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.
Issue #30, October 26, 2010
- Blog Gives Kudos to D.C., but Holds Applause for Congress
- D.C. Schools Now Serve Afterschool Meals
- Rhode Island Awarded for Improving SNAP/Food Stamp Participation
- Florida County Missing Out on SNAP/Food Stamp Funds
- California Food Bank Begins SNAP/Food Stamp Outreach
- Huge SNAP/Food Stamp Caseloads Cause Recipients in Nevada to Wait for Benefits
- New Hampshire Starts Mailing EBT Cards
- Two More California Farmers’ Markets Begin Accepting EBT Cards
- Florida Pilot Program Focuses on Seniors and SNAP/Food Stamps
- Florida County Sees Rise in Free and Reduced-Price School Meal Participation
- Study Forecasts Increased Obesity-Related Health Care Costs
1. Blog Gives Kudos to D.C., but Holds Applause for Congress
(The Washington Post, October 21, 2010)
“While the D.C. school district is moving forward on helping to curb childhood hunger, Congress adjourned…for next month’s mid-term elections without reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act,” writes Washington Post “The Answer Sheet” reporter Valerie Strauss in this blog post. D.C. schools launched a program recently to feed afterschool meals to about 10,000 more students. At the same time, the Child Nutrition Act currently moving through Capitol Hill takes money away from SNAP/Food Stamps in order to fund increases in child nutrition programs. “Anti-hunger advocates complained to the Senate, as did scores of House Democrats, noting that it makes no sense to help hungry people by taking money from one food program to fund another,” she writes. Hungry kids are more at risk of developmental delays in language, motor skills, and behavior and more likely to exhibit signs of depression, anxiety and loneliness. “Ideally all families would have the resources to make sure kids are properly fed, but in that absence, it really is incumbent on school and government officials to care as much about this…as much as they do about making sure the kids take standardized tests,” Strauss concludes.
2. D.C. Schools Now Serve Afterschool Meals
(The Washington Post, October 19, 2010)
In 99 of the 123 D.C. Public Schools, students can now receive an afterschool meal; the nutrition assistance now reaches an estimated 10,000 students, a quarter of the District’s total enrollment. D.C. joins 13 other states that can operate this meal program, coming at a time when concerns about childhood poverty and hunger are rising. At least once between 2008 and 2009, 40 percent of D.C. households with children lacked money to buy food, according to the Food Research and Action Center. And a 2009 D.C. Health Department study found that 43 percent of public school students were overweight or obese. D.C. schools have a number of goals in serving the meals: battling childhood hunger, reducing the high rate of obesity in the city’s children, and getting more students involved in afterschool programs. The District also is working to upgrade school meal nutrition by using fresh, locally-grown food. According to Jeff Mills, director of food services for D.C. Schools, “a lot of kids were only eating at school.” Some children have been “taking food home to feed their families,” said Alex Ashbrook, director of D.C. Hunger Solutions. D.C. is reimbursed $2.92 for each meal through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program. Students say the meals are an improvement.
3. Rhode Island Awarded for Improving SNAP/Food Stamp Participation
(Providence Business News, October 4, 2010)
USDA awarded the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (DHS) $501,701 for improving access to SNAP/Food Stamps. The agency recognized the state for having one of the most-improved Program Access Index, which measures the ratio of participants to the number of people below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. The state DHS intends to use the money to further improve access to the program. Currently about 149,000 residents receive SNAP/Food Stamps.
4. Florida County Missing Out on SNAP/Food Stamp Funds
(Daytona Beach News-Journal, October 6, 2010)
Although 56 percent of Flagler County, Fla. schoolchildren receive free or reduced-cost lunch, the county has 3,000 recipients who could receive SNAP/Food Stamps but have not signed up for the program. Resources are going unused, noted Doug Baxter, president of the county’s Chamber of Commerce & Affiliates; these resources include money coming to residents. To address the issue, the Chamber formed a coalition with the Department of Children and Families, the United Way, and Second Harvest.
5. California Food Bank Begins SNAP/Food Stamp Outreach
(Mydesert.com, October 19, 2010)
The FIND Food Bank in Indio, Calif. has hired a worker to find eligible SNAP/Food Stamp recipients in the area and help them apply for the program. In Coachella Valley, many of those eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps in Riverside County are not participating, according to a California Food Policy Advocates report. “Why does a food bank get involved with food stamps? It’s because we see it as the first line of defense in food hunger,” said Lisa Houston, FIND’s CEO. Increasing the number of participants in SNAP/Food Stamps not only will help take the pressure off emergency food providers, say hunger advocates, it will also help the local economy.
6. Huge SNAP/Food Stamp Caseloads Cause Recipients in Nevada to Wait for Benefits
(KTNV, October 6, 2010)
SNAP/Food Stamp caseworkers in Nevada are carrying between 800 and 900 cases each as the state’s 14.4 percent unemployment rate drives many to apply for the benefit. According to Rachelle Church of the state’s Department of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS), SNAP/Food Stamp participation increased 45 percent last year. One SNAP/Food Stamp recipient emailed Action News in Las Vegas because he hadn’t received his monthly SNAP/Food Stamp benefit – he said he called DWSS and was told there was a delay because they’re handling twice the caseload. New eligibility policies have added to these caseloads, and because of mandatory office furloughs, workers have fewer work hours to process applications. In addition, SNAP/Food Stsamp recipients must re-apply every three months, adding caseworker workloads. Although DWSS plans on hiring more workers in November and December, the lengthy training process means that these new workers won’t be starting to handle cases when they first come to work.
7. New Hampshire Starts Mailing EBT Cards
(Boston Globe, October 10, 2010)
New Hampshire’s SNAP/Food Stamp recipients, as well as recipients of other benefits in the state, will no longer be required to travel to the state welfare office to pick up their EBT cards. The state began mailing the cards to recipients recently. In addition, recipients can get a pin number and account information at http://www.ebtedge.com or by calling 1-888-997-9777.
8. Two More California Farmers’ Markets Begin Accepting EBT Cards
(San Bernardino County Sun, October 16, 2010)
SNAP/Food Stamp recipients, and others who receive nutrition assistance benefits through EBT cards, can now use their cards at two more farmers’ markets in San Bernardino, Calif. EBT card users at these markets also get a 50 percent bonus, meaning a customer spending $10 in SNAP/Food Stamps through their EBT card gets an extra $5 to spend at the market. The Kaiser Foundation provided a $1,000 grant to the markets, hosted by the Patrons of the Roosevelt Bowl, to begin accepting EBT cards.
9. Florida Pilot Program Focuses on Seniors and SNAP/Food Stamps
(WDBO, October 11, 2010)
Low-income elderly residents of Florida will receive help signing up for SNAP/Food Stamps through a new three-year pilot project funded by a $500,000 grant from the state’s Department of Elder Affairs. Seniors will be able to call the Elder Helpline and have a trained expert assist them in applying online for the benefit. Previously, seniors had to either go online [without assistance] or visit a state office to apply for SNAP/Food Stamps. “As Florida government moves further into the electronic age, we must be careful to make sure out older residents don’t get left behind,” said Charles Corley, Elder Affairs Interim Secretary.
10. Florida County Sees Rise in Free and Reduced-Price School Meal Participation
(Hernando Today, October 9, 2010)
In Hernando County, Fla., the number of children receiving free or reduced-price school meals increased 74.7 percent since 2001-02 to a projected total of 13,688 this year. In the 2001-02 school year, 44 percent of students received free or reduced-price meals; that percentage climbed this year to 60.5 percent. Even though there’s been little decrease in the number of the county’s unemployed, many parents who have signed their children up for the meals are working two or three jobs, but are unable to make ends meet. Hernando County receives Title I funding, based partly on poverty numbers calculated from free and reduced-price lunch figures. This year, the county will receive an estimated $5.125 million in Title I funding, an increase from $4.025 million in the 2006-07 school year. Lunch and Title I data, according to Eric Williams, district accreditation facilitator and grant writer, were also used to gain the school more than $350,000 in E-rate telecommunications refunds, as well as garnering the school millions of federal dollars from the federal Race to the Top application.
11. Study Forecasts Increased Obesity-Related Health Care Costs
(Food Navigator, October 20, 2010)
A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research ups the potential health care costs of obesity from the $147 billion in a previous Institute of Medicine study to as high as $168 billion a year, or 17 percent of total U.S. medical costs. According to the CDC, more than a third of the U.S. is obese, and nearly a third is overweight. The study, titled “The Medical Care Costs of Obesity: An Instrumental Variables Approach,” examined not only the correlation of obesity with health care costs, but possible causal effects as well. Previous studies relied on self-reported weight data, which many people underestimate. The researchers’ statistical methods minimized this effect.
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