.

Feinstein Challenge Raffle

Do you share our vision of a hunger-free Washington? Do you like free prizes? If the answer is yes to either question, consider a gift to the Washington Food Coalition today!

For the past 17 years, the Feinstein Foundation has given away $1 million a year to hunger-relief agencies throughout the country participating in its Million Dollar Challenge. For every donation we receive in April, the Feinstein Foundation will stretch the value of your gift. Attached is a letter from Alan Feinstein, which explains how this challenge works and why the fight against hunger matters.

Now through April 30, with every $10 donation, you increase your chances of winning a prize package consisting of 1 t-shirt, 1 water tumbler, and 2 boxes of your favorite KIND bars (valued over $60). Purchase your raffle tickets or call (206) 729-0501 today for more information about ways to support us in April!

This just in from Washington State Grange News

Pierce the Elk calls for Granges to donate to 

their local food banks

National Grange Herd member Willy the Sheep has challenged each state Grange to choose a fundraiser or charity recipient for all their Granges to give to this year. Washington State Grange herd member Pierce the Elk has taken the lead for his Granges and decided on a worthy recipient for our membership’s charity recipient.

Pierce’s challenge for the Washington State Grange and all community, Pomona and Junior Granges for 2014 is to give to their local food bank. Pierce encourages every Grange to consider giving in one or all of three ways to their local food bank:

     

     1. Contribute financially.

     2. Grow and/or glean and donate fresh produce.

     3. Volunteer time.

Keep track of the money your Grange donates, the pounds of fresh produce your Grange donates and the volunteer hours your Grange donates in 2014 to your local food bank. Keep track on a quarterly basis and send Pierce the Elk an email with your donation numbers to pierce@grange.org. We’ll post the quarterly totals in the Grange News.

Another idea would be to initiate a food drive for the food bank. Or challenge another Grange or another Pomona to see who can collect more food or volunteer more time. Pierce challenges every Grange to make it a goal to actively participate in this challenge in all four quarters of the year. Involve neighbors, co-workers and non-members. Have fun!

http://www.wa-grange.org

FRAC Statement: Ryan Budget Recycles Failed Proposals for SNAP

FRAC Statement: Ryan Budget Recycles Failed Proposals for SNAP Statement attributable to FRAC President Jim Weill. Washington, D.C. – April 1, 2014 – Sadly, it’s not an April Fool’s Joke. Today, April 1, for the fourth time in as many years, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has released a budget that slashes deeply the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other low-income programs. He recycles the failed idea of converting SNAP into a block grant, adds the failed attempt to remove low-income seniors and working families from SNAP by ending the state option known as categorical eligibility, and pledges to end the program that links SNAP with energy payments to low-income people. Ryan has opted to perpetuate myths rather than look at SNAP and how it’s helped millions of people navigate challenging economic times by providing essential food assistance. Here are the facts: First, SNAP reaches the neediest and most vulnerable people in our country, including seniors, children, people with disabilities, unemployed and low-income workers, veterans, and low-paid enlisted active duty military families. About 72 percent of SNAP recipients live in households with children. More than one-quarter live in households with seniors or people with disabilities.  82 percent of all benefits go to households with a child, senior, or person with disabilities. More than $98 million in SNAP benefits were redeemed at military commissaries during Fiscal Year 2012. Half of all new SNAP participants receive benefits for 10 months or less and 74 percent of participants leave the program entirely within two years. The share of SNAP households that work has risen steadily. Over the last decade, the number of households that were working, albeit at typically low wages, while receiving SNAP more than tripled. More than half of SNAP households with at least one working-age, non-disabled adult work while receiving SNAP. This rate is even higher for families with children — more than 60 percent work while receiving SNAP.   Nationally, SNAP lifted 4.9 million people out of poverty in 2012. It’s time for Rep. Ryan and others concerned with the budget to stop asking how much to cut from SNAP, and start asking what is going to help struggling families across this nation and thereby reduce long-term health and other costs. Making benefits more adequate is a start – people can afford healthier food when they have more resources. The SNAP benefit now averages only $1.40 per person per meal and on average, households have less than a quarter of their benefits remaining by the middle of the month. That was true even before across-the-board SNAP benefit cuts affecting more than 47 million people were made in November 2013, as well as additional cuts made by the recently passed Farm Bill. Spending time on old and failed ideas does nothing to advance the fight to end hunger and poverty in this country, and Congress should – as it has in the past – reject this callous budget. Contact: Jennifer Adach, jadach@frac.org, 202.640.1118

Fight Hunger with Washington Food Coalition this April

Alan Shawn Feinstein, founder of the Feinstein Foundation

For the past 17 years, the Feinstein Foundation has given away $1 million a year to hunger-relief agencies throughout the country participating in its Million Dollar Challenge. This year, will you consider a special gift to the Washington Food Coalition to forward our vision of a hunger-free Washington?

For every donation we receive in April, the Feinstein Foundation will stretch the value of your gift. Attached is a letter from Alan Feinstein, which explains how this challenge works and why the fight against hunger matters.

Last month, we were excited to announce a major victory for all of us - the legislator passing the Supplemental Operating Budget, which included an additional $800,000 for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP). In recent years, limited state funding for food banks has failed to keep up with the rising number of clients turning to them to make ends meet. During the 2014 Legislative Session, our coalition championed the legislative request for additional funding for the EFAP program to better serve hungry Washingtonians, and we got it!

We are so proud of the work our coalition every day, but this remarkable occasion reiterated for us the importance of a unified voice for a strong emergency food system. We are 300+ food banks, emergency meal providers, distribution centers, social services agencies and growers, striving to find practical solutions to common challenges in our everyday work. Consider a gift to Washington Food Coalition today to equip, educate and empower everyone working to end hunger in our state. In the fight against hunger, we still need help.

Warm Regards,

Sariga Santhosh,

Development Assistant

Advocacy Update: Advocacy Champions Role in our EFAP ask

This year we tried something new for the legislative session: Advocacy Champions!  Each WFC district had an extra representative to help leverage our impact across the state. These Advocacy Champions played an essential role in this year's EFAP legislative ask.  As you may know, we were successful in securing $800,000 in additional EFAP funding for the next budget year.  Although we were unable to get the full $1 million funded, this is still a big win for emergency food programs across Washington State.  

Advocacy Champions helped:

• Share ideas and spread information through weekly advocacy update calls
• Provide testimonials at House and Senate budget hearings to make the voice of emergency food programs heard
• Boost Hunger Action Day attendance and legislative reach
• Spread local awareness through Op-Ed's and advertising our Community Sigh-On Letter
• Reach individual legislators through emails, phone calls, and targeted visits

Thank You Advocacy Champions!

To find out more about Washington Food Coalition's Advocacy Efforts, please visit:  www.wafoodcoalition.org/advocacy

Meet Our Members: Emergency Food Network

In addition to serving as Washington Food Coalition's Board Chair, Helen McGovern-Pilant serves as the Executive Director for Emergency Food Network (EFN) in Pierce County. This organization is the only food distribution center in the county, and provides an incredible source for hunger relief programs throughout the community.

The main facility for EFN is its distribution center, which is located in Lakewood. There is over 20,000 square feet for dry storage at this location. Food is received and sent out into the community, often being repacked right at the warehouse before being sent out. This distribution center provides critical access to high-quality food at high-quantity pricing (with most of it even being donated!) to local agencies that lack the capacity to receive, store, and repack this type of inventory.

EFN is committed to sourcing the healthiest food that they reasonably can. Over 50% of what is distributed is fruits and vegetables, and over 80% is highly nutritious.

The clients that EFN serves includes 67 feeding programs throughout the county. At EFN, they are always looking for innovative ways to partner with their clients. A recent example of this is their development of Break Bags, and they are partnering with St. Leo's Food Connection to make this happen. These bags will send school children home with an ample supply of food to keep them fed during spring break when they won't have access to school meals.

Executive Director Helen McGovern-Pilant displays one of their Break Bags, a new and innovative way to fight child hunger during school breaks.

The distribution center is only 1 of 3 different programs that is run out of Emergency Food Network. The additional programs include Mother Earth Farm, and their Orchard. Visit their website to learn more about the distribution center and these other wonderful programs.
EFN recently worked with Washington Food Coalition to develop interactive maps for our members across the state. They also developed interactive maps to illustrate the food system in Pierce County. You can check out the results from this mapping project here and here.

EFN adds cooking instructions in multiple languages to
many of their products - a huge benefit to clients!

EFN partners with their client agency FISH Food Banks of Pierce County to stock Pierce County's mobile food bank.